Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's 20-point streak is over, and it's a record that may never be broken

SGA was held to 17 points on Thursday against Denver, ending his streak of consecutive 20-point games at 141

Oct 23, 2026 at 8:43 am ET • 4 min read

For the first time since Oct. 30, 2024, a span covering nearly two full seasons and an NBA record 141 straight regular-season games, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was held under 20 points on Thursday in the Thunder's 96-84 win over Denver. He finished with 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting before exiting the game with less than two minutes to play. 

Had SGA wanted to chase another three points to keep the streak going, he could have. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault would've left him in the game. But when the Nuggets pulled their starters with a 17-point deficit and 1:43 remaining, Gilgeous-Alexander followed suit. 

"He asked out of the game," Daigneault confirmed. "And he's got a historic streak going. Which is a remarkable streak, obviously. And I just think the class that it shows, and the perspective that it shows, for him to say, 'Hey, I'm out now. The game's calling for me to be subbed out.' That was his substitution. Of all the things I admire about him, that's toward the top of the list in terms of moments that I appreciate about him. It shows tremendous class as a competitor."

Gilgeous-Alexander did well to even have a shot at continuing the streak. He missed 11 of his first 12 shots and had just two points at halftime. He made his last push with a patented elbow jumper and a trailing 3 in transition on two of his final three possessions to get to his 17, but that was it. Denver called timeout, and SGA was done. 

"I asked him, 'Do you wanna shoot some 3s right here?" Chet Holmgren told reporters of a late-game exchange with his teammate. "And he was like, 'nah,' and then he went to Mark and subbed himself out. I told him he's a better man than me. I would've been shooting some pull-up 3s. But I think it was a selfless moment, and he's a selfless guy."

"I was gonna go out there, but then I saw that [the Nuggets] had subbed, so I was like, 'I should probably sub too,' Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I feel like you should always treat the game with respect. And, God willing, I'll have many more games to start another streak, so it's alright."

Longest 20+ point streaks in NBA history

Player	20+ point streak	Years
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	141 games	2024-26
Wilt Chamberlain	126 games	1961-63
Wilt Chamberlain	92 games	1963-64
Oscar Robertson	79 games	1963-64

How did Denver hold SGA down?

"[Shots] that he normally makes didn't go down," Daigneault said. "And [the Nuggets] sold out on him tonight. They really put him in a crowd and really tried to take him away. It's not the first time a team has tried to do that. So the combination of their scheming and him not having his normal stuff."

To Daigneault's point, the Nuggets definitely did show SGA a lot of defensive attention. If he wasn't being outright double-teamed, he was seeing multiple defenders in his line of vision. On a few possessions that he did get to go one-on-one, Christian Braun, who had a hand up on almost every SGA attempt, did about as good a job as you can expect by staying in front and forcing contested misses. 

As Daigneault said, this isn't the first time SGA has seen multiple defenders. The Nuggets -- again, we need to highlight Braun's individual defense as much as the doubles; he really kept his chest in front and forced SGA to fade a bit more than even he would like -- did their part to make it tough on him, but he also missed a lot of shots that he normally makes. 

More than the misses, it was the shots SGA couldn't even get off that ended this streak. Nikola Jokić left his man, sometimes on the other side of the court, to double his drives before he could turn the corner. Wings left their shooters (typical Alex Caruso treatment) to form a crowd around SGA, who also appears to be operating off-ball a bit more to start the season with Jalen Williams back in the fold (I haven't looked at the data on this yet, but it appears this way). 

That's not a huge change. The Thunder have always liked to run SGA through off-ball actions before getting it to him rather than just having him bring it up the court every time, which keeps everyone involved and creates more movement to limit predictability and force defenses to make multiple decisions. But it can leave him out of a few possessions here and there, and if it's a night where the shots he is getting aren't falling and he's also not getting to the free-throw line (only two attempts on Thursday), it's harder to just pile up points on sheer volume. 

How long will this record stand?

There's a real chance that this is one of those marks that will last forever. SGA makes scoring 20 points in an NBA game look like child's play, but when you're talking about doing it night after night for damn near two full regular seasons, even the best scorers in the world are going to struggle to even get close to this record. 

Consider that after SGA's 141, only one other player in history has managed to even get to 80 straight 20-point games. That was Wilt Chamberlain, who did it in 126 straight games between 1961 and 1963, and again for 92 straight games in 1963-64. After that, Oscar Robertson did it in 79 straight games. 

The most consecutive 20-point games Michael Jordan ever logged was 72. That's Kevin Durant's longest run, too. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's best is 71 straight. Again, these are some of the best scorers in history, and they have barely made it halfway to SGA's 141-game mark. They say records are meant to be broken, but this one could prove to be an exception. At least for a very long time.