OKLAHOMA CITY — Establishing his pivot foot, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander contemplated his options. Baylor Scheierman had the unfortunate fate of matching up with the reigning MVP. Once he decided he was going to pull up from the midrange, the OKC crowd held its breath.

Finally. NBA history as the ball swished through. Gilgeous-Alexander now owns the NBA record for longest 20-point streak at 127 consecutive games. The Oklahoma City Thunder accompanied the historic feat with a 104-102 win over the Boston Celtics.

“I’ve reflected on it because you get lost in the season. You take for granted what you’re watching that night. But number one, surgical is his craft. No one is more precise with their craft than he is. Number two, the whole life of the streak has not prevented us from having a ton of team success and hasn’t prevented his teammates from having success either,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “So an individual streak that’s about scoring has not come at the expense of the team or his teammates. And then, great father, great husband, great teammate, treats everybody in the building, from top to bottom, with dignity. So he’s obviously a great basketball player, but he’s the kinda person that you couldn’t be happier for when they accomplish something like this.”

Talk about Disney movie stuff. It’s been quite a couple of games for Gilgeous-Alexander. He hit a game-winner on one night and then took over the fourth quarter in another one. At this point, even his biggest haters have to tip their cap at what they’re seeing unfold.

To set the scene, the Thunder were in a rock fight with the Celtics from the jump — even without Jayson Tatum and Derrick White. Gilgeous-Alexander threw some early punches at Jaylen Brown in their heavyweight bout that was pushed as a battle for the MVP award.

The Thunder were in a 28-27 deficit after the first quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander was already halfway to his goal with 10 points. Some second-unit lineup struggles and slippery ball security helped the Celtics overcome a talent difference by playing their style of blue-collar defense.

As Payton Pritchard knocked down a buzzer- beating outside jumper, the Thunder ended a poor first half that saw everybody sans-Gilgeous-Alexander look out of sorts. They had 29 points in the second frame. That put them in a 59-56 deficit at halftime.

But the game itself became secondary. Instead, most folks watched the box score. Gilgeous-Alexander was at 17 points at the break. He needed three more to usurp NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain. The tension can be tasted in the air. The OKC crowd was ready for him to grab the record so they could refocus on the actual game.

It finally happened. Gilgeous-Alexander won the record with a signature mid-range jumper — the shot that has turned him from a decent prospect to an MVP winner. Now that the moment was behind them, the Thunder could return to beating a Celtics squad that had caught fire.

Both teams scored 24 points in the third quarter. The Thunder were in an 83-80 hole. After playing from behind for what felt like eternity, OKC finally got ahead. Alex Caruso stole the ball away from Pritchard before he found Jared McCain for the outside jumper. Like that, they had an 85-83 lead in the early stages of a nailbiter.

From that point on, both teams stayed within a possession of each other. Two of the league’s best defenses flexed their muscles. If you wanted to score a bucket, you had to really earn it. Ajay Mitchell made a big-time corner 3-pointer. Gilgeous-Alexander hit a stepback midrange jumper on Hugo Gonzalez.

The Thunder had a 98-94 lead with a little over three minutes to go. Finally, some breathing room. While having just a four-point lead, it felt twice as large. It didn’t take long for the Celtics to tie it up at 98 points apiece. Pritchard conducted a series of dribble moves ala Kyrie before he finally made a long jumper that rattled in.

Tied at 98 points with less than two minutes to go, Gilgeous-Alexander and Brown exchanged highlight-worthy buckets. First up was the reigning MVP. Switching off Brown, he found a soft spot in Boston’s defense as he pulled up at the key for the short-range jumper.

Brown immediately answered. He drew a shooting foul and made both free-throw attempts. Knotted up at 100 points apiece, the final 50 seconds saw Gilgeous-Alexander and Brown go band-for-band as they tried to one-up the other in the clutch-time situation.

Getting Scheierman on an island, Gilgeous-Alexander drove to the basket before he jammed the brakes. He hit on another pull-up jumper. 102-100 with 30 seconds to go. The Thunder needed one stop. Instead, Brown returned the favor on the other end. Stopped at the nail, he circled around before he swished in an extremely difficult turnaround jumper on Lu Dort.

Can’t say much about that. That’s just an MVP-esque bucket by Brown. Tied at 102 points apiece, the Thunder had the chance to hit the walk-off with 22 seconds left. Gilgeous-Alexander opted to trust his teammates. The ball eventually landed in Caruso’s hands.

With a chance to hit a game-winner, Caruso missed on his corner 3-pointer. Emerging as the late-game hero, Chet Holmgren’s one-handed rebound forced Boston to foul him on the second- chance look. No way. Brutal fashion to lose a game you were painfully close to stealing. And if you’re OKC, talk about dodging the worst-case scenario.

With 0.8 seconds left, Holmgren made both free throws. On the other end, Pritchard’s Hail Mary attempt was lined up well, but petered out at the end. Phew. What a way to end a historic day. The Thunder scored 24 points in the final frame to squeeze by for the win over the Celtics.

The Thunder elected to go with both free throws. They didn’t want to pull off any trickery with an intentional miss on the second attempt. Instead, they trusted their leaguebest defense to get one last stop with less than a second to go. The decision paid off. “Holmgren turned around and asked me, which is good alertness by him. It’s a situation we’ve covered. But with 0.8 and Queta out there, they’ve got a guy that can kinda clear space and get the rebound clean,” Daigneault said on Holmgren’s free throws. “The referees know they’re going to call timeouts, so it’s probably going to 0.7. Still time to catch and shoot. Now you bring losing the game and play on a two-point shot.”

The Thunder shot 48% from the field and went 11-of-44 (25%) from 3. They shot 13-of-17 on free throws. They had 22 assists on 40 baskets. Three Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 35 points, nine assists and six rebounds. Holmgren had 14 points and nine rebounds. Mitchell finished with 15 points and six assists.

Meanwhile, the Celtics shot 40% from the field and went 13-of-42 (31%) from 3. They shot 19-of-20 on free throws. They had 20 assists on 35 baskets. Four Celtics players scored double-digit points.

Brown stepped up to the challenge with 34 points and seven assists. Pritchard finished with 14 points and four assists. Scheierman and Gonzalaz each scored 11 points apiece.

NBA history continues to happen in OKC. Unreal to type that out. Gilgeous-Alexander continues to cement himself as an all-time great. Usurping Chamberlain is just the latest of an ever-growing list of accomplishments. The game itself was pretty ugly, but that’s besides the point. At this juncture of the season, it’s all about getting wins if you’re the Thunder.

Littered with Chamberlain signs across the OKC crowd, Gilgeous-Alexander’s 20-point streak was the main event. As he got closer, the excitement reached a fever pitch. Give credit to the Thunder for cutting through the noise to get an impressive win over the Celtics. This could be an NBA Finals preview.

“He’s the top of every scouting report every night. We’ve been a really good team over the stretch of this. So we’re getting a sharp opponent on most nights, which means he’s getting a sharp scheme on most nights,” Daigneault said. “It’s a testament to his consistency, his poise and his craft that he’s able to string together and beat a record that is held by one of the giants of the game in scoring.”

Next up for the Thunder is a home game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.

The game is set to start at 12 p.m. and can be viewed on ABC.

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