There are many superlatives that might be used to explain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, however none seize his explicit model of basketball brilliance higher than consistency. The Thunder star guard brings it each single evening.
Protecting with that development, Gilgeous-Alexander posted 35 factors in a 104-102 win over the Celtics on Thursday, scoring 20+ factors in his 127th consecutive NBA sport to snap a long-standing document held by the legendary Wilt Chamberlain.
The document breaker got here, fittingly, on an isolation middy with 7 minutes left within the third quarter.
There might be remarks about scoring being simpler in in the present day’s sport. The tempo is quicker. The very best gamers management the ball extra. Three-point quantity has by no means been greater. All of that is true, and but, no different lively participant has come wherever close to SGA’s mark.
Kawhi Leonard has the second-longest lively streak at 43 video games, whereas Kevin Durant is the one Twenty first-century participant who has hit even half of SGA’s mark, scoring 20+ factors in 72 consecutive video games.
To place this scoring streak into correct perspective, let’s check out a few of the biggest scorers in historical past and the longest 20-point streaks they have been in a position to muster at any level of their careers.
Oscar Robertson | 79 |
Kevin Durant | 72 |
Michael Jordan | 72 |
Kareem-Abdul Jabbar | 72 |
Elgin Baylor | 64 |
Kobe Bryant | 63 |
57 | |
Allen Iverson | 57 |
Jerry West | 52 |
George Gervin | 47 |
49 |
Contemplate the scoring prowess of Luka Doncic and the way a lot he controls the ball each sport. He is by no means scored 20+ factors in additional than 36 straight video games.
That is what makes this streak so exceptional: Everybody has a nasty sport or will get injured finally.
Besides Wilt, who, amazingly, had his streak of 126 straight 20-point video games ended as a result of he was ejected inside of 4 minutes in sport 127. He went on to attain 20+ factors in every of the subsequent 92 video games he performed.
With out that ejection, Wilt’s quantity could be 219. SGA reaching that mark (and even matching Chamberlain with 20+ factors in 219 of 220 video games) could be thought of extremely unlikely. However now? It is a streak that may definitely proceed indefinitely.
Most consecutive video games with 20+ factors
2024-Current | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | 127 |
1961-63 | Wilt Chamberlain | 126 |
1963-64 | Wilt Chamberlain | 92 |
1963-64 | Oscar Robertson | 79 |
What makes this all of the extra exceptional is the best way defenses promote out to cease premier scorers today. {That a} participant below that form of duress can undergo that many video games with out having even one off evening, not one early ejection or one in-game harm, is tough to fathom.
Past that, take into consideration how typically the Thunder have blown groups out over the period of this streak to the diploma that SGA hasn’t even gotten to play in fourth quarters. And nonetheless he retains getting to twenty. Normally much more.
It is a testomony to all of the other ways SGA can put factors on the board. He is the perfect driver and arguably the perfect midrange scorer within the sport. He is develop into a knock-down 3-point shooter. On the off evening that his shot is not touchdown, he can mainly get to the free-throw line every time he desires, and he get a bunch of simple buckets off OKC’s turnover-machine protection.
A method or one other, Gilgeous-Alexander goes to get to his spots, and from there he’ll get his 20 factors. That is what he is been doing each sport over the past 16 months. The final time he failed to achieve 20 was Oct. 30, 2024, when the San Antonio Spurs “held” him to 18. It might be a very long time earlier than we see a quantity that low once more.
