Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just made history. Boy was it a thrilling game, where he scored at least 20 points for the 70th consecutive contest, while going off with the Rockets’ James Harden. On a sunny March 10, 2024, he crossed an ice-glazed Susquehanna River to accomplish an incredible feat. This feat even passed the iconic Michael Jordan to take fourth place all time on the NBA single-season scoring streak leaderboard.
The streak started on November 1, 2023 with Gilgeous-Alexander first dropping 30 points on the Portland Trail Blazers. His play was nothing short of spectacular from start to finish on the year. His most recent performance — a 22-point effort against the Houston Rockets — is already making waves. The watershed time came on the final play of the third quarter. He made the second of two foul shots, bringing his points for the game to 20 outright.
Though this game was a personal victory for Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder had a rough night against the Rockets, losing 125-111. This loss snapped the Thunder’s phenomenal 11-game winning streak and served as their first defeat since March 10th. As of that date, the Thunder had the number one ranking in the Western Conference. At one point, they were only two games ahead of the second-place team.
The Rockets’ surprise victory brought their season record against Oklahoma City up to 2-3. The loss was deeply felt. It represented a potential turning point for a red hot Thunder squad that had rolled through the last few weeks of the season so far.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak has him in the company of just a handful of players to ever play in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain currently holds that record with an incredible 80-game streak in both the 1961-62 and 1963-64 seasons. Russell is trailed by Oscar Robertson’s 76-game streak from the ’63-’64 season. MJ’s own record of 69 games was for a whole season—the 1990-91 season—including playoffs. So in a lot of ways Gilgeous-Alexander has done the impossible! He’s the first player since the 1960s to have a scoring streak anywhere near that long.
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