SGA ends NBA-record 141-game scoring streak by choice, asking out with 1:44 left

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had three points and 1:44 on the clock when he walked to Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and asked to come out of the game. He had 17 points. He needed 20. He sat down anyway.

That decision, made during a timeout after Gilgeous-Alexander's late 3-pointer pushed Oklahoma City's lead to 93-73 and sent the Denver Nuggets to their bench, ended the longest 20-point scoring streak in NBA history: 141 consecutive regular-season games. The Thunder won their home opener 96-84 on Thursday night at Paycom Center, improving to 2-0, but the night's defining moment had nothing to do with the final score.

I was gonna go out there. Then, I saw that they had subbed. So, I thought, we should sub, too. I feel like you always treat the game with respect. And God willing I have many more games to start another streak. So, it's not that important.— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The streak began after Gilgeous-Alexander scored 18 points on October 30, 2024, and eventually surpassed the previous mark. At 141, it now stands alone in league history — ended not by injury, a bad matchup, or a blowout loss, but by the player himself, on a night his team won by 12.

It was not a clean shooting night. Gilgeous-Alexander missed all seven shots he attempted in the first 24 minutes, according to Fox Sports, and a pair of free throws kept him from going scoreless in a half for the first time since his rookie season with the Clippers in 2019. It marked just the fourth time in 450 games with the Thunder that he had gone without a field goal in a half. He found his rhythm after halftime, scoring 13 of his 17 points in the second half, including the dagger 3-pointer that effectively ended the contest.

Daigneault said he was prepared to leave Gilgeous-Alexander in the game — the record, he acknowledged, created a genuine dilemma. Gilgeous-Alexander resolved it before the coach had to.

It's a historic record. So, it's a bit of a dilemma if you're in my position. But he put me in a great position there. I would have left him. I was gonna leave him [in]. Just another reason on the list of why I admire him.— Mark Daigneault, Thunder head coach

For 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 of the game,' that was his substitution, and of all the things that 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.— Mark Daigneault, Thunder head coach

Teammate Chet Holmgren, who finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds, said he offered Gilgeous-Alexander a different path in the final minutes.

I asked him, I said, 'You want to shoot some threes right here,' and he's like, 'Nah,' then, he went up to Mark and subbed himself out. I told him he's a better man than me. I would have been shooting some pull-up threes. I think it was a selfless moment, and he's a selfless guy.— Chet Holmgren, Thunder forward

Jalen Williams led Oklahoma City with 21 points. For Denver, Aaron Gordon scored 20 points and Nikola Jokic and DeMar DeRozan added 13 apiece in the Nuggets' first game of the season, according to Fox Sports.

Oklahoma City hosts the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night. Denver returns home to face New Orleans on Saturday.

Why it matters — One of the NBA's most durable individual records ended not with a bad game or an injury but with a deliberate act of sportsmanship, raising the question of what athletes owe to records versus the game itself.

Reported by yahoo.com, reuters.com, nytimes.com, nbcsports.com, clutchpoints.com, foxsports.com