The Oklahoma City Thunder are playing host to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, and unsurprisingly, it’s been quite the spectacle watching the upstart Thunder bring high-level playoff basketball back to Paycom Center. Throughout their magical season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has established himself as one of the very best players in the NBA due to his craftiness and ability to get a clean shot off.
Gilgeous-Alexander has long been praised for making this look easy, as he has quite the bag of tricks he can dip into when he has to figure out how to create some space. Unfortunately, one of those tricks came at the expense of Derrick Jones Jr., who attempted to check the MVP finalist, fouled SGA in the process, and got kicked below the belt for his troubles.
Obviously this is an accident, and Gilgeous-Alexander was not actively trying to kick Jones between the legs. However, Jones made an aggressive attempt to contest Gilgeous-Alexander’s stepback, and as a result, Gilgeous-Alexander kicking his leg out meant that he got kicked square in the nuts. If there is any silver lining for Jones here, it’s that Gilgeous-Alexander got hit with a technical foul, so even if this did not make things hurt any less, at least he can say he helped his team get at least one point back.