(As much as the focus will be on SGA’s historic night, Thursday night was a thrilling contest featuring Jaylen Brown, who finished with 34 points at the other end. This wasn’t an ethically pleasing display of hoops — there were 62 missed 3s and 36 fouls across both teams — but watching both Brown and Gilgeous-Alexander exchange buckets down the stretch, combined with the tactical battles, provided an epic night of playoff-ish basketball.)

The beauty of Gilgeous-Alexander’s night was multi-layered, displaying the beauty of both the individual and the collective. The 27-year-old, much like any other night, didn’t seem solely interested in chasing greatness or forcing the issue, with the understanding that his approach to the game, and the growth of his teammates combined with Boston’s defensive game plan, would yield positive results. The Celtics opted for a few different looks in attempts to thwart Gilgeous-Alexander; physical man-to-man, a shifting zone and occasional pressure. But SGA allowed the game to come to him, using his gravity at the right times to create high-leverage opportunities for those in his orbit. Gilgeous-Alexander not only led all players in scoring but finished with a game-high nine assists as well, a testament to his processing speed and the sheer joy he finds in uplifting his teammates. There was a warm spirit present in the Thunder locker room following the final buzzer, with players like Jaylin Williams and Jared McCain in awe of their brother etching his name in the books. 

“What an impressive record,” head coach Mark Daigneault said. “I’ve reflected on it; you get lost in the season and take for granted what you’re watching every night. But surgical to his craft. No one is more precise with their craft than he is. No. 2, the whole life of the streak has not prevented us from having success either. He’s the kind of person you couldn’t be happier for when they accomplish something like this. Huge congratulations to him.”

And it’s not so much about the record itself than what it represents. Oklahoma City has won 103 out of the 127 games that Gilgeous-Alexander has scored at least 20 points, an 81 percent win percentage. Within those games tell the story of an artist still perfecting his craft while producing at a dominant rate. He’s scoring the most points per minute and points per shot attempt of his career at the highest field goal percentage — all while turning the ball over at the lowest frequency since entering the league in 2018, a rate that has essentially decreased as his experience has grown. He’s a top three player by virtually every advanced metric you want to pull from a hat: DARKO, LEBRON, Estimated Plus-Minus. And the Thunder, who are blasting opponents away by a league-leading 11.2 points per 100 possessions, are an incredible +15.2 points per 100 possessions with SGA on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass — the 98th percentile in impact. Essentially, Gilgeous-Alexander is having an even better season than when he won league MVP, which is … um, yea. 

And there are still ways he can be even better! Gilgeous-Alexander paused for a moment at the podium, admitting he still wants to reach the vaunted “50-40-90 club”, the elite collection of players that shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3 and 90 from the free-throw line. (For the record, he’s currently 1.7 percent away from the 3 threshold, and 0.5 percent from the free-throw percentage.) Gilgeous-Alexander also mentioned the desire to become smarter at reading and dissecting opposing defenses, particularly in the area of creating for his teammates. His February was cut short (averaged 10.3 assists in two games against Denver and one against Orlando) but this month, he’s up to 8.3 assists to just 2.5 turnovers per game. The majority of his passing metrics — assist points, potential assist points per 100 and bad pass turnovers — are in the upper echelon of playmakers. 

There’s also the very real and very terrifying fact that the Thunder have played a sizable chunk of their season without the services of Jalen Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein. According to PBPStats, that Finals-winning lineup has played just 41 minutes together over five games. (SGA-Lu Dort-JDub-Chet-Hartenstein is a plus-10, per Second Spectrum.) Five games! Yes, the lack of bodies has opened up opportunities; Jaylin Williams’ floor spacing, Aaron Wiggins’ downhill drives, Ajay Mitchell’s two-way force and the recently acquired Jared McCain’s secondary shot-making. But this is a group that technically is yet to jell, all while having the best record in the NBA at 52-15. 

“We’ve been dealing with this all year,” Daigneault said. “We’ve had a very fluid roster. It’s been imperfect. In an 82-game season, there’s nothing smooth about that for anybody. It’s challenging for different reasons and different times for teams. But this team does a great job of playing the hand we’re dealt, seeing the opportunity in every situation and making the most out of the opportunities we get. And these guys have stepped up and performed when their numbers have been called.”

The Thunder’s final 15 games of the season aren’t an open-and-shut case; per Tankathon, they have the ninth-hardest finish to the year. But the combination of an in-rhythm Gilgeous-Alexander, a tenacious defense, elite coaching and vast development across the board has Oklahoma City primed for another race to June — and everything starts and ends with the superstar that draws his strength from everyone else. 

“When the MVP of the league is the guy that’s being unselfish, it just sets a standard for the rest of the team to be the same way,” Williams told Yahoo Sports. “From Day 1 of me being here, he’s the same guy now that he is then and he’s won so much since. When you have someone that sets the tone it makes it easier for everybody else.”