Thunder star breaks franchise record after questionable play

With 15 seconds left and his Oklahoma City Thunder trailing by ten points, Indiana's Andrew Nembhard rebounded Chet Holmgren's missed jump. SGA immediately fouled Nembhard to send him to the foul line to get himself from 28 points to 30.

After Nembhard sunk both foul shots, Gilgeous-Alexander cruised in for an uncontested layup to cut the deficit to 121-111 and set his franchise record. But it felt unseemly, akin to when Ricky Davis was one rebound short of a triple-double, so he intentionally missed a shot on his own basket.

Last season, Giannis Antetokounmpo tried to get a triple-double with his own intentional miss in the final seconds, but he at least had the decency to miss on the correct basket. The NBA ultimately adjusted the statistics and took away the ill-gained triple-double.

Ultimately, "most 30-point games in a season" isn't an important record, though Gilgeous-Alexander cared about getting it and surpassing Durant. But it's somewhat embarrassing for an All-Star, just like it was for Davis and Antetokounmpo.

One thing to watch is whether this play hurts Gilgeous-Alexander in the MVP race. He's already developing a James Harden-like reputation as a "foul merchant" for getting to the line so much. SGA is leading the NBA in free throws for the second straight season, with 7.8 of his 31.1 points per game coming from the foul line.

Granted, it's significantly less than last season, when he scored 9.8 points per game from free throws. He's not much different from many NBA superstars, though some of his exaggerations can be blatant.

It's no great blow to the integrity of the NBA regular season. But if Gilgeous-Alexander develops a reputation as a stat padder, it could do just enough damage to deny SGA an MVP Award — which was another milestone first achieved by Kevin Durant.