From SGA rewriting the NBA record books to LeBron defying Father Time at 41, the 2025-26 NBA season has delivered the most electrifying highlight reel in recent memory. Here is your complete countdown of the top plays, moments, and performances that have left fans absolutely stunned.
Every NBA season has its moments — the impossible dunks, the buzzer-beaters, the crossovers that leave defenders grasping at air. But the 2025-26 NBA season has been operating on an entirely different level. Night after night, the league’s biggest stars have been producing highlights that do not just trend on social media for a few hours but genuinely stop the entire sports world in its tracks. NBA match insights →
Every night, the NBA releases a countdown of the top ten plays from that day’s slate of games. It is hard to find a more thoughtfully curated and concentrated source of highlight-worthy dunks, buzzer beaters, and individual slices of basketball greatness. This season, the competition for those coveted NBA Top 10 Plays of the Night 2026 spots has never been fiercer — because the players producing the plays have never been more talented.
From a 41-year-old man throwing down one-handed alley-oops to a Canadian superstar erasing a 63-year-old record set by one of the game’s all-time legends, the 2025-26 season has been a nightly masterpiece. Here are the Top 10 plays and moments that have defined this unforgettable NBA season.
Play #10: De’Anthony Melton Cracks the Dunk Score Top 10 — March 16
De’Anthony Melton cracked the Dunk Score Top 10 as part of a night of Monday magic that also featured LeBron finding the fountain of youth once again. Melton’s thunderous one-handed slam in transition served as a reminder of something easy to forget in a season dominated by superstars: role players are producing highlight-reel moments every single night too. Sports news & highlights →
The Dunk Score metric, which the NBA uses to objectively rank the difficulty and athleticism of dunks, gave Melton’s effort a rare high score — placing him among the likes of SGA and LeBron in the Top 10 for that Monday evening. For a player who never gets mentioned in the same breath as the game’s elite, it was a moment of pure, joyful basketball brilliance.
Play #9: Donovan Mitchell’s Overhead Dribble — March 9
Among the highlights from Monday’s five-game slate on March 9, Donovan Mitchell’s overhead dribble was one of the most talked-about plays of the night. Mitchell — one of the most creative shot creators in the league and a legitimate MVP candidate this season — used the move to freeze a defender in the mid-range before exploding past him for a tough two.
It was the kind of play that only a handful of players on the planet can execute at game speed, under pressure, in a meaningful regular season context. Mitchell’s Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the East’s most dangerous teams all season, and moments like this remind you why. Donovan Mitchell currently sits sixth in the NBA’s MVP Ladder rankings, averaging statistics that make him one of the most complete two-way players in the league this season.
Play #8: Wembanyama’s All-Star Opening Statement Dunk
If you want to understand what Victor Wembanyama means to the future of basketball, look no further than the opening moments of the 2026 NBA All-Star Game. The first bucket of the All-Star Game was a Victor Wembanyama dunk over Anthony Edwards. Next trip down was a Wemby 3. He was bringing it from the very start.
Wembanyama tipped the opening ball to Jamal Murray, immediately posted up Cade Cunningham, and threw down a dunk so thunderous it changed the entire evening’s tone. As Anthony Edwards told the broadcast afterwards: “I ain’t gonna lie. Wemby set the tone. He came out playing hard, so it’s hard not to match that.” World Baseball Classic 2026 →
The French phenom — arguably the most gifted 7-foot-5 player the game has ever seen — turned what had been in recent years a defense-optional exhibition into a legitimate competition simply by deciding to compete. Wembanyama made four of his first five shots — half of them dunks — and scored 11 of his team’s first 27 points. The All-Star dunk may have come in an exhibition setting, but the sheer power and skill of it belongs on any Top 10 list of the season.
Play #7: SGA’s Walk-Off Game-Winner to Tie Wilt — March 9
This was not just a great play. This was a great play that happened to occur at one of the most dramatic moments in NBA history. The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets were locked in a battle in the fourth quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander hit a 3-pointer from the top of the floor with just 13.6 seconds left, putting the Thunder up by four. But Nikola Jokić answered with a 3-pointer of his own, and Jamal Murray sank a single free throw after he drew a foul from Jaylin Williams in the process of Jokić’s bucket to complete a rare two-man, four-point play. Just like that, the game was tied.
What did SGA do in response? He calmly worked past his defender and drained a step-back game-winner to seal the win. Monday delivered an all-time thriller between OKC and Denver, with SGA and Nikola Jokić trading haymakers, capped by two titanic 3s from Shai in the final 14 seconds — the latter a walk-off winner with 2.7 seconds left, tying Wilt’s 20-point game streak at 126, and calling game on the same night. The Ice Man, completely unbothered. After the game, SGA simply said: “I have the answers to the test. But I gotta see the questions first.”
Play #6: Luka Dončić’s 51-Point Career Night for the Lakers — March 12
On the same night SGA was breaking records against the Celtics, Luka Dončić decided he would not be left out of the highlight package. Luka Dončić netted a Lakers career-high 51 points — going 17-for-31 from the field, 9-for-14 from three, and 8-for-9 from the free throw line — adding 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and one block to lead Los Angeles to a 142-130 win over Chicago.
Dončić has been averaging 32.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 8.5 assists this season — numbers that have him squarely in the MVP conversation and cementing this as arguably his finest season as a professional. The 51-point eruption was a perfect encapsulation of what Luka does — the deep threes, the unstoppable mid-range pull-ups, the vision to find teammates when doubled, and the sheer will to take over a game when his team needs him. Nine of those 14 three-point attempts went in. The man was simply on fire.
Play #5: Cade Cunningham’s 15-Assist, Zero-Turnover Masterpiece
Cade Cunningham has been the story of the Eastern Conference this season, leading the Detroit Pistons — one of the great surprise teams of 2025-26 — to the top of the East standings. But it was one particular statistical line that earned him a permanent place in the Top 10 conversation this season.
Gilgeous-Alexander became the last player to record a game with 35+ points, 15+ assists, and zero turnovers before Gilgeous-Alexander accomplished the feat — and Cunningham was the previous holder of that distinction. Cunningham’s playmaking ability has been on another level this season, consistently challenging for the assists title with more examples of setting up teammates at an elite rate game after game. His no-look passes, his court vision threading needles through traffic — these are plays that do not always make the highlight reel but belong there every time they happen.
Play #4: Bam Adebayo’s 83-Point Game — The 2nd Highest Score in NBA History
This was not just a Top 10 play. This was a Top 10 moment in the history of professional basketball. There have been more than 68,000 games in NBA history. Before this season, we had only seen two games in which a player scored 80 or more points. That is roughly a 0.003% rarity. Then Bam Adebayo scored 83 points, captivating not just basketball but the entire sports world — placing his name between two legends: Wilt Chamberlain (100) and Kobe Bryant (81) — for the second-highest scoring performance of all time. Eighty. Three.
The Miami Heat big man — known for his versatility, his defence, and his passing ability — produced a scoring performance for the ages that nobody in the basketball world saw coming. The highlights from that game — the mid-range pull-ups, the drives through contact, the impossible fadeaways — filled every Top 10 list for a week. It is the kind of performance that will be discussed for decades.
Play #3: SGA Breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s 63-Year-Old Record — March 12
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points to set the NBA record with his 127th consecutive 20-plus point game, and helped deliver a clutch Thunder win with 14 points in the final frame, outdueling Jaylen Brown — 34 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists — and Boston for a seventh straight win.
The record-breaking moment itself — a contested jumper from the top of the key — was the play of the night, of the week, and arguably of the entire season. Few were probably aware of the longest streak of scoring at least 20 points in league history until recently, thanks to Gilgeous-Alexander, whose metronome-like scoring proficiency and consistency for 127 consecutive games made that a relevant number. Wikipedia
On November 1, 2024, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points in a Thunder win in Portland. It was not an especially notable performance at the time. Now, 16 months later, that game carries great historical importance as the beginning of a 127-game odyssey for a player who has since won the regular-season MVP award, been named Finals MVP, and has now broken a 63-year-old record.
In the 496 days of Shai’s 20-plus point streak, he has earned an NBA championship, the Kia MVP and Finals MVP awards, a scoring title, two All-Star selections, and First Team All-NBA honours. After the game, SGA stayed completely grounded: “All the records and the accomplishments are great, but they don’t matter if you don’t win. And that’s all that was on my mind.”
The streak has since extended to 128 games after SGA scored 20 points and 10 assists in a 116-103 Thunder win over the Minnesota Timberwolves — barely keeping it alive by hitting a stepback and free throw in the game’s final two minutes with the crowd chanting MVP. The Thunder are now a league-best 53-15 on the season.
Play #2: LeBron’s One-Handed Alley-Oop Dunk at 41 — March 18
There are dunks. There are great dunks. And then there is a 41-year-old man throwing himself at a basketball and hammering it through the rim with one hand on a running alley-oop, making defenders look absolutely helpless.
LeBron James caught a lob that looked like it was going to be a turnover, rose off one foot, extended his arm, and threw down a one-handed alley-oop dunk. Then, a loose ball wound up in the hands of LaRavia as James ran the floor alongside him. LaRavia shoveled to LeBron as he angled to the basket and took off, legitimately from the dotted line, for another thunder slam over an absolutely helpless Reed Sheppard.
James threw down three dunks in the first half of the game alone. NBA analyst Law Murray of The Athletic amplified the moment further by dropping a stunning stat: this season, James has made more dunks in 48 games — 72 — than he did in 70 games all of last season.
Skip Bayless wrote: “You see LeBron dunk like this IN YEAR 23 and you wonder why he never participated in a single Dunk Contest.” The famous NBA highlights page LakeShowYo declared: “LEBRON JAMES HAS OFFICIALLY BEATEN FATHER TIME!!!!” James is in his 23rd NBA season — a record for the most seasons played by any player in league history — and he is still producing plays that leave the basketball world gasping.
Play #1: SGA’s Double Dagger — Two Historic 3-Pointers in 14 Seconds
If one single sequence of plays defines the 2025-26 NBA season, it is this one. Monday delivered an all-time thriller between OKC and Denver, with SGA and Nikola Jokić trading haymakers throughout the entire fourth quarter, capped by two titanic 3-pointers from Shai in the final 14 seconds.
First, with the game tied and the Thunder needing a bucket, SGA pulled up from deep and drained a three to put OKC ahead. Then Jokić and Murray somehow answered with a remarkable four-point play to tie it back up. And then — impossibly, unforgettably — Gilgeous-Alexander expertly worked past Spencer Jones on the wing and drained a step-back game-winner with 2.7 seconds remaining to seal the win and tie Wilt’s 20-point game streak of 126 on the exact same night.
Two enormous 3-pointers. Fourteen seconds. A tied record. A playoff-atmosphere regular season game decided by pure, ice-cold brilliance. There has not been a more complete single-player performance in a single crunch-time stretch this entire season. This is the play of the year.
The Bigger Picture: A Season for the Ages
Dunks made up more than 36 percent of all highlights featured in the NBA Top 10. In an era defined by shots taken furthest from the basket, it is the ones closest to the rim that are celebrated the most. But the 2025-26 season has shown that the full spectrum of basketball brilliance — from SGA’s ice-cold jumpers to LeBron’s one-handed jams, from Wemby’s rim-rattling slams to Bam’s historic scoring eruption — can all coexist in the same breathtaking highlight package.
Gilgeous-Alexander is on pace to average 30-plus points per game for the fourth consecutive season. The only other players in NBA history to accomplish this feat are Chamberlain, Jordan, Robertson, and Adrian Dantley. And remarkably, the only players to average 30-plus points for four straight years and win a title during that span are Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Jordan.
The 2025-26 NBA season still has weeks left to run before the playoffs begin — and if the regular season has been this extraordinary, the postseason promises to be absolutely unforgettable.
