{"id":30765,"date":"2026-05-27T02:41:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/why-shai-gilgeous-alexander-falls-a-lot-because-it-works\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:41:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:41:46","slug":"why-shai-gilgeous-alexander-falls-a-lot-because-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/27\/why-shai-gilgeous-alexander-falls-a-lot-because-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander falls a lot: Because it works"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Same player. Same game. Same shot. Similar contact. Two very different outcomes.<\/p>\n

With two minutes left in the first quarter of Game 4 in the Western Conference finals, Oklahoma City Thunder star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander possessed the ball, defended by San Antonio Spurs star guard De\u2019Aaron Fox. Operating from the right elbow, SGA took a hard dribble and then a stepback midrange jumper. Fox closed out his airspace, contested the shot and made contact with Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

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The shot did not go in, but a whistle blew. Foul. Two free throws.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, about halfway into the second quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander possessed the ball, this time defended by Stephon Castle. Operating at the top of the key, the two-time MVP took two hard dribbles to his left and then a stepback midrange jumper. Castle contested the shot, closed out his airspace and made contact with Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

The shot did not go in and no whistle blew. No foul. No free throws. Gilgeous-Alexander wasn\u2019t pleased, raising his right arm in protest and staring back at the closest official, Scott Foster, as he trotted back on defense.<\/p>\n

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The big difference between the two plays? In the first one, Gilgeous-Alexander fell to the ground. In the second, he landed on two feet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those two plays represent a lesson in the power of falling to the hardwood. The first play, of course, generated a swarm of controversy<\/a> on social media for being a flop<\/a>. It was yet another example of SGA hitting the deck on a shot attempt.<\/p>\n

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The fans aren\u2019t letting it go, at one point chanting \u201cflopper\u201d when he held the ball in Game 4. Last week, I established that Gilgeous-Alexander has fallen significantly more than his high-scoring peers in this playoff run<\/a>, about double the rates of guys like Jalen Brunson, James Harden and Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

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I raised a series of explanations for why that could be the case, but looking at the data, the most logical reason Gilgeous-Alexander does it so often is this:<\/p>\n

Falling works.<\/p>\n

The updated SGA fall data<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you thought Gilgeous-Alexander wouldn\u2019t fall as much after my deep dive on Friday, you were sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander found himself on the ground often like he normally does. In Friday night\u2019s Game 3 win, Gilgeous-Alexander fell five times on his shot attempts and hit the floor two more times on his tries during Sunday\u2019s Game 4 loss. Along with those tumbles to the ground, Gilgeous-Alexander collected 19 free-throw attempts in the two games, more than he did before Friday\u2019s study made the rounds. Only four of those falls, for the record, yielded free-throw attempts, so it\u2019s not like he went to the charity stripe on a constant stream of dives.<\/p>\n

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But he doesn\u2019t seem to be slowing down much in this department. Now that we\u2019ve passed Game 4 in the series, we can compare his fall rates to previous series in this playoff run, which were both four-game affairs. Tallying up his count, Gilgeous-Alexander has now hit the deck on 22 shots in this four-game series against the San Antonio Spurs. The frequency is way higher than in his previous matchups, according to a film review on Sportradar.<\/p>\n

Against Phoenix in the first round, the OKC guard fell 11 times on his shot attempts. In the Lakers series, that same number bumped up to 13 falls. With 22 falls in this series, his fall frequency has increased significantly, and he has now fallen twice as often in the Western Conference finals on a per-game basis than he did in the first-round sweep over the Suns.<\/p>\n

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