"You should be frustrated with this" - Ex-Lakers guard credits himself for turning Shai Gilgeous-Alexander into foul magnet, annoying Timberwolves HC

Former NBA player Lou Williams attributed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's ability to draw fouls to his time playing with him. The three-time Sixth Man of the Year gave himself credit for one the OKC Thunder guard's signature skills, something he taught the MVP frontrunner during their time together on the LA Clippers.

On Tuesday's episode of the daily weekday NBA show, "Run It Back," Williams spoke of SGA's ability to get to the free throw line. This was in response to the Timberwolves' coach Chris Finch's comments following Monday night's game between Minnesota and OKC. In the game, the Timberwolves overcame a large second-half deficit.

After the game, Finch made note of how difficult it is to defend Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

"You know you can't really touch Shai," said the 2024 NBA Coach of the Year finalist.

Finch described the frustration that the Timberwolves had to overcome due to the physicality he feels the Thunder are allowed to get away with. He is also unhappy with what he sees as a favorable whistle for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Williams then jokingly blamed himself for SGA's prowess at drawing contact. The 17-season pro who played for several teams like the 76ers, Hawks and Lakers spent four seasons with the Clippers from 2017-2021. In his second season with the team, in 2018-2019, he was a veteran for a rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

During this time, Williams said he passed off many tricks of the trade that he had learned from his years as a shifty, scoring guard.

"I'm sorry Coach Finch but yes, Shai was with me early on, and we did teach him how to draw fouls and he's a master at it", said Williams.

"You should be frustrated with this, but he uses his ability to score, to get to the rim, to get to his mid-range, and he catches guys slipping ... it's a game within a game."

'Lemon Pepper Lou' acknowledged how frustrating the skill can be to play against due to its nature of exploiting tiny mistakes. Williams also joked about the fact that despite the annoyance with which that playstyle invokes, it's a useful trick that everyone would want on their team.

"He (Finch) wouldn't complain like this if he had Shai as one of his guys."

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's near triple-double not enough against the Timberwolves' remarkable comeback

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in the midst of a historic guard season as one of the two favorites for the MVP award. The 26-year-old is averaging a league-leading 32.4 points, 6.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 steals, while leading the OKC Thunder to the best record in the Western Conference. This is also largely without their second-best player in Chet Holmgren.

The would-be scoring champ is liable to give the opposing defense 30 points or more on any given night and is often seen as a paragon for consistency.

Despite the Thunder's suffocating defense and their near-81% win rate, they can't win every game. Monday night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves was an all too painful example of that.

After beating Minnesota on the first night of back-to-back matchups, OKC hosted the seventh-seed Timberwolves in a game they controlled for most of the four quarters.

The Thunder led by 15 going into the second half and added three more points to that margin by the start of the fourth. It looked like both games would go to OKC as they were up 16 points with 3:41 left in regulation.

Miraculously, the Timberwolves mounted an improbable, 41-19 run in the fourth quarter to storm back and force overtime. In five drawn-out minutes of overtime, the Timberwolves outscored the Thunder again, 10-7, to complete the heroic comeback.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's stellar performance, posting 39 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists wasn't enough to counteract the rest of the team's poor shooting. The Thunder fell short by just three points, 131-128. Jalen Williams had a noteworthy, albeit slightly inefficient, 27 points, six rebounds and six assists.

Only two other Thunder players reached double-digit scoring numbers. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves had six players score in double figures.