When the Oklahoma City Thunder blew out the Boston Celtics by hanging 150 points on them without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, it was a notable achievement on several fronts. Not only did the Thunder upset the team with the best record in the league without their leading scorer, but OKC recorded a franchise record 150 points in defeating the league-leading Celtics by 33 points (150-117).
The Rare 20-20-20-20-20
The franchise record wasn’t the most-impressive record set that night. In dispatching the Celtics, the Thunder team achieved something only an NBA team has accomplished twice before.
When Josh Giddey led the team in scoring with 25 points, he was joined by Lu Dort’s 23 points and 21 points from Jalen Willians, Isaiah Joe, and Tre Mann each. That’s five players on the same NBA team scoring at least 20 points each in a single game. It’s worth an entire article because the 20-20-20-20-20 has only happened four times in the entirety of NBA history. Coincidentally, two of the times a 20 x 5 was accomplished was by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2019 and again in 2023… with five different players that included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Five OKC players scored 20+ tonight:
Josh Giddey
Lu Dort
Jalen Williams
Tre Mann
Isaiah JoeChris Paul, Dennis Schroder, Steven Adams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari were the last five teammates to do this… also for the @okcthunder in 2019! pic.twitter.com/jUrlZ7tZBH
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) January 4, 2023
In December 2019, the Thunder defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 137-129 in overtime. In that game, Chris Paul scored 30 points to lead the Thunder. He was joined by SGA’s 29 points, Dennis Schröder’s 25 points, Steven Adam’s 22 points and Danilo Gallinari scored 21 points. Those five players combined scored 127 of the Thunder’s 139 points. That 2019-20 Thunder team saw a consistent balanced offensive attack throughout the season. That balance allowed for those five players to hit the 20 point threshold in a single game for the firs time in NBA history.
| DATE | TEAM | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Player 4 | Player 5 | OPP | SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/14/1971 | LAL | Gail Goodrich (24) | Wilt Chamberlain (24) | Jerry West (23) | Happy Hairston (22) | Jim McMillian (20) | POR | 129-114 |
| 12/06/2019 | OKC | Chris Paul (30) | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (29) | Dennis Schröder (25) | Steven Adams (22) | Danilo Gallinari (21) | MIN | 139-127 |
| 01/03/2023 | OKC | Josh Giddey (25) | Lu Dort (23) | Jalen Willians (21) | Isaiah Joe (21) | Tre Mann (21) | BOS | 150-117 |
| 03/16/2023 | DAL | Christian Wood (28) | Dwight Powell (22) | Jaden Hardy (22) | Josh Green (21) | Reggie Bullock (20) | SAS | 137-128 |
| 12/20/2023 | BOS | Jaylen Brown (28) | Derrick White (28) | Kristaps Porziņģis (24) | Jrue Holiday (21) | Payton Pritchard (20) | SAC | 144-119 |
| 02/04/2024 | OKC | Josh Giddey (24) | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (23) | Lu Dort (22) | Chet Holmgren (22) | Aaron Wiggins (20) | TOR | 135-127 |
| 02/09/2024 | LAL | D'Angelo Russell (30) | Austin Reaves (27) | Rui Hachimura (21) | LeBron James (21) | Anthony Davis (20) | NOL | 139-122 |
| 02/25/2025 | PHX | Devin Booker (28) | Kevin Durant (26) | Bradley Beal (24) | Bol Bol (23) | Grayson Allen (21) | MEM | 148-151 |
A couple months later, the short-handed Dallas Mavericks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in double overtime without Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic. Without those two amazing scorers, the Mavs spread the offense around and five players ended up scoring 20 or more points. Christian Wood led the Mavs with 28 points while Dwight Powell was a perfect 8-8 from the field for 22 points. Jaden Hardy scored 22, Josh Green and Reggie Bullock contributed 21 and 20 points.
Then in the 2023-24 NBA season, the Celtics accomplished the rare 5×20 without their Jayson Tatum as the C’s blitzed the Sacramento Kings with five players hitting the 20 point mark (or more).
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The 20 x 5 is one of the rarest NBA Records
The NBA is no doubt seeing scoring at historic levels this season. The increased scoring and pace has played into OKC being able to run up the score to 150 with 5 players contributing at least 20 to that total.
Still let’s unpack how rare of a NBA record a 20-20-20-20-20 is. At minimum, an NBA team must put up 100 points. Those one hundred points must be equally divided by five players with no other player scoring a point. That’s the absolute minimum.
As impressive as Donovan Mitchell’s 71 point performance was, there’s been eight times in NBA history that a single player has scored at least 70 points in a game.
The 5 x 20 is even rarer than when ten players on the same team scoring in double figures in the same game — we’ll call that the 10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10-10. However the 20 x 5 is not as rare as the 4 x 25 — that’s when four NBA players on the same team scoring at least 25 points in a single game.
The 10 x 10 has happened at least seven times in the history of the league. Obviously the threshold is lower for a 10 x 10 and one can envision a game where a team is blowing out their opponent by halftime and the reserves get the bulk of the minutes in the second half. The 20-20-20-20-20? It’s only happened six times in NBA history and three of those times occurred when the Oklahoma City Thunder were playing.
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