When Good Became Great

The streak started November 1, 2024, with 30 points against Portland in what felt like a completely normal regular season game [1]. It wasn't. From that night forward, the Thunder went 102-24. Let that sit for a second: one of the greatest winning stretches in NBA history ran parallel to one of the greatest individual scoring streaks in NBA history. This wasn't a guy padding numbers on a tanking team. This was the engine of a championship machine [3]. OKC won the title last June. SGA won Finals MVP. And then, instead of the usual champion's regression — the complacency, the nagging injuries, the off-season distractions — he came back sharper. The streak deepened into this season, 40 games in, 60, 80, until suddenly people started doing the math. Ten days ago, I wrote that SGA was four games away from rewriting NBA history. I didn't fully believe he'd get there without something going sideways. A bad ankle. A rest day. A blowout where the starters checked out early. The universe has a way of protecting old records. Wilt's mark felt like something that should have stayed untouched. It didn't.

Why This Record Is Different

Wilt's consecutive 20-point record matters because of what 20 points represented in 1963. Most players never sniffed that number in a game. Wilt's record was 126 straight performances at a level his era reserved for the best player on the floor. What SGA is doing in 2026 is putting up those same numbers against the deepest talent pool in basketball history. The NBA is more athletic, more defensively sophisticated, more analytically driven than anything Wilt faced [3]. Teams can preview SGA's tendencies down to individual possession types. They know exactly what he wants to do. He does it anyway. The Celtics tonight were a perfect test case. Boston's defense ranks second in the league. They threw Jaylen Brown at him, then Jrue Holiday, then switched coverages every time down the floor. SGA had 11 first-quarter points, hit back-to-back midrange jumpers to give OKC the lead in the fourth, and finished with 35 on 14-of-22 shooting [1]. It wasn't a grind. It was just SGA.

The Bigger Picture

Here's my honest take: we are watching one of the five greatest individual seasons in NBA history, and it's being undersold because the Thunder are so good. When your team is 54-12 and you're the consensus MVP by March, there's no desperation narrative to lean on. Nobody's writing "Can SGA save the franchise?" because the franchise is already saved. He just keeps doing this, quietly, consistently, in a city that still surprises people when it shows up on the national basketball map [2]. That's fine. The record stands for itself. 127 consecutive games with 20+ points. No days off, no freebie opponents, no asterisks. One of the best defenses in the league tried to stop him tonight and he dropped 35. Wilt was one of the greatest to ever do it — and he deserves every ounce of respect. But tonight, it belongs to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. At 27 years old. With probably five years of peak basketball ahead of him. I genuinely have no idea how far this streak goes. That might be the most remarkable thing I've ever typed.

Also: My Jets Are Quietly Winning the Offseason (No, Really)

Quick detour from the hardwood, because I'd be a fraud if I didn't acknowledge what's happening in NFL free agency — specifically what's happening with my team. Go ahead. Mock me. I'll wait. The Jets traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick for a seventh-round pick. A former All-Pro safety for a late-round flier [4]. New head coach Aaron Glenn — a defensive back himself — is building an identity fast, and it looks like a real one. Fitzpatrick joins a defense that also added nose tackle T'Vondre Sweat (traded for Jermaine Johnson), linebacker Demario Davis in his third stint with the organization, edge rusher Joseph Ossai, and defensive tackle David Onyemata. On Tuesday, they added quarterback Geno Smith via trade [4]. CBS Sports ranked the Jets and Rams at the top of their free agency class. That sentence has never been written in my lifetime without irony attached to it, and I need a moment. The Jets finished 29th in run defense last year. They had zero interceptions — a first in NFL history. They recorded the second-fewest sacks in the league. Aaron Glenn looked at all of that and said, respectfully, not in my house, and went to work [4]. Look, I know. It's Geno Smith. He's 35. But Glenn is building defense-first, and a defense this loaded doesn't need a quarterback to be great — it needs one not to cost them games. If the D-line plays the way it should with Sweat, Fitzpatrick, and Davis anchoring everything, that's a top-five defense. Top-five defenses win championships. I'm not saying the Jets are going to the Super Bowl. … Okay I'm a little saying it. Sue me.