BBNBA: Karl-Anthony Towns and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander win NBA Players of the Month for December

With Willie Cauley-Stein out of the league, it is safe to say that Karl-Anthony Towns and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are Big Blue Nation’s favorite NBA players with hyphenated names. Coincidently, they are two of the best players in the NBA, hyphenated name or not. The Association recognized this by naming Towns the Eastern Conference Player of the Month and Gilgeous-Alexander the Western Conference Player of the Month for December.

SGA averaged an NBA-best 33.3 points per game during the month Santa came to town, as well as 5.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1.2 blocks. But don’t call these empty stats. Gilgeous-Alexander put up these numbers while leading the Thunder to a 12-1 record. This is Gilgeous-Alexander’s second consecutive month of winning the award and the third time in his career.

SGA FOR MVP!

Meanwhile, Towns helped propel the Knicks to a 12-2 record in December while averaging 23.2 points, 14.6 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game. He also shot 39 percent from behind the arc.

The two Players of the Month faced off with huge win streaks on the line

KAT and SGA’s epic month culminated in a matchup between the Knicks and Thunder in one of the first games of the New Year. The Knicks were riding a nine-game win streak going into the game while the Thunder had won 12 in a row. It was only the fourth time in history that teams on winning streaks of nine games or more faced off.

The Thunder trailed midway through the 4th quarter but with the help of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his 33 points, OKC went on a 25-10 run, ultimately defeating the Knicks 117-107. In addition to incredible stats and a 10-point win, SGA also had the highlight of the night as he put Josh Hart in a blender and turned the setting up to pulverize.

That’s just mean, Shai. pic.twitter.com/Dn2FPBxLUL

— Adam Stratton (@AdamStrattonKSR) January 4, 2025

On the other side of the ball, Karl-Anthony Towns had more rebounds than the rest of his teammates combined. KAT ripped down 22 boards (the rest of the Knicks had 20) to go along with 17 points, but OKC ultimately snapped the Knicks’ win streak.

Still, the Knicks sit third in the Eastern Conference Standings and look to be a formidable force to make a playoff run.

The Thunder are now up to 14 straight wins and counting and seven games ahead of the second-place Houston Rockets in the West.

Other BBNBA Notes

New Year, new BBNBA format. KSR is going to try something new in 2025 when it comes to pro basketball Wildcats. Instead of delivering you a culmination of daily box scores from former Kentucky players in the NBA, we are going to provide one or two recaps per week. This will probably change over time, so bear with us as I attempt to carve out a template for the first one.

• Malik Monk had a season-high 31 points on Friday, in the Kings’ win over the Grizzlies. Monk has been starting as of late in place of the injured DeMar DeRozan, but the perpetual 6th Man of the Year award finalist has been very comfortable in a starting role.

• In the game following the aforementioned matchup with the Thunder, Karl-Anthony Towns dropped 44 points against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, however, it wasn’t enough to get the Knicks back in the win column.

• The Suns are broken. While toxic players like Jimmy Butler seek them as their preferred trade destination, they will need a lot more than a disgruntled wing or upgraded center to fix the mess that is going on in the Valley. Despite Devin Booker‘s best efforts, who nearly had a triple-double (20-9-8) while wearing Kentucky Book 1s on Saturday, the Pacers blew out Phoenix by 20.

• Another team floating in the despair of subpar mediocrity is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Julius Randle had 27 points in yet another loss Thursday, this time to the Celtics. Worse yet, Rob Dillingham can’t even crack the rotation. Anthony Edwards did praise Shai Gilgeous-Alexander unguardable, though, calling him unguardable. So there’s that.

• After missing 22 games with an elbow injury, Immanuel Quickley returned to action for the Toronto Raptors and made a big splash. He had a double-double in each of his first two games back, dropping 22 points and 15 assists on New Year’s Day against the Nets and putting up 11 and 11 against the Magic on Friday.