In mid-December, Denver’s Nikola Jokic had a healthy lead on Gilgeous-Alexander in ESPN’s MVP straw poll, conducted several times over the course of each season by Tim Bontemps.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a career-best 54 points on 17-of-35 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists. He shot 3-of-10 from 3 and went 17-of-18 at the free-throw line.

Shai joined Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant as the only Thunder players to score at least 50 points in a single game.