SI:AM | MVP Candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Has the Thunder Rolling

Oklahoma City is missing star big man Chet Holmgren, but SGA has put the team on his back and spearheaded a 13-game winning streak.

SGA (2) has OKC atop the West. / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m sure everyone is all broken up about the SEC falling on its face in the playoff.

In today’s SI:AM:

☘️ Notre Dame triumphs
🏈 Big-picture CFP takeaways
⚾ 25 MLB stories to watch in 2025

SGA for MVP

The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t have the best record in the NBA (that honor still belongs to the Cleveland Cavaliers), but they are undoubtedly the hottest team in the league.

Thursday night’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers was OKC’s 13th in a row, the second-longest streak in the NBA this season behind only Cleveland’s 15-game unbeaten run to open the season. The Thunder are 28–5, one game behind the Cavs for the best record in the league but head and shoulders above the rest of the Western Conference. No other team in the West has fewer than 11 losses.

This may come as a surprise to more casual followers of the NBA, who may not have seen the Thunder in the news since reading in November that star big man Chet Holmgren would be sidelined for at least two months with a broken hip. That news threatened to derail the Thunder’s season. Holmgren had been a major reason why the Thunder finished tied with the Denver Nuggets for the best record in the West last year and made the playoffs for the first time in four years. He was the runner-up to Victor Wembanyama for the Rookie of the Year award and the first rookie since Karl-Anthony Towns in 2015–16 to start all 82 games.

Order Now. SIP February Sportsperson. Get Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year issue. dark

But the Thunder haven’t just survived without Holmgren, they’ve dominated. The biggest reason for that is the stellar play of guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. In the 10 games before Holmgren was injured, SGA averaged 26.1 points per game on 18.9 shot attempts. In the 23 games since Holmgren went down, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 33.4 points per game on 21.7 attempts. But it isn’t just that Gilgeous-Alexander is playing a larger role offensively in Holmgren’s absence. He’s playing better in almost every respect.

Having to shoulder more of the offensive burden hasn’t harmed Gilgeous-Alexander’s efficiency. In fact, he’s shooting the ball much better than he had been early in the season. Before Holmgren’s injury, SGA had a shooting percentage of .487 and three-point percentage of .264. Since then, those numbers are up to .543 and .383, respectively. He’s also turning the ball over less and averaging more steals and blocks than he had been when Holmgren was on the floor.

Gilgeous-Alexander has been the most reliable scorer in the NBA this season. Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has missed six games this season, leads the league in points per game, but SGA has the edge in total points with a league-best 1,029. That’s more than 100 points better than any other player. (De’Aaron Fox is second with 910.) Gilgeous-Alexander has scored at least 20 points in 32 of his 33 games this season. His season low is 18, way back on Oct. 30. Since then, he has scored at least 20 points in 29 consecutive games. Since SGA was traded to the Thunder in 2019, there have been 10 such streaks by all NBA players. He’s the only one to have done it three times during that time period. The only other players to have multiple 29-game streaks of 20+ points over that span are Joel Embiid (both during his 2022–23 MVP season) and LeBron James.

But the biggest reason behind the Thunder’s success this season has been their defense. OKC has the best defense in the NBA by a number of metrics, leading the league in points allowed per game, defensive efficiency, opponents’ field goal percentage and turnovers forced. Surprise, surprise: Gilgeous-Alexander is the key to that, too. He leads the NBA in three advanced defensive metrics: defensive rating, defensive win shares and defensive box plus/minus. What do you call a guy who’s averaging over 30 points per game and is also the best defensive guard in the league? MVP.

Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t doing it alone, of course. Jalen Williams is second in the NBA in defensive win shares and averaging a career-best 20.9 points per game after his breakout sophomore campaign last season. Isaiah Hartenstein, a big offseason addition from the New York Knicks, has stepped into the starting center role in Holmgren’s absence and is averaging 12.2 rebounds per game. That would rank fifth in the NBA this season if he had played enough games to qualify for the leaderboards. (Hartenstein missed the first 15 games of the season with a fractured hand.) It really all comes back to the defense, though. Along with Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams, the Thunder have four more players who rank in the top 20 in the league in defensive rating: Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Luguentz Dort and Isaiah Joe.

Holmgren is getting closer to a return to the court. He was spotted at Tuesday’s game not using crutches for the first time since the injury, although coach Mark Daigneault declined to elaborate on the specifics of his recovery. When he comes back, the Thunder will add another fantastic defender to a team that’s already the stingiest in the league. When OKC is able to pair Holmgren with Gilgeous-Alexander again, there may not be any doubt about who is the best team in the NBA.

Notre Dame celebrates Sugar Bowl win vs. Georgia in College Football Playoff. / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Bryan Fischer was in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, where Notre Dame thoroughly outplayed Georgia to advance to the College Football Playoff semifinals. 

• Fischer also reseeded the CFP bracket after a bunch of upsets threw it into disarray. 

• Pat Forde has four big-picture takeaways from the first two rounds of the CFP.

• A whole bunch of NFL coaches are going to be looking for work come Monday. Here’s what Albert Breer and Conor Orr are hearing about the coaching carousel.  

• Orr also has a great feature about how Brian Flores built this excellent Vikings defense. 

• Ryan Phillips and Tom Dierberger listed the 10 biggest Pro Bowl snubs.

• The MLB season is closer than you think and Tom Verducci laid out the 25 biggest story lines to watch in the new year. 

• Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke reportedly played the entire season with a torn ACL. 

The top five …

… things I saw last night:

5. Jonatan Berggren’s game-winning goal for the Red Wings on a breakaway immediately after exiting the penalty box.
4. Alex Ovechkin’s 871st career goal.
3. Stephen Curry’s eighth three-pointer of the night against the Sixers. He was a perfect 8-for-8 from deep, the most threes in a game without a miss in his career.
2. Jayden Harrison’s 98-yard touchdown return on the opening kickoff of the second half to widen Notre Dame’s lead.
1. A dagger three by LeBron James in the Lakers’ win over the Trail Blazers. Three days after his 40th birthday, James had 38 points.