When the final buzzer sounded Thursday night in the Thunder’s 96–84 win over the Nuggets, Oklahoma City celebrated another dominant win in what has been a perfect 2–0 start to the season. But it also marked the end of an incredible streak.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting that night at Paycom Center. While that box score is a great night for most players, it was actually the first time SGA failed to score at least 20 points since Oct. 30, 2024—a run of an NBA record 141 straight games.
No player will break that streak. Ever. Only six players in NBA history have even reached the halfway point (a streak of 70+ games) of that record: SGA, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
So, that got us thinking: What are some other unbreakable streaks in NBA history? Let’s take a look:
Mike Conley: 1,226 games (and counting) without a technical foul
Conley is renowned in NBA circles for being one of the kindest players and teammates in the league. He holds the NBA record for the most Sportsmanship Award wins (four). It translates to the court, too, as he has never been called for a single technical foul in 1,226 games (nearly 38,000 minutes!) over two decades in the NBA.
Conley was actually called for a phantom technical foul back in 2014. NBA official Monty McCutchen blew his whistle after Conley said something along the lines of, “Man, come on!” after a ball went out of bounds. “[McCutchen] looked at me immediately and was like, ‘My bad,’” Conley recently recounted for The Athletic. The next day, the NBA rescinded the technical foul. There hasn’t been a single close call since.
A.C. Green: 1,192 consecutive games played
Nobody is touching this record. Green played every game from November 1986 to April 2001. He missed a total of three games over his entire career due to a thumb injury early in the 1986–87 campaign, his second year in the league. Once he returned from that injury, he didn’t miss another game until he called it quits. Even more impressive, Green averaged 28.6 minutes per game over his career.
Knicks star Mikal Bridges owns the NBA’s longest active streak of games played at 639. In order to pass Green, Bridges would have to play out the next 80 games this season … and then not miss a game for nearly six additional full seasons, too. That’s ... probably not happening.
Lakers: 33-game winning streak
The 1971–72 Lakers, led by Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, won 33 straight games from Nov. 5 to Jan. 7 of that season. No NBA team has made them sweat that record since—not even the dynastic Warriors with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in their primes. That Golden State squad ranks second in NBA history with 28 straight wins—the final four games of the 2014–15 regular season combined with their 24–0 start the following season. Third on that all-time leaderboard is LeBron James and the 2012–13 Heat, who won 27 straight games from Feb. 3 to March 25, 2013. If Steph and LeBron can’t do it in their primes, the Lakers’ 33-game winnings streak is safe.
Bill Russell: 10 straight NBA Finals appearances
Bill Russell and the Celtics went to 10 straight NBA Finals from 1957 to ’66, winning nine titles. The only series they lost was to the St. Louis Hawks in ’58. All four of the Hawks’ wins in that series were by one possession: 104–102 in Game 1, 111–108 in Game 3, 102–100 in Game 5 and 110–109 in Game 6.
LeBron James made eight straight Finals from 2011 to ’18—the first four with Miami and the latter four after he returned to Cleveland. His Finals streak ended in ’19 in his first season with the Lakers; James played just 55 contests and Los Angeles missed the playoffs. If prime LeBron can’t tie Russell, nobody is making 11 straight Finals. Not even you, Wemby.
LeBron James: 1,297 consecutive games with 10+ points
It’s still hard to believe this streak ended. Last December, James scored eight points on 4-of-17 shooting in 36 minutes—ending his streak of scoring 10+ points at 1,297 consecutive games. Over his 1,624 career games played, James has scored nine points or less just nine times.
Why is this unbreakable? Well, consider this: Only 27 players in NBA history have even suited up for 1,297 games, much less scored in double figures in all of them. Kevin Durant has the longest active streak of games with 10+ points (329 straight), followed by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (218) and Luka Dončić (206). Just need another 15 years or so to pass LeBron, fellas.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 141 consecutive games with 20+ points
Even Wilt Chamberlain couldn’t do what SGA accomplished from Nov. 1, 2024 to Oct. 22, 2026—a streak of 20+ points in 141 straight games. Chamberlain ranks second and third in NBA history with separate 20-point streaks of 126 and 92 games. Nobody else has put together a stretch that surpasses an 82-game regular season.
To further appreciate SGA’s streak, get this: Last year’s scoring champ, Dončić, scored less than 20 points four times. In Steph Curry’s MVP season in 2015–16 in which he set the NBA’s single-season record for three-pointers, he scored less than 20 points 13 times.
Wilt Chamberlain: Seven consecutive games with 50+ points
It wouldn’t be an NBA unbreakable records piece without a Wilt stat. In 1961, Chamberlain did this in seven consecutive games over a two-week span: 50, 57, 55, 59, 51, 53 and 60 points. A few months later, he would score his famous 100-point game against the Knicks. Chamberlain had five different streaks of at least four games with 50 points over his career; the only other player to accomplish that is Kobe Bryant, who poured in 65, 50, 60 and 50 points in four straight games in 2007.
No player has scored 50+ points in consecutive games since both Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal did so in 2020.
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