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zack cram
multiple authors
On November 1, 2024, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Scored 30 marks in A 137-114 oklahoma city thunder Win in Portland. This was not a particularly notable performance at the time; Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.1 points per game en route to finishing as MVP runner-up last season.
Now, 16 months later, that game holds great historical significance, as it was the beginning of a 126-game odyssey for a player who has since won Regular Season MVP Awardhas been named finals mvp and tied one 63 years old record.
on Thursday night against boston celtics (9:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Gilgeous-Alexander will try to score at least 20 points for his 127th consecutive game, dating back to that night in Portland. If he does this, he will achieve great success Wilt Chamberlain The longest such streak in NBA history.
This is a suitable record, based in historical stabilityFor the man who once declared, “My whole life is consistent, everything I do.”
To celebrate that consistency, here are the 20 wildest, most extreme, and most impressive stats about Gilgeous-Alexander’s historic 20-point streak:
1. The first surprise about Gilgeous-Alexander’s achievement is that he even came close to Chamberlain’s record. No one else had done this before; Before the SGA, the second-longest 20-point streak in NBA history belonged to Chamberlain at 92 games. there is a reason Gilgeous-Alexander considers Chamberlain “Almost like a mythical creature,” because his statistical feats were so prodigious.
Oscar Robertson’s 79-gamer was third – meaning that in all of NBA history until this season, Chamberlain was the only player to keep his streak under par for an entire season. And even Robertson’s streak took him only 63% of the way to the record.
2. Recently the competition has been even less attractive. in the 21st century, Kevin Durant The only other player to reach more than halfway is Chamberlain; He had a 72-gamer streak that began in his last season in Oklahoma City and ended early in his Warriors tenure. The next name on the 21st century list is Kobe Bryant, who reached 63 consecutive games from December 2005 to November 2006 – exactly half of Chamberlain’s 126.
On average, the longest 20-point streak for each MVP other than Gilgeous-Alexander this century is only 36 games.
Longest 20-point streak by an MVP of the 21st century
3. Meanwhile, who has the next longest active streak behind SGA kawhi leonard In 42 games, and Leonard and currently injured joel embiid (24 games) Is the only active player whose streak stretches back to 2025, let alone 2024. Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak isn’t the result of an era effect, but rather an outstanding accomplishment by the reigning MVP — and a heavy favorite to repeat in 2025-26.
4. With that historical backdrop, it’s worth doing some math to put the extremes of this series into context. Over the past two seasons, during which Gilgeous-Alexander began his record-setting mission, players named to the All-Star team have scored more than 20 points in 71% of their games. Given that base probability, the probability of an All-Star scoring more than 20 points in 126 consecutive games is 1 in 3,200,000,000,000,000,000, or 1 in 3.2 quintillion.
The quintillion range is also an estimate number of sand particles on earth. In other words, the probability of a modern NBA All-Star surpassing Chamberlain’s series is roughly the same as the probability of finding a specific grain of sand somewhere on the entire planet.
5. So, exactly, how did Gilgeous-Alexander beat those outrageous odds and achieve one of Chamberlain’s many long-standing records? One answer is that he excelled in every area on the court.
As defined by GeniusIQ, the general areas of the offensive end have a remarkably even distribution, dividing Gilgeous-Alexander’s 4,092 points during his streak. He shot 16% to 25% from all five areas: the free throw line, restricted area, key, midrange and 3-point range.
For comparison, the second-highest scorer in the last two seasons is luka doncic. And while Doncic generates a similar proportion of his points from the charity stripe (23%), he skews far more to 3-point range (36%) than close to the basket (11% from the restricted area). Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot distribution is uniquely egalitarian for a guard in the modern NBA.
6. Gilgeous-Alexander is also not a steady player; He has improved during his streak. He’s only a 35.9% career 3-point shooter, but he’s up from 39.3% since last year’s All-Star break. This mark puts him in the same category as star shooters Stephen Curry (39.8%), kawhi leonard (39.0%), Anthony Edwards (38.9%), Desmond Bain (38.8%), and clay thompson (38.4%) during that period.
7. Gilgeous-Alexander has also improved from inside the arc: He’s making a career-high 60.1% of his 15 2-point attempts per game this season. This is the most efficient 2-point performance for a guard in NBA history (minimum 10 attempts per game).
8. Gilgeous-Alexander’s overall efficiency also ranks near the top of the charts due to a combination of his superior 3-point shooting, historic 2-point accuracy and propensity to draw fouls (and convert at a 90% clip from the line). With a 66.7% true shooting mark, Gilgeous-Alexander is second on the all-time list of 30-point scorers. Only Stephen Curry’s 66.9% figure in 2015–16 – when he won a unanimous MVP award and produced arguably the greatest offensive season in NBA history with a record-setting 402 3-pointers – ranks higher.
9. Gilgeous-Alexander’s overall efficiency has further improved as he is not only generating positive plays, but also avoiding negative plays. He is averaging just 2.1 turnovers per game this season, the lowest on record for a player averaging 30 PPG. The previous record was held by Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 2.2 turnovers in 2023-24. And last season, he committed 2.4 turnovers per game, equal to the third-fewest of Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 campaign.
10. Since the beginning of last season, Gilgeous-Alexander naturally leads the league in 20-point games. But he’s also No. 1 in 30-point games by a wide margin, with 86. Doncic is second with 59, which is 31% behind SGA’s total.
11. Gilgeous-Alexander is also tied for most 40-point games since the start of last season; He and Edwards have 18 people each.
12. And even though Gilgeous-Alexander is better known as a consistent scorer than an explosive one, he also leads the league in 50-point games with five since the start of last season. Nikola Jokic (Four) is the only other player who has more than two.
13. Plotting Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-by-game point totals during the 126-game streak reveals a more similar spread. Gilgeous-Alexander has scored exactly 20 points, 21 points, 22 points, and so on up to 42 points at least once.
SGA’s single-game point totals during the streak
It is usually found in people below 30 years of age. His modal point average during his streak is 30 points on the nose (13 times), followed by 31 (11 times), 35 (nine times) and 32 and 33 (eight times).
14. Of course, those point totals pale in comparison to Chamberlain’s. The Big Dipper averaged 49.2 ppg in their record streak compared to SGA’s 32.5. But Chamberlain also benefited from heretofore unheard of playing time, as he averaged 48.4 minutes per contest and was subbed out in only three of 126 games. (In those games, he still played 45, 40, and 36 minutes.)
For comparison, Gilgeous-Alexander has not reached 48 minutes in any game during his streak and has had far more games with minute totals in the 20s (24) than in the 40s (five).
15. Calculating the two stars’ statistics on a per 36 minutes basis to even out the disparity in playing time reveals a very close competition: 36.6 points per 36 minutes for Chamberlain versus 34.4 points for Gilgeous-Alexander.
16. One statistic where the two scoring superstars notably differ is team success. Oklahoma City has gone 102-24 during the Gilgeous-Alexander streak, while the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors had a 66-60 mark during Chamberlain’s tenure.
17. Zooming out, Gilgeous-Alexander is on pace to average over 30 PPG for the fourth consecutive season. The only other players in NBA history to accomplish this feat are Chamberlain (seven years), Jordan (seven), Robertson (four) and Adrian Dantley (four).
18. The only players to average over 30 PPG four consecutive years and win titles during that span are Gilgeous-Alexander and Jordan.
19. So, returning to Gilgeous-Alexander’s current accomplishment: How high can his 20-point streak climb? Ultimately, Chamberlain’s streak was broken by a fluke rather than poor performance: after 126 consecutive 20-point games, he was ejected just four minutes into Game 127 when he received two technical fouls for arguing a foul call against a teammate. Shortly thereafter, Chamberlain surpassed the 20-point mark for 20 consecutive games, missing it once, then starting his 92-game streak.
In other words, Chamberlain was just an ill-timed argument and a few bounces away from an astonishing 240-game 20-point streak, which would have nearly doubled the actual record.
20. Gilgeous-Alexander, in contrast, is not in danger of being thrown out, and has not had any close calls recently. Since returning from injury in late February, Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 30.8 ppg and scored at least 26 in all five games.
It’s still reasonable to expect their streak to end before too long, given the sheer possibility of just reaching three figures, let alone continuing it forever. Prior to their current run, SGA’s longest 20-point streak was 37 games in 2023, 29 games in 2024, and 20 games in 2023–24. He has clearly progressed as a scorer over the past two seasons, but not many other historically great scorers have been able to get anywhere near 126 consecutive games – and counting.
But that’s even more reason to applaud Gilgeous-Alexander’s latest achievement. Matching any of Chamberlain’s majority records is worthy of celebration.
