Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's 50-point performance leads OKC to win No. 50; LeBron James inching closer to 50K milestone

Atlanta’s final four seconds in Memphis on Monday: Steal. Dime. Euro. Layup. Buzzer. Win.

Coming tonight: LeBron makes a run at 50K, while Steph in the Garden highlights a TNT doubleheader

5 STORIES IN TODAY’S EDITION

March 4, 2025

Monday’s Best: SGA’s latest 50 nets OKC 50th W, Pistons stay hot, Hawks win thriller

West Climbers: With Monday wins, the Warriors & Kings moved up in the West races

TNT Doubleheader: Steph returns to the Garden with red-hot Dubs, Clippers host Suns

Milestone Watch: LeBron 1 point from 50K as streaking Lakers host Pelicans

League Pass Spotlight: Cavs try to be 4th team with 3 11-game win streaks in a season

BUT FIRST … ⏰

A stacked week of hoops lies ahead…

Tonight’s TNT doubleheader – Steph Curry and the Warriors visiting the Knicks at MSG (7:30 ET) and the Suns hosting the Clippers (10 ET) – tips off a full week of hoops across TNT, ESPN and ABC:

Wednesday (ESPN): The two conference leaders with 50+ wins are in action – Heat-Cavs (7 ET) and Thunder-Grizzlies (9:30 ET)Thursday (TNT, Max): The defending champs and red-hot Lakers take the spotlight – Sixers-Celtics (7:30 ET), Knicks-Lakers (10 ET)Friday (ESPN): Four teams locked in tight postseason races in the West – Grizzlies-Mavs (7:30 ET), Suns-Nuggets (10 ET)Saturday (ABC): The NBA’s most classic rivalry with 35 titles between them – Lakers-Celtics (8:30 ET)Sunday (ABC, ESPN): A full day of hoops begins with an ABC doubleheader in the West – Nuggets-Thunder (1 ET), Suns-Mavs (3:30 ET) – and an ESPN nightcap in the East – Cavs-Bucks (8 ET)

1. SGA DROPS 51 AS OKC HITS 50 WINS, PISTONS STAY HOT, HAWKS WIN THRILLER

In his first 427 career games, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had zero 50+ point games.

In his last 19 games, he has four, with the latest coming Monday to lead the Thunder past the Rockets for OKC’s 50th win of the season.

Thunder 137, Rockets 128: Houston entered Monday with the NBA’s 4th-ranked defense, but had no answers for SGA, who dropped his fourth 50+ point game in a 40-day span to lead OKC to win No. 50 and an 11-game lead on the rest of the West. | Recap

SGA became the 12th player in NBA history with at least four 50+ point games in a season“You’re not even surprised, but you’re wow’d by it” – said Chet Holmgren (11 pts, 11 reb, 3 blk) about SGA’s latest 50-ballFastest To 50: The Thunder/Sonics franchise has won 50+ games 17 times in its history – but none faster than this year’s squad, which has needed 61 games to get there

Historic Pace: SGA is on track to become the 5th player (7th instance) over the last 20 years to lead the league in 20+ (59), 30+ (38), 40+ (9) and 50+ (4) point games in a season. The others:

Kobe Bryant: 2005-06 & 2006-07Kevin Durant: 2013-14James Harden: 2014-15 & 2018-19Russell Westbrook: 2016-17

SGA: “You play the game to win. You don’t play the game to score a bunch of points. You don’t play the game to get a bunch of rebounds or assists or steals … You don’t play for anything besides to win.”

Hawks 132, Grizzlies 130: Trailing by as many as 13 in the 4th quarter, the Hawks closed the game on a 14-4 run, capped off by a brilliant defense-to-offense sequence to win the game at the buzzer. | Recap | Catch The Insane Ending

The Miss: With the game tied at 130, Trae Young found Caris LeVert for an open 3 with 24 seconds left that rimmed out. The Grizzlies grabbed the rebound and got the ball to Desmond BaneThe Steal: Bane – who had his first career triple-double (35 pts, 10 reb, 10 ast) – drained the clock under 10 seconds, then drove against Dyson Daniels, and the steals leader picked his pocketThe Pass: Daniels secured the ball, looked up and launched a full-court outlet to a streaking LeVert, who caught the pass in stride on his way to the basketThe Buzzer-Beater: As the clock ticked down, LeVert used a Eurostep to evade Jaylen Wells and laid the ball off the glass and through the hoop at the buzzerLeVert finished with 25 points, Zaccharie Risacher added 27 with five 3s and Young dished out 15 dimes as the Hawks pulled within a half-game of No. 8 Orlando in the Play-InDaniels Does It Again: ‘The Great Barrier Thief’ has exploded into the NBA scene defensively, leading the league in steals per game (3.0, ahead of SGA in 2nd by 1.2) and already racking up the most steals in a season since Paul George had 170 in 2018-19

Pistons 134, Jazz 106: Cade Cunningham (29 pts, 9 ast, 4 stl) and Jalen Duren (16 pts, 12 reb, 4 blk) combined for 45 points to lead the Pistons to their 10th win in the last 11 games. Detroit moves within a half-game of both No. 4 Milwaukee and No. 5 Indy in the East. | Recap

2. ROUND UP: WARRIORS, KINGS RISE UP OUT WEST

Golden State was 25-26 and 10th in the West when they acquired Jimmy Butler on Feb. 6.

In 10 games since the trade, the Warriors have gone 8-2 to rise from the bottom of the Play-In field to No. 6 in the conference, leaping the LA Clippers with a win on Monday.

Warriors 119, Hornets 101: Golden State got double-doubles from Steph Curry (21 pts, 10 ast), Brandin Podziemski (19 pts, 11 reb) and Draymond Green (16 pts, 12 reb) along with a team-high 22 points from Buddy Hield to earn a wire-to-wire win. | Recap

The Warriors weren’t the only NorCal squad to make a move on Monday as the Kings completed a season sweep of the Mavs to win their fourth straight and climb to 8th in the West by passing idle Minnesota.

Kings 122, Mavericks 98: Reigning West Player of the Week Zach LaVine (22 pts, 4 3pm) led a balanced Kings offense – all five starters scored 13+ points – in a wire-to-wire road win. | Recap

Kyrie Irving scored seven points before leaving the game late in the 1st quarter with a knee injury, but not before hitting both of his free throws while being serenaded with MVP chants from the crowd

Heat 106, Wizards 90: Bam Adebayo (19 pts, 15 reb) became the Heat’s all-time leader in double-doubles with the 222nd of his career to lead Miami to its third win in the last four games. The Heat hold at No. 7 in the East, 1.0 games up on No. 8 Orlando and 1.5 up on No. 9 Atlanta. | Recap

Blazers 119, Sixers 102: Anfernee Simons (34 pts, 6 3pm) and Shaedon Sharpe (20 pts, 11 reb) combined for 54 points to lead Portland past Philly despite a big game from Andre Drummond (25 pts, 18 reb). | Recap

Tirico On The Call: Mike Tirico made a special appearance on the Philly NBC broadcast Monday, calling his first NBA game since 2016. He’ll do the same in Boston on Wednesday

3. TONIGHT ON TNT: STEPH AT THE GARDEN, CLIPPERS HOST SUNS

Stephen Curry has had some of his most famous moments inside ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena.’

On Feb. 27, 2013, Curry dropped the first of his 14 career 50+ point games. Curry splashed 11 triples and finished with 54 points. Ironically, that is Curry’s only loss in 12 games played at MSGOn Dec. 14, 2021, Curry became the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made in a win over the Knicks, breaking Ray Allen’s record with his 2,973th career trey

Curry enters his 13th game at MSG on a hot streak, ranked 3rd in the NBA in scoring over the past 10 games (29.5 ppg) as the Warriors have gone 8-2 to climb to 6th in the West.

Winning With Jimmy: Golden State is 8-1 with Jimmy Butler (16.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 5.4 apg as a Warrior) in the lineup after acquiring the six-time All-Star at the trade deadline.

Knicks Hot Too: New York enters tonight on a three-game win streak, coming off an OT win over Miami behind 31 points from Jalen Brunson.

Strength vs. Strength: New York’s 4th-ranked offense (118.7) goes up against Golden State’s 8th-ranked defense (111.4)Playoff Race Impact: The Knicks have some room at the No. 3 spot in the East (2.5 games back of No. 2 Boston and 5.5 games up on No. 4 Milwaukee). Meanwhile, the Warriors just took over the No. 6 seed in the West and have four teams hunting them for it

The Clippers – the team the Warriors just passed for No. 6 – find themselves in a battle with three other teams – the Kings, Timberwolves and Mavs – all chasing Golden State.

Just beyond those five teams from No. 6-10 separated by 1.5 games are the No. 11 Phoenix Suns, who are 3.5 games back of the Play-In field — with 20 games remaining after tonight to get back in the postseason picture.

4. LAKERS ON THE RISE AS LEBRON APPROACHES NEW MILESTONE

LeBron James is one point away from a one-of-a-kind milestone.

LeBron enters tonight’s game with the Pelicans (10:30 ET, League Pass) with 49,999 points scored between the regular season (41,837, 1st all-time) and Playoffs (8,162, 1st all-time) combined.

With his first point tonight, he will create the 50,000 total point club.

No other player in NBA history is within 5,000 points of 50KKevin Durant is the only other active player within 15,000 points of 50K

Consistency has been the key to LeBron’s rise up the all-time scoring leaderboard. Night in and night out, LeBron puts up his numbers.

10+ Point Games: 1,824 (1st) – LeBron has more games with 10+ points than anyone in NBA history has ever played20+ Point Games: 1,534 (1st) – Only 17 players have played 1,500+ games, with LeBron being the only active player to do so30+ Point Games: 690 (1st) – Michael Jordan (671), Wilt Chamberlain (557), Kobe Bryant (519) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (504) are the only other players with 500+ career 30+ point games40+ Point Games: 108 (5th) – LeBron trails only Wilt (284), Jordan (211), Kobe (135) and James Harden (115) in 40+ point games50+ Point Games: 15 (T-7th) – LeBron trails only Wilt (122), Jordan (39), Kobe (26), Harden (23), Elgin Baylor (18) & Dame Lillard (17)

LeBron’s path has been less about spectacular singular scoring performances like Wilt’s 100, Kobe’s 81, Dame’s 71 or Jordan’s 69, but rather a constant level of excellence.

In 1,834 games played, LeBron has scored less than 10 points only 10 times (.005%). He’s scored less than 20 only 300 times (16.4%)

The latest milestone moment for LeBron comes at a point where both he and his team are thriving. The Lakers enter tonight’s game on a six-game win streak that has pushed them to 2nd in the West.

LeBron Rolling: Since Feb. 1, LeBron is averaging 28.3 ppg on 54% shooting, including 42.4% from 3, with 10 rpg and 7.1 apgNot Just Offense: Since Jan. 15, the Lakers lead the league with an 18-4 record and 107.5 defensive rating. During that stretch, LeBron has a 105.9 DefRtg, 3rd best for players playing 30+ mpgLuka Finding His Way: Over his past five games, Luka Dončić leads the Lakers in points (26.4 ppg) and assists (7.6) and ranks second to LeBron in rebounds (9.2)

If the Lakers win tonight, and push their streak to seven straight victories, it will give LeBron 1,001 career regular-season wins – tying Tim Duncan for the third-most all-time and trailing only Kareem (1,074) and Robert Parish (1,014).

5. ON LEAGUE PASS: CAVS GO FOR 11TH STRAIGHT WIN

On their road to being the first team to reach 50 wins this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers have found all sorts of ways to earn victories.

Winning Big: The Cavs are tied with the Celtics and Thunder for the most wins by 20+ points (15), 25+ points (9) and 30+ points (5)Winning Close: The Cavs rank second in clutch wins (19) and have the highest win percentage in those games that are within five points in the final five minutes (.760)Winning From Behind: Cleveland’s last two wins featured comebacks after trailing by 22 (at Boston on Friday) and by 18 (late in the 3rd quarter vs. Portland on Sunday)

On Friday, it was Donovan Mitchell who fueled the Cleveland comeback with a 41-point performance – lifting his average to 35.5 ppg in four games vs. Boston this season.

On Sunday, with Mitchell out, it was De’Andre Hunter (32 pts, including a clutch 3 in OT) and 6th man Ty Jerome (25 pts) that led the way.

Tonight (8 ET, League Pass), the Cavs can become only the fourth team in NBA history to have three separate win streaks of 11+ games in the same season.

The Others: The 1999-00 Lakers, 2006-07 Mavs & 2017-18 Rockets68-Win Pace: The Cavs are on track to become the 7th team in NBA history to win 68 games in a season — five of first six 68+ win teams reached the NBA Finals and four won the title

No. 5 Seeds Collide: The 5th seeds in the East and West meet tonight when the Pacers host the Rockets (7 ET, League Pass).

Both teams are locked in tight races for the No. 4 seed in their respective conference – and home-court advantage in the First Round.

Indiana is tied with Milwaukee but the Bucks hold the tiebreakerHouston is one game back of Memphis

Four more games round out a six-game slate on League Pass: Raptors at Magic (7 ET), Bucks at Hawks (7:30 ET), Sixers at Timberwolves (8 ET) and Nets at Spurs (8:30 ET).