Gilgeous-Alexander showed out in front of his fav player: Stephen Curry

The master of the point guard game came away with the victory last night, but the student is close on his heels.

In the Golden State Warriors’ huge 116-109 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder last night in San Francisco, the game hinged on both of their MVP-caliber guards making the plays that mattered most.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, only 26 years of age and already a monster to deal with, ripped off 52 points on the Dubs. But it was the elder statesman Stephen Curry, still balling at 36 years old, he shook off an injury related absence to put the final touches on the victory for the Dubs with 21 points. There may be a passing of the torch eventually from one superstar guard to the next, but SGA hasn’t quite wrestled the magic away from Curry just yet.

Curry and Gilgeous-Alexander are both elite offensive forces, but they go about their dominance in wildly different ways. Curry is the most fearsome long-range shooter the game has ever seen, and SGA is a downhill assassin who bends defenses with relentless rim pressure. If Curry is a nuclear bomb detonating from deep, SGA is a surgeon who methodically carvesup defenses in the paint.

They are both guards who can can be classified as point guards of the new age; guys who can score at will as opposed to being primarily tablesetters for other players to get theirs.

Curry’s gravity is unprecedented. Defenders start tracking him as soon as he crosses half-court, because giving him even a sliver of daylight is a death sentence. His off-ball movement is a nightmare to cover—running off screens, slipping past defenders, and demanding the full attention of multiple bodies at all times.

Even though he’s relatively small in basketball terms at 6-foot-3, his presence is ginormous. His brand of spacing warps defenses beyond recognition, opening up easy opportunities for teammates who benefit from all the chaos he creates. Golden State’s motion-heavy offense is built around his limitless range, and even on an off night, his mere presence reshapes the court in ways no other player can replicate.

SGA, on the other hand, plays a different brand of dominance, pne rooted in patience, precision, and an uncanny ability to manipulate defenders in tight spaces. He operates like a 6’6” grandmaster with his ability to change speeds effortlessly with hesitation dribbles, shoulder fakes, and an arsenal of smooth counters to get to his spots.

While Curry obliterates teams from 30 feet, SGA thrives inside the arc, living at the rim and generating free throws at a Harden-esque clip. His ability to get defenders off-balance, draw contact, and finish through bodies makes him one of the most efficient scorers in the league despite taking relatively few threes.

In fact, SGA’s penchant for creating contact out of nothing and drawing the referee’s whistle is getting him quite the reputation as a foul grifter as evidenced in last night’s social media commentary.

The contrast is stark: Curry breaks defenses apart with range, movement, and impossibly quick releases. SGA dismantles them with patience, footwork, and an elite feel for angles and contact. Defenses pick their poison: either chase Curry to exhaustion and watch his teammates feast or try to wall off SGA and send him to the line a dozen times.

Both are unstoppable in their own way. One stretches the floor beyond its limits; the other shrinks it into a personal playground where defenders have no escape. Curry got the last laugh and the W last night, but SGA is hot on his heels.