Gilgeous-Alexander ties Chamberlain's untouchable 126-game 20-point streak

Wilt Chamberlain's NBA records are the kind that seem written in stone. A hundred points in a single game. Four thousand points in a season. A fifty-point scoring average. These are the numbers that define an era, the ones that make you wonder if they'll ever be approached again. So when someone finally catches Chamberlain in any statistical category, it registers as something genuinely rare.

On Monday night in Denver, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder became that someone. He scored 35 points and dished out 15 assists—a career high in the latter—as the Thunder beat the Nuggets 129-126, and in doing so, he tied Chamberlain's record of 126 consecutive regular-season games with at least 20 points. The streak that began decades ago in Philadelphia has now been matched by a modern player leading a championship team in Oklahoma City.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who won the MVP award and the Finals MVP last season while leading the Thunder to the league title, has been remarkably measured about the achievement. "It's crazy to think that where I was 10 years ago, I'd be here today," he said. But he also made clear that he doesn't dwell on the streak itself. "To be honest with you, I try to not even think about it," he explained. "So much is going on, so many things have to go right for you to get what you ultimately want, and that gets 100% of my focus, especially basketball-wise." He'll have a chance to push the record to 127 on Thursday when the Thunder face the Boston Celtics.

The two streaks, when placed side by side, tell different stories about different eras of basketball. During Gilgeous-Alexander's run, the Thunder have gone 102-24. During Chamberlain's streak in the early 1960s, the Warriors went 66-60. Chamberlain averaged 49.2 points per game during his streak; Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.5. Chamberlain's highest-scoring game was the legendary 100-point performance against New York on March 2, 1962. Gilgeous-Alexander's peak during the streak is 55 points, against Indiana in October. Chamberlain had 42 games of 55 points or more during his run. Gilgeous-Alexander has had just two games where he scored exactly 20 points—the bare minimum to keep the streak alive. Chamberlain's lowest output during his streak was 23 points, all of them in regulation during an overtime loss to Boston.

Chamberlin's streak ended on January 19, 1963, in St. Louis. He played all 48 minutes, scored 35 points, grabbed 21 rebounds, and lost 116-114 to the Hawks. The next night, the teams played again. Chamberlain didn't last long. Referee Red Oates issued two technical fouls and ejected him after about four minutes for what was described as abusive language directed at an official over a foul call on a teammate. Chamberlain finished with six points. His season scoring average dropped from 47.0 to 46.2 in a single evening, and he faced a mandatory fine of at least fifty dollars.

But Chamberlain simply started over. In San Francisco's next game on January 22, 1963, against Detroit, he began a new 20-point streak. He scored 39 points that night in a game that included a fourth-quarter fight at the Cow Palace—one so heated that fans spilled onto the floor—yet no fouls were called as a result. Chamberlain went on to score at least 20 points in his next 20 games. Had he not been ejected in St. Louis, it's reasonable to think his streak would have extended to 147 games. His next sub-20-point game came on February 24, 1963, back in St. Louis, when he finished with 13 points in a loss to the Hawks. The Associated Press noted that night that he had "at times refused to shoot even though he was in the clear."

Chamberlin's 126-game streak was not his only extended run. He had five other streaks of at least 30 games with 20 or more points: 92, 62, 56, 47, and 30 games. His 92-game streak ranks third all-time. Oscar Robertson had a 79-game streak. Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan each had 72-game runs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had two separate streaks of 70 and 71 games. When you factor in playoff games, Chamberlain's record grows even more imposing. His 141-game streak including postseason play remains unmatched. Gilgeous-Alexander, by contrast, had three games during last season's playoff run to the championship where he failed to reach 20 points, so his combined regular-season-and-playoff streak stands at 63 games—the second-longest of his career, behind a 72-game run that ended during the 2025 postseason.