Michael Malone seems to be trying to do some damage control after his Shai Gilgeous-Alexander comments.
After Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, the biggest talking point was actually the comment made by former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.
Malone was covering the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. And during this, Malone called Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the rightful MVP winner.
What made this interesting was that Malone, who was the head coach of the Nuggets till last month, had advocated for Nikola Jokic to win the award for months before.
Malone did end up clarifying his position on Jokic’s MVP campaign earlier tonight. And now, he seems to be trying to get back in Nuggets fans’ good books with his latest remarks about Shai.
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Read More: After taking shot at Nikola Jokic, Michael Malone further rubs salt in Denver Nuggets fans’ wounds
Malone: SGA whistle is favorable
Michael Malone spoke on SportsCenter after Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. His tone toward Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seems to have changed.
He called Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out for getting favorable calls from the referees. And he agreed with current Nuggets coach David Adelman and called Shai a foul artist.
“Favorable. That’s the easy way to put it. You watched the last series against Denver, you gotta be ultra disciplined.”
“You think about trying to guard the best offensive players in the league these days, it becomes almost impossible. A lot of times, offensive players like Shai will initiate the contact or hook his arm looking to draw that contact. He is a foul artist.”
“Discipline. You’re hoping that the referees read how the game is being whistled, and they allow you to be a little more aggressive. You can do that. But once again, he’s been living at the foul line. That’s not going to get it done.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander thriving without free-throws as well
It’s very easy to point to Shai’s free-throw numbers as a reason for the Thunder’s dominance. But the truth of the matter is, he is playing well and putting up strong numbers without the charity shots.
He had 25 points tonight without free throws and 20 points in Game 1. The free throws only help the scoring for Shai.
If the Timberwolves want to contact Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, they must find a way to clog the lanes, so he can’t drive to the basket on every play.
On top of that, they need an additional defender near the paint to limit Shai from the mid-range, because he is lethal from there too.