BBNBA: De'Aaron Fox debuts, SGA's 20-point streak continues

De’Aaron Fox made his much-anticipated season debut for the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday and reminded everyone that Victor Wembanyama isn’t the only superstar on the team. This made only the fifth time Swipa and Wemby shared the court as teammates since the Spurs acquired Fox’s services via trade in February of last season. It is a deadly duo.

Fox missed the last several games for the Spurs at the end of the season due to finger surgery, and he has been out due to a hamstring injury to start this season. But Fox scored 24 points on Saturday against the Pelicans while Wemby dominated the interior with 18 points and 18 rebounds.

The Spurs were already 6-2 without Fox, but moved to 7-2 after the win. It might take a little time for Fox to get fully acclimated to his new-ish team, but he is going to be part of a dynasty-quality two-headed monster in Texas.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 20-point streak reaches a new milestone

Fox and the Spurs might be good, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder are great. SGA is now in third place all by himself in one of the most impressive streaks in modern sports. This week, SGA passed Oscar Robinson for consecutive games of scoring at least 20 points. Robinson, whose third-place mark of 79 straight games stood only behind two longer streaks by Wilt Chamberlain. Gilgeous-Alexander eclipsed that mark this week with games 80 and 81 in a row of scoring at least 20 points.

This makes him the longest streak holder in this category since 1964, when Wilt Chamberlain dominated the NBA. Shai just has a little way to go before catching Chamberlain, whose two separate streaks of 92 and 126 are the only ones ahead of the former Kentucky guard.

It is one of the most under-discussed impressive streaks in all of sports right now, and it isn’t like these are empty points. The Thunder are 9-1 through the first 10 games of the season, and if you are to believe SGA, Oklahoma City is better than they were last year when they won it all.

Other BBNBA Notes

• Devin Booker came up one assist shy of a triple-double on Saturday in the Suns’ back-to-back win over the LA Clippers. Book has never had a triple-double in the regular season, having only done it in the playoffs, but I’m sure he’ll take the win over anything else.
• Reed Sheppard scored a season-high 16 points and notched six assists against the Spurs on Friday. After a highly-watched slow start, Sheppard is quietly putting up solid numbers and is now shooting 45.2 percent from 3-point territory. Keep up the momentum, Reed!
• Immanuel Quickley also posted a season-high in points this week, putting up 22 in a loss to his former Kentucky teammate Tyrese Maxey (who had 31 on the night) and the 76ers. Quickley is having a solid year for the Raptors, averaging 14.4 points per game after missing much of last season with injury.