-
Zach Kram
A number of Authors
Editor’s word: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke Wilt Chamberlain’s report for many consecutive 20-point video games in NBA historical past (127) in opposition to the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
On Nov. 1, 2024, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 factors in a 137-114 Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder win in Portland. It wasn’t an particularly notable efficiency on the time; Gilgeous-Alexander had averaged 30.1 factors the earlier season en path to an MVP runner-up end.
Now, 16 months later, that sport carries nice historic significance, because it was the beginning of a 127-game odyssey for a participant who has since received the regular-season MVP award, been named Finals MVP and has now damaged a 63-year-old report.
In opposition to the visiting Celtics, Gilgeous-Alexander scored at the least 20 factors for the 127th sport in a row, courting to that night time in Portland. He handed the good Wilt Chamberlain for the longest such streak in NBA historical past.
It is a becoming report, primarily based in historic consistency, for the person who as soon as declared, “My entire life is constant, all the things I do.”
To commemorate that consistency, listed below are the 20 wildest, most excessive and most spectacular stats about Gilgeous-Alexander’s historic 20-point streak. (Notice: The info that observe mirror his efficiency by means of 126 video games.)
1. The primary shock about Gilgeous-Alexander’s accomplishment is that he even got here near Chamberlain’s report. No one else had finished so beforehand; earlier than SGA, the second-longest 20-point streak in NBA historical past belonged to Chamberlain himself, at 92 video games. There is a cause Gilgeous-Alexander considers Chamberlain “nearly like a legendary creature,” as a result of his statistical feats had been so singular.
Oscar Robertson’s 79-gamer was in third place — which implies that for all of NBA historical past till this season, Chamberlain was the one participant to push his streak so long as the equal of a complete season. And even Robertson’s streak introduced him solely 63% of the way in which to the report.
2. The competitors has been even much less compelling not too long ago. Within the Twenty first century, Kevin Durant is the one different participant to get greater than midway to Chamberlain; he had a 72-gamer that began in his final season in Oklahoma Metropolis and ended early in his Warriors tenure. Subsequent on the Twenty first-century checklist is Kobe Bryant, who reached 63 video games in a row — precisely midway to Chamberlain’s 126 — from December 2005 to November 2006.
On common, the longest 20-point streak for each MVP this century apart from Gilgeous-Alexander is simply 36 video games.
Longest 20-point streaks from Twenty first-century MVPs
3. In the meantime, the next-longest lively streak behind SGA belongs to Kawhi Leonard at 42 video games, and Leonard and the at the moment injured Joel Embiid (24 video games) are the one lively gamers whose streaks prolong again to 2025, not to mention 2024. Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak is not the results of an period impact a lot as a superlative achievement from the reigning MVP — and the heavy favourite to repeat in 2025-26.
4. In opposition to that historic backdrop, it is price performing some math to put the extremity of this streak in context. Over the previous two seasons, throughout which Gilgeous-Alexander launched into his record-setting mission, gamers named to an All-Star group have scored 20-plus factors in 71% of their video games. Provided that base likelihood, the chances of an All-Star reaching 20-plus factors 126 video games in a row are about 1 in 3,200,000,000,000,000,000, or 1 in 3.2 quintillion.
The quintillion vary can also be the identical magnitude as one estimate of the number of grains of sand on Earth. In different phrases, the possibilities of a contemporary NBA All-Star surpassing Chamberlain’s streak are roughly the chances of discovering a particular grain of sand someplace on the whole planet.
5. So how, precisely, did Gilgeous-Alexander beat these outrageous odds and chase down one in all Chamberlain’s many long-standing information? One reply is that he excelled from each space on the court docket.
Splitting Gilgeous-Alexander’s 4,092 factors throughout his streak throughout the overall areas of the offensive finish, as outlined by GeniusIQ, there’s a remarkably even distribution. He has scored between 16% and 25% of his factors from all 5 areas: free throw line, restricted space, key, midrange and 3-point vary.
For comparability, the second-highest-scoring participant over the previous two seasons is Luka Doncic. And whereas Doncic generates the same proportion of his factors from the charity stripe (23%), he’s much more skewed to 3-point vary (36%) than nearer to the basket (11% from the restricted space). Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot distribution is uniquely egalitarian for a guard within the trendy NBA.
6. Gilgeous-Alexander can also be not a static participant; he has improved throughout his streak. He’s solely a 35.9% profession 3-point shooter, however he is up at 39.3% since final 12 months’s All-Star break. That mark locations him in the identical vary as star shooters Stephen Curry (39.8%), Kawhi Leonard (39.0%), Anthony Edwards (38.9%), Desmond Bane (38.8%), and Klay Thompson (38.4%) throughout that span.
7. Gilgeous-Alexander has additionally improved contained in the arc: He is making a career-high 60.1% of his 15 2-point makes an attempt per sport this season. That is essentially the most environment friendly 2-point efficiency for a guard in NBA historical past (minimal 10 makes an attempt per sport).
8. Gilgeous-Alexander’s total effectivity can also be close to the highest of the charts due to the mixture of his improved 3-point marksmanship, historic 2-point accuracy and penchant for drawing fouls (and changing at a 90% clip from the road). With a 66.7% true capturing mark, Gilgeous-Alexander ranks second on the all-time checklist of 30-point scorers. Solely Stephen Curry’s 66.9% determine from 2015-16 — when he received a unanimous MVP award and produced arguably the best offensive season in NBA historical past, with a record-setting 402 3-pointers — ranks greater.
9. Gilgeous-Alexander’s total effectivity improves additional as a result of he isn’t simply producing constructive performs, however avoiding adverse ones as properly. He is averaging simply 2.1 turnovers per sport this season, which is the fewest on report for a participant averaging 30 PPG. The earlier report belonged to … Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 2.2 turnovers in 2023-24. And final season, he was at 2.4 turnovers per sport, which is tied with Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 marketing campaign for the third-fewest.
10. For the reason that begin of final season, Gilgeous-Alexander naturally leads the league in 20-point video games. However he’s additionally No. 1 by a large margin in 30-point video games, with 86. Doncic is in second place with 59, which is 31% behind SGA’s whole
11. Gilgeous-Alexander can also be tied for essentially the most 40-point video games because the begin of final season; he and Edwards have 18 apiece.
12. And although Gilgeous-Alexander is thought extra as a constant scorer than an explosive one, he additionally leads the league in 50-point video games because the begin of final season, with 5. Nikola Jokic (4) is the one different participant with greater than two.
13. Plotting Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-by-game level totals over the course of his 126-game streak reveals one other even unfold. Gilgeous-Alexander has scored precisely 20 factors, 21 factors, 22 factors and so forth, all the way in which as much as 42, at the least as soon as.
SGA’s single-game level totals throughout streak
He’s most frequently clustered within the low 30s. His modal level whole throughout his streak is 30 factors on the nostril (13 occasions), adopted by 31 (11 occasions), 35 (9 occasions) and 32 and 33 (eight occasions apiece).
14. These level totals pale compared to Chamberlain’s, after all. The Massive Dipper averaged 49.2 PPG over his report streak, in comparison with SGA’s 32.5. However Chamberlain additionally benefited from now-unheard-of taking part in time, as he averaged 48.4 minutes per contest and was subbed out in simply three of 126 video games. (In these video games, he nonetheless performed 45, 40 and 36 minutes.)
Gilgeous-Alexander, for comparability, hasn’t reached 48 minutes in any sport throughout his streak and has much more video games with minutes totals within the 20s (24) than 40s (5).
15. Calculating the 2 stars’ stats on a per-36-minute foundation to even out the taking part in time disparity reveals a a lot nearer competitors: 36.6 factors per 36 minutes for Chamberlain versus 34.4 from Gilgeous-Alexander.
16. One statistic the place the 2 scoring superstars notably diverge is group success. Oklahoma Metropolis has gone 102-24 throughout Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak, in comparison with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors’ 66-60 mark throughout Chamberlain’s.
17. Zooming out, Gilgeous-Alexander is on tempo to common 30-plus PPG for the fourth consecutive season. The one different gamers in NBA historical past to perform this feat are Chamberlain (seven straight years), Jordan (seven), Robertson (4) and Adrian Dantley (4).
18. The one gamers to common 30-plus PPG for 4 straight years and win a title throughout that span are Gilgeous-Alexander and Jordan.
19. So, returning to Gilgeous-Alexander’s current accomplishment: How excessive can his 20-point streak climb? In spite of everything, Chamberlain’s streak snapped due to a fluke fairly than underperformance: After 126 20-point video games in a row, he was ejected simply 4 minutes into Recreation 127 when he acquired two technical fouls for arguing a foul name in opposition to a teammate. Instantly thereafter, Chamberlain eclipsed the 20-point mark for 20 consecutive video games, then missed as soon as, then launched into his 92-game streak.
In different phrases, Chamberlain was just one ill-timed argument and some bounces away from an astonishing 240-game 20-point streak, which might have almost doubled the precise report.
20. Gilgeous-Alexander, conversely, is not a risk to be ejected, and he hasn’t even had any shut calls of late. Since he returned from harm on the finish of February, Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 30.8 PPG and scored at the least 26 in all 5 video games.
It is nonetheless cheap to count on his streak to finish earlier than too lengthy, simply given the sheer odds in opposition to even reaching triple digits, not to mention persevering with in perpetuity. Earlier than his present run, SGA’s longest 20-point streaks had been 37 video games in 2023, 29 video games in 2024 and 20 video games in 2023-24. He has clearly leveled up as a scorer over the previous two seasons, however loads of different traditionally nice scorers did not get wherever close to 126 video games — and counting — in a row.
However that is all of the extra cause to understand Gilgeous-Alexander’s newest achievement. Matching any of Chamberlain’s multitudinous information is worthy of celebration.