{"id":115034,"date":"2024-12-30T16:07:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T21:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=115034"},"modified":"2024-12-30T16:07:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T21:07:25","slug":"shai-gilgeous-alexander-praises-yuki-kawamura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/30\/shai-gilgeous-alexander-praises-yuki-kawamura\/","title":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Praises Grizzlies\u2019 Fan Favorite"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the Thunder vs Grizzlies game, OKC star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> praised Memphis Grizzlies fan favorite Yuki Kawamura<\/a>. Kawamura\u2019s height is often discussed, but his play has also captivated the hearts of NBA fans worldwide<\/a>. During the game Sunday, Yuki scored his career high, and even though the Grizzlies lost 130-106, Yuki\u2019s performance stood out. Although Kawamura\u2019s stats haven\u2019t been incredible this season, Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s comments exemplify the respect Yuki is gaining in the league.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Praises Grizzlies\u2019 Fan Favorite<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Thunder vs Grizzlies Game and Yuki Kawamura Stats<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the Thunder vs Grizzlies game Sunday, Kawamura finally got some playing time. He made the most of it by dropping 10 points (career-high), three assists, and three rebounds while only playing 11 minutes. He connected on four of his five field goal attempts, including two three-pointers. Although the game was a blowout, the performance grabbed the attention of one of the league\u2019s best players.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander had quite the game himself. He scored 35 points while adding six rebounds and seven assists. He has led the Thunder to the top of the Western Conference standings<\/a> with a 26-5 record. They are also on an 11-game winning streak. On top of that, their 130-106 win over the Grizzlies displayed dominance over the second-seeded team in the West.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SGA Throws Yuki Some Love<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In response to Yuki\u2019s career high, Gilgeous-Alexander spoke<\/a> about Kawamura\u2019s skill set at the post-game press conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really solid basketball player\u2026You can see he filled the stat sheet quickly. Despite his size, he played with great confidence. If you have the feel for the game, size doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the top NBA MVP candidates<\/a> this season. He currently has the <\/span>second-best odds <\/a><\/span>to win the award at +150. Nikola Jokic<\/a> is the favorite at +120. With Gilgeous-Alexander averaging 31.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game this season, the Thunder are, by record, the second-best team in the league.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Having an MVP candidate praise your game means a lot. Especially for a player who has only appeared in 15 games this season while averaging 3.5 minutes per game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yuki Kawamura Stats<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After an awesome summer with Japan\u2019s national team at the Paris Olympics, Kawamura signed a two-way contract with the Grizzlies in October. He has gone up and down between the Grizzlies and their G League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle. In the G League, he\u2019s averaging 13.7 points and 10.7 assists over seven games. He is consistently proving that he is worthy of the minutes he sometimes gets in the NBA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the NBA, Kawamura\u2019s stats are much less impressive. He is only averaging 1.6 points, 0.7 assists, and 0.3 rebounds per game. He is also only shooting 40% from the field and 28.6% from three. That being said, in the three games where Yuki has gotten more than five minutes of playing time, he is averaging 5.7 points per game. Although that doesn\u2019t seem impressive for one of the shortest and smallest players to ever play in the NBA, it certainly is worth some praise. So maybe Gilgeous-Alexander saw something real that the league can only experience if Yuki is given more time to shine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the Thunder vs Grizzlies game, OKC star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander praised Memphis Grizzlies fan favorite Yuki Kawamura. Kawamura\u2019s height is often discussed, but his play has also captivated the hearts of NBA fans worldwide. During the game Sunday, Yuki scored his career high, and even though the Grizzlies lost 130-106, Yuki\u2019s performance stood out. Although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":115079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,62,22],"tags":[1489,49401],"class_list":["post-115034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-yuki-kawamura"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115080,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115034\/revisions\/115080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}