There are plenty of superlatives that could be used to describe Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but none capture his particular brand of basketball brilliance better than consistency. The Thunder star guard brings it every single night. Keeping with that trend, Gilgeous-Alexander on Thursday posted 35 points in a 104-102 win the Celtics, scoring 20+ points in his 127th consecutive NBA game, snapping a long-standing mark held by the legendary Wilt Chamberlain.
The record breaker came, fittingly, on an isolation middy with 7 minutes left in the third quarter.
There will be remarks about scoring being easier in today’s game. The pace is faster. The best players control the ball more. Three-point volume has never been higher. All of this is true, and yet, no other active player has come anywhere near SGA’s mark.
Kawhi Leonard has the second-longest active streak at 43 games, while Kevin Durant is the only 21st-century player who has even hit half of Chamberlain’s prior record, scoring 20+ points in 72 consecutive games.
To put this scoring streak into proper perspective, let’s take a look at some of the greatest scorers in history and the longest 20-point streaks they were able to muster at any point in their careers.
PLAYERLONGEST 20-POINT STREAK
Oscar Robertson
79
Kevin Durant
72
Michael Jordan
72
Kareem-Abdul Jabbar
72
Elgin Baylor
64
Kobe Bryant
63
James Harden
57
Allen Iverson
57
Jerry West
52
George Gervin
47
LeBron James
49
Consider how the scoring prowess of Luka Doncic and how much he controls the ball every game. He’s never scored 20+ points in more than 36 straight games.
That’s what makes this streak so remarkable: Everyone has a bad game or gets injured eventually.
Except Wilt, who, amazingly, had his streak of 126 straight 20-point games ended because he was ejected inside of 4 minutes in game 127. He went on to score 20+ points in each of the next 92 games he played.
Without that ejection, Wilt’s number would be 219. SGA achieving that mark (or even matching Chamberlain with 20+ points in 219 of 220 games) would be considered highly unlikely. But now? This is a streak that can certainly continue indefinitely.
Most consecutive games with 20+ points
YearsPlayerGames
2024-Present
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
127
1961-63
Wilt Chamberlain
126
1963-64
Wilt Chamberlain
92
1963-64
Oscar Robertson
79
It is absolutely remarkable — considering the way defenses sell out to stop premier scorers these days — that a player can go through that many games without even one off night, one early ejection, one in-game injury.
Think about how consistently the Thunder have been blowing teams out to the degree that SGA hasn’t even gotten to play in fourth quarters.
It’s a testament to all the different ways SGA can put points on the board. He’s the best driver and arguably the best midrange scorer in the game. He’s become a knock-down 3-point shooter. On the off chance that his shot isn’t landing, he can basically get to the free-throw line whenever he wants, and he makes a lot of easy buckets off OKC’s turnover-machine defense.