Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pulled off an MVP-caliber performance on a record-tying night, where he also dropped the final dagger on the Nuggets’ hopes down the stretch in tonight’s 129-126 win for the Thunder.
He finished the game with 35 points, 15 assists, and nine rebounds while shooting 14-21 from the floor (66.7 FG%) and 3-7 from beyond the arc (42.9 3P%). This ties Wilt Chamberlain’s record for the most consecutive 20-point games in NBA history (126 games).
SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER GAME WINNER
OH MY GOODNESS. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 10, 2026
David Adelman, the Nuggets’ head coach, spoke to the media after the game and addressed the Nuggets’ shortcomings when two former MVPs collided.
He gave credit to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for showing up big time for the Thunder tonight after the Nuggets nearly successfully pulled off a comeback from being down 12 points at one point in the second quarter.
“We threw a lot at him. Aaron came to trap him, but he went away from the trap. He had a hell of a shot, I mean, the stepback to his right, you can’t foul him, and I thought it was well contested. We just watched it.”
“Obviously, we came out and said whoever is in the middle of the floor is going to come back and hit him. He saw that and went the other direction. So it was a big-time shot by a really good player,” said Adelman in his initial remarks about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s game-winner.
“For me, it was the second quarter that lost us this game. Again, we started the second quarter with six points in six minutes, just didn’t do a good enough job. Wasn’t ball strong around the rim, so we had to keep searching for the right unit to complement each other.”
The Thunder went to small-ball tonight as they did not have Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, or Jalen Williams available to play. But Adelman believed the Nuggets countered it well with Valaciunas, but it wasn’t what hurt them tonight.
“Their run outs, their pace compared to ours, and I think we got frustrated by the fact that we missed some easy shots around the rim, and you can’t do that, you have to continue to play the game,” Adelman further said on what he thought hurt the team the most tonight.
“So we got to the six-minute mark, and we were lucky to only be down a few. Actually, we didn’t play well enough, against a team like this, teams this good, you can’t have lulls of six minutes.”
The Nuggets, after leading the first quarter 40-37, allowed a six-minute run at the start of the second quarter that enabled the Thunder to come back into the game.
They only scored six points at that time and only broke the missing streak after the Thunder had taken a 56-46 lead. Adelman feels this was the most costly period of the game for the Nuggets.
Unfortunately, the Nuggets have now fallen to 39-26 for the season and are 3-0 against the Thunder in their season series. They will now face the Rockets on Wednesday night, March 11.
Meanwhile, the Thunder have improved to 51-15 and are currently on a six-game win streak following this victory over the Nuggets tonight. They will now move on to face the Celtics on Thursday, March 12.
The two teams will face off one last time in the regular season on April 10. Do you think the Nuggets will get a redemption game or the Thunder will sweep this series? Let us know in the comments section.
