The reigning National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP), scoring title holder, Western Conference Finals MVP, NBA Finals MVP, and member of the championship-winning Oklahoma City Thunder, along with being named the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year (2025), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA), had a year most athletes can only dream of, and it appears that he is heading for another momentous years, except for a (not so) small detail.

After missing nine straight games, stretching for nearly all the month of February, the 27-year-old star point guard returned to the team last Friday and, despite sitting out the end of the fourth quarter and all of overtime, posted 36 points, three rebounds, and nine assists to help his team past Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, 127-121. The near month-long, injury-induced hiatus limited his participation but not his contribution, then on Sunday, he marched his troops into Dallas to take on the (depleted) Mavericks, where they not only landed another solid victory, 100-87, but SGA landed on another historical milestone.

In the win, SGA posted 30 points, four rebounds, and five assists while shooting 12-of-20 from the floor, and those points meant 59-straight road games with at least 20 points, which broke Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record. While the win was critical for the team, with the San Antonio Spurs making a spirited run for the top spot in the Western Conference, it is not everyday that Chamberlain is bettered in any capacity, which places a significant feather in SGA’s proverbial cap. However, on Tuesday, SGA sat out in the team’s 116-108 win on their visit to the Chicago Bulls, and this is where things get sticky for the JustBet favourite to repeat as league MVP.

The NBA implemented a “65-game rule” right before the start of the 2023/24 season, which basically allows players to miss a total of 17 games (18 if one reaches the NBA Cup Final) before they are officially eliminated from contending for end-of-season honours, which includes Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, All-NBA, All-Defensive teams, and, of course, Most Valuable Player. As is, SGA has already missed 12 games, twice as much as he missed last season, meaning he can miss only five more the rest of the season to remain eligible for back-to-back MVP honours.

Having played 52 of 64 games for the Thunder this season, SGA is churning out great numbers (31.8 points. 55.1 field goal percentage, 38.1 three-point percentage, and 89.2 free throw percentage), a little below last year’s output, but still enough to have him atop the odds to retain the MVP crown. His closest rival for the honour, and last season MVP runner-up, Jokic, has already missed 16 games this season, and will be ineligible if he sits out two more. If SGA manages to cover the 65-game minimum and go on to claim the MVP award, it will make him just the 15th player in league history to accomplish such a feat, joining the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Jokic as some of the only players to win consecutive MVP honours. That said, individual accolades mean very little if they don’t translate into championship trophies, and Oklahoma City is favoured by JustBet to have a repeat performance this year.

Winning consistently on the road is difficult in sports, and more so in the NBA, with the spirited crowd being in such proximity to the players. So far this season, Oklahoma City has made winning on the road a priority, with a league-best 24-8 record, including a 6-2 road record when SGA was unavailable, and the league’s best defensive rating in road games. This is an indication of their consistency as a team and success on the road usually translates into playoff success. In order to win four play-off series, a team needs to not only perform well on the road but also maintain its consistency with regularity, regardless of the circumstances. Both SGA and the Thunder squad have demonstrated their ability to do so this season, which speaks volumes about their chances at a championship repeat.

The Thunder welcomes the Golden State Warriors into Paycom Center tomorrow night, where they are 25-6 for the season, and the expectation is for them to go 26-6, even if SGA is unable to go. In total, 23 games are on tap this weekend and some will feature the most surprising teams to show up this season, considering their records over the past few years. The San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons have been the laughing stock of the NBA for the past few seasons, but now find themselves in the contentious play-off conversation, with the Spurs sitting in second place in the Western Conference, behind the Thunder, and the Pistons are atop the Eastern Conference, with less than 20 games left in the regular season.

A recent surge by the Charlotte Hornet has NBA-nation in a buzz, where they reeled off six-straight wins, with each by 16 points or more. Of course, most these were against the Washington Wizards, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Portland Trail Blazers, and Dallas Mavericks, who are all at the bottom of the league, but those were great wins, nonetheless, and the victory over the highly ranked Boston Celtics on Wednesday was icing on the cake. The race to the postseason is truly on, with very little room for mistakes, and even teams that were left for dead in the water are finding way to more than survive. I love this game!

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NBA 2025/26 Champion

Team Odds

Oklahoma City Thunder 2.41

Denver Nuggets 7.00

San Antonio Spurs 9.00

Boston Celtics 10.00

Cleveland Cavaliers 13.00

Detroit Pistons 16.00

New York Knicks 17.00

Houston Rockets 23.00

Minnesota Timberwolves 29.00

Los Angeles Lakers 70.00

*Only Top 10 odds shown (see website for full list)

Note: Odds are subject to change