In his homecoming to New York, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Hamidou Diallo nearly set a personal NBA scoring record. He had his fourth career double-double. He capped it with an alley-oop.
“Every time we come back to New York,” gurad Lu Dort said, “…he always puts on a show.”
Diallo, born in Queens, helped lead the Thunder to a 101-89 victory over the Knicks in his third NBA game at Madison Square Garden.
He scored 23 points, just four shy of his career record, and 11 rebounds, tying a career-best. The only time he has reached either of those marks previously was in the final game of last season, an NBA bubble against a Los Angeles Clippers team that was resting its core.
It’s safe to say Friday, against a Knicks team that has put together a strong start, was the best game of his career.
Diallo shot 8-for-13 from the field and attempted eight free throws in 29 minutes of play.
His performance against the Knicks last year was solid as well, though it was under different circumstances. Diallo was seeing sporadic playing time — over the 13 games coming into that matchup, he had six DNPs and reached the 15-minute mark only once.
He broke out, shooting 5-for-8 from the field and scoring 12 points, his third-best mark of the season.
So his performance Friday wasn’t a shock for guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“I said that right after the game, Hami loves the Garden,” he said.
“Last year he wasn’t playing too much. Came off the bench and had a great game. And then this year, you guys obviously saw what he did. I feel like Hami’s in his habitat when he plays back home.”
The two put the finishing touches on the performance with a sky-high alley-oop for the final points of the game.
AIR HAMI #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/ah5ACfD5zf
— Thunder Film Room (@ThunderFilmRoom) January 9, 2021
“I knew Hami was having a big night and the game was a little bit out of reach at that point, but I wanted to kind of give him a little bit of an exclamation mark, so I pushed the pace a little bit,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
“Seen him on the back side and I just tried to throw it as high as I could with it still being in his reach so he could go get it.”
Diallo was ready.
“I see a lot of people joke around like I don’t get above the rim anymore and stuff like that,” he said with a smile. “It was great to just end it like that, and to show that I’m still capable, I just choose not to sometimes.”
Who says Diallo can’t still get up?
“That’ll never be me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I threw it high on purpose. I knew he could go get it.”
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