Watch Shaedon Sharp throw down Dunk of the Year candidate on way to 36 points
Shaedon Sharp had himself a night.
The third-year wing displayed his freak athleticism and threw down the kind of dunk we wish we had seen in the Dunk Contest. The kind that causes you to gasp watching the highlight alone at home.
SHAEDON SHARPE MY GOODNESS pic.twitter.com/xNk9YbTBfX
— NBA (@NBA) February 27, 2025
Shape wasn't done, he went on to score a career-high 36 points off the bench, leading Portland to a 129-121 road win in Washington.
A career-high 36 points and one of the dunks of the year...WHAT A NIGHT FOR SHAEDON SHARPE pic.twitter.com/A54rKoGUyE
— NBA (@NBA) February 27, 2025
Jordan Poole led the Wizards with 24 in a game between teams headed to the lottery, but in Portland's case there are some players — like Sharpe — who give the team a clear path forward to respectability, at least.
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So there's no breaks. There's no breaks. But Drew is one of these guys that he has an equal focus on the defensive end as the offensive end, and that's — it's a bit rare with today's players.' This is how Nembhard is wired. He wants to win, and he'll go through anybody in pursuit. Even his boy. Especially his boy. His friendship with SGA only makes him more qualified to be a nemesis. Nembhard, 18 months younger, has been chasing SGA for the better part of a decade. When they were coming up, SGA was the prodigy, the touted talent expected to make it. They first teamed up with Canada's Junior Academy. SGA was top-ranked, and Nembhard wasn't all. His name didn't join the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander and RJ Barrett. Advertisement Nembhard is here because of the chip on his shoulder. He establishes his name by taking on giants. He was a rookie when he went into Steph Curry's house and showed up the legend. 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His second nature is also to embrace the competition. He inhales the smoke, as they say. He just talks trash with minimal words and maybe a cryptic social media post. He just declares his supremacy through brilliance and a tangible, if unspoken, bravado. And so far in these playoffs, defeats have prompted a response from SGA. In the Thunder's first loss of the postseason, Game 1 in the second round against the Denver Nuggets, he had 33 points on 26 shots. In Game 2, he had 34 points on 11-for-13 shooting. He had 18 in the Game 3 loss to Denver and 25 in the Game 4 win. He followed his 32 in the Game 6 loss with 35 in Game 7. Against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals, SGA was 4-for-13 in a blowout loss in Game 3. But in Game 4, he dropped 40. Now, he's on the biggest stage of his life, coming off a loss that reverberated around the globe. His team is facing a relative must-win game. And his brother from another, who's driven to prove himself, took Round 1. 'I always try to be aggressive and I never, like, predetermine it,' SGA said. 'I always, like, just let the game tell me what to do. So I guess last game, I felt more often than not, I had a shot or a play that I could attack on more than in the past, and that's just the way it went. So the same thing will happen in Game 2. I will read the defense, and I will play off my feeling and my instincts, and if it's calling for me to shoot or if it's calling me to pass, is what I will decide to do.' Round 2 on deck. (Photo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Andrew Nembhard: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
