Shai Gilgeous-Alexander takes himself out and lets his 141-game 20-point streak end

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needed three points. He had 1:44 to get them, the ball in his hands and a 17-point lead over the Denver Nuggets. Instead he asked to come out, and his NBA-record streak of 141 straight regular-season games with at least 20 points ended in Oklahoma City's 96-84 win on Thursday night.

The two-time reigning MVP finished with 17 on 6-of-19 shooting. His 3-pointer with 1:44 left made it 93-76, and at the next timeout he told Mark Daigneault he was done. The streak had run since Oct. 30, 2024, per ESPN.

His call, not the coach's

Daigneault wanted to leave him in. He told reporters, per ESPN, that a "historic streak" was on the line, and that his star made the call himself.

"I was going to go out there, and then I saw that [the Nuggets] had subbed, so I thought we should sub, too," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "You always treat the game with respect."

Daigneault called it "toward the top of the list" of the moments he appreciates about him. "That was his substitution," the coach said.

The case for staying in

Three points in under two minutes is a small ask, and a mark like 141 straight games may not come around again. Daigneault was ready to give him the minutes. Plenty of stars would have stayed out there and hunted a basket.

The case for sitting is the one he made himself. Denver had made its substitutions, the game was decided, and he had already turned a 0-for-7 first half into 15 second-half points. He chose not to pad the number against reserves.

Jalen Williams, who led OKC with 21, put the run in context after the game: "To do that for 141 games... that one will be untouched for a while."

What's next

The Thunder are 2-0 and host the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night. Gilgeous-Alexander starts a new count there.