Canadian guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has tied Wilt Chamberlain’s record for most consecutive games with at least 20 points after dropping 35 points in his team’s 129-126 win over Denver Monday.
With the victory, SGA notched his 126th consecutive contest with 20+ points and OKC padded their league best record of 51-15. “It’s still a lot to even wrap my head around it,” he said. “To be honest with you, I try not to even think about it, especially during the season. So much is going on. So many things have to go right.”
Gilgeous-Alexander will now have the opportunity to set a new NBA record on Thursday night at home against the Boston Celtics. A fact whose significance wasn’t lost on members of the Denver Nuggets.
“The name that he is up there with is Wilt,” Nuggets coach David Adelman told reporters. “If you love this game, you should love the history of it. And for him and for Wilt, to talk about him again and again and again on his records — it just says a lot about Shai’s career, the consistency that he’s shown over the years.”
Chamberlain initially set the record between 1961-1963, seeing his streak end when he played only 4 minutes for the San Francisco Warriors on January 20th 1963.
“Tremendous poise, confidence,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “It doesn’t change his mindset regardless of the circumstance. … It was an outstanding performance by him. Not only the last stretch, but the game control, the blend of attacking and passing. He put his team in advantages all night.”
Despite their six game winning streak, and .773 win percentage, OKC still has plenty to play for down the stretch. The San Antonio Spurs (47-17) are just 4 games back of the Thunder and appear to have the reigning NBA champions number as they’ve beaten them 4 out of the 5 times that the teams have met this season.
Securing the Western Conference’s top seed, and thus home court advantage, could prove vital if the two western powers were to meet in a 7 game series later this spring.
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.