When Danilo Gallinari set an Atlanta Hawks record by making 10 3-pointers on Wednesday against the Boston Celtics, his former teammate had a bit of a flashback.
At the end of Oklahoma City Thunder practices last season, players including Gallinari and Mike Muscala took part in 3-point shooting contests. Most of the time, it was Gallinari winning.
“He was a really fun guy to play with, a great teammate, and I definitely miss having him around — but not those shooting games, because, uh, he was pretty consistently winning those games,” Muscala said. “So it’s kinda nice not having him around this year for that.”
He was dominant. Current Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, who was an assistant last season, told a story that’s almost reminiscent of Larry Bird winning the real shootout back in 1988 when he didn’t even take off his warmup jacket.
“One day, he didn’t think they were playing, and he walked off the court and he took his shoes off. Then they yelled at him, they were like, ‘Gallo, you not playing today?'” Daigneault recalled.
“So he came back — but he never put his shoes back on. And he won the game barefoot.”
Who’s coming in second?
Gallinari now returns to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder for the first time since the sign-and-trade that sent him to Atlanta.
Injuries cost him 12 of the first 14 games of the season, and he played no more than 20 minutes in the next eight games, so he hasn’t posted his usual scoring averages. He’s averaging 11.8 points while shooting 42.1% from 3, both of which are obviously beefed up by the Wednesday game. With that said, he’s averaging just 20.8 minutes per contest, and his per-36 numbers aren’t much lower than those of last season.
Coming off his 38-point performance, the fourth-highest total of his career, maybe he’s catching fire.
“Gallo’s a heck of a scorer, a heck of a shooter,” Muscala said. “He went off last night … hopefully he has a cooler hand.”
The Thunder and Hawks are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. Central Time.
This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!
