Oklahoma City Thunder superstar point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been looking almost unstoppable this season. The reigning MVP extended his streak of scoring 20+ points to a staggering 100 consecutive games in last night’s 119-103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. So, it’s safe to say that most teams have no clue how to stop SGA, but LeBron James might be on to something.

“You’ve got to keep him off the free throw line, which is hard,” James said on the Mind the Game podcast. “Like I said, he uses these angles; he knows how to manipulate the game in a good way. He knows what to do, what not to do. He’s always looking for hands, arms, and elbows if you’re in his space. That’s just our game right now. You’ve got to respect it.”

“It’s the James Harden, how James was when James was dominant in Houston. So the more you could try to keep him off the free-throw line, it helps, because he’s going to make his field goals,” he further explained while drawing parallels between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and LA Clippers star James Harden.

The Los Angeles Lakers veteran does have a point, as both guards do have a lot of similarities in their gameplay. Apart from being efficient scorers and floor raisers, both James Harden and Gilgeous-Alexander also know how to get to the free-throw line. While many might debate that the Beard doesn’t try to draw fouls as much as the defending NBA champion, they are quite similar in many ways.

Nonetheless, apart from that, arguably the most important thing that James revealed in his statement was how to stop the Thunder point guard. This season, the 27-year-old has been averaging around 9.5 free throw attempts per game, which is only lower than two players in the entire league–Luka Doncic (12.1) and Deni Avdija (9.7).

So, it’s pretty clear that most teams haven’t done a great job at stopping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and as a result of this, the Thunder are sitting at the summit of the Western Conference with a 26-3 record. The solution? As LeBron James pointed out, defenders need to stop making unnecessary contact with him. Nonetheless, until they figure that out, the league MVP continues to draw praise.

Mark Daigneault praises Shai Gilgeous-Alexander calls him “ruthless”

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been steamrolling past teams this season, and a huge reason why is obviously Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As we mentioned, the star point guard reached a major milestone last night against the Grizzlies. Well, apart from that, he’s been playing at an MVP level pretty much throughout the season.

So much so that Thunder’s head coach Mark Daigneault couldn’t help but laud his star player.

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“The commitment that he has to the game, his craft, the team — he’s always in character on that stuff,” he told the reporters. “He is ruthlessly consistent in the invisible spaces that I see that you guys don’t, and there’s probably 100 more that I don’t see that he’s taken care of. But it’s no accident that he’s the player that he is. He’s literally chiseled himself into this player.”

Indeed, even though OKC has struggled with injuries from the start of the season, despite that, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has remained a constant presence on the court for his team. Not only that, but he’s been averaging 32.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 6.5 assists while playing almost every other night.

While many accuse him of being a foul baiter and all sorts of things, you cannot deny the fact that Shai has been performing at the highest level possible and is right up there with the other MVP contenders. Nonetheless, now Mark Daigneault and SGA will need to re-gather themselves as they head to San Antonio next, where they’ll be looking to get their revenge against the Spurs.