But the lowly Utah Jazz pushed Gilgeous-Alexander further on Wednesday. With both of Oklahoma City's centers sidelined due to injury and the bulk of the roster struggling to make

Has Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander already locked up the NBA’s MVP award? After turning in a career-high 54-point game in OKC’s win over the

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a career-high 54 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Utah Jazz 123-114 on Wednesday night.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has sat at the very top of the NBA MVP rankings over the last several weeks. This battle between him, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo has been close, but now there is a wide gap between Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest of the field.

Gilgeous-Alexander took a break to start the final quarter, and the Thunder led 102-99 when he checked back in. He hit a 3-pointer that gave OKC a 115-106 lead and secured his career night. He then scored his 50th point on a pull-up jumper over Lauri Markkanen with 1:28 to go that gave the Thunder a 119-110 lead.

Former NBA player Kendrick Perkins is a fan of OKC Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. On Thursday's episode of "NBA Today," Perk spoke highly of Gilgeous-Alexander and predicted he could be the next face of the league. His comments came after the two-time All-Star led the Thunder to a 123-114 victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dismissed concerns about his free-throw statistics, emphasizing that his sole focus was on ensuring the Oklahoma City Thunder came out on top.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the first Oklahoma City Thunder player to post a half-century of points since Russell Westbrook had 50 against the Denver Nuggets in 2017

This stretch of January around Martin Luther King Jr. Day is usually peak evaluation time in the NBA front-office world. It’s one of the milestone points where teams will have full-staff pow-wows and talk things out,

NBA.com released their latest Kia NBA MVP ladder and the rankings continue to be unfavorable towards Jokic. Jan. 24's edition of the regular installment featured Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander retaining his spot at the top of the list.

The players announced to start for the Western Conference are Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.