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With around 10 games left in the regular season and teams jockeying for playoff position, here’s a look at how the top Canadian NBA players are doing:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder)
A longtime favourite of basketball aficionados, SGA has finally earned more mainstream attention with a superstar-calibre season. The 24-year-old guard ranks fourth in the NBA in scoring with 31.4 points per game while averaging 5.5 assists, close to five rebounds and 1.7 steals (tied for third in the league).
Shortly after playing in his first All-Star Game last month, Gilgeous-Alexander suffered an abdominal injury that some feared would compel the rebuilding Thunder to shut him down early for the third straight season. But with surprising OKC (36-36) currently holding down a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament, and just a half-game back of defending champion Golden State for a full-fledged playoff entry, the Thunder are even rethinking their plan to shield him from playing on back-to-back nights.
Another young Canadian, Lu Dort, also starts for the Thunder. Though his scoring average is down about three points this season to 13.9, the high-energy guard is posting career highs in rebounds and assists while often guarding the other team’s best perimeter player.
Jamal Murray (Denver Nuggets)
It’s been almost three years since Murray’s breakthrough performance in the Disney World playoff bubble, where he scored 50, 42 and 50 points in consecutive first-round games and 40 in Game 7 of the second round to upset Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers. A few months later, Murray was enjoying a career year when he suffered a torn ACL that knocked him out for the rest of the season and the entire 2021-22 campaign.
Finally healthy enough to return, the 26-year-old point guard has played 58 of Denver’s 72 games this season and is averaging 20.1 points (not quite back to his 2020-21 peak, but close) and a career-high 6.1 assists. With Murray as the top sidekick for Nikola Jokic, the incomparable centre who’s in the hunt for his third consecutive MVP award, the Nuggets (48-24) are the top team in the West.
Andrew Wiggins (Golden State Warriors)
After years of failing to fulfill the potential he showed as the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft, Wiggins finally found his niche with Golden State and shed the “bust” label last spring by…
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