It's crunch time for Canada's best NBA players
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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,