Photo of Lukhanyo Gqokoma

Thunder roll, Pistons extend streak in NBA showdowns

11 months By Lukhanyo Gqokoma

The Oklahoma City Thunder breezed past the New Orleans Pelicans to maintain their lead in the NBA Western Conference on Monday as the Detroit Pistons rolled to a 10th straight win to extend their advantage at the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

The defending NBA champion Thunder improved to 14-1 for the season with a 126-109 victory on the road in New Orleans thanks to 26 points from Chet Holmgren while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander chipped in with 23.

The game was effectively sealed in the opening quarter, as Oklahoma City poured in a franchise-record 49 points to take the game away from New Orleans.

Once again, Oklahoma City’s balanced offense proved decisive, with six players finishing in double digits in a wire-to-wire victory.

Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander has now logged 87 consecutive games in which he has scored 20 points or more.

Only NBA great Wilt Chamberlain, who leads the all-time rankings with 20-point game scoring streaks of 92 and 126 games, has achieved more.

Jeremiah Fears led the Pelicans scorers with 24 points as New Orleans slumped to their 12th defeat of the season.

Oklahoma City lead the West from second-placed Denver, who were downed 130-127 by the Chicago Bulls on Monday.

Nikola Jokic scored a 36-point triple double for the Nuggets, but the Bulls held off a fourth-quarter rally to snatch victory.

In Detroit, the pace-setting Pistons extended their winning streak to 10 games with a confident 127-112 defeat of the struggling Pacers.

Indiana, beaten by Oklahoma City in last season’s NBA Finals, have endured a nightmare start to the new campaign and are now 1-13 and rooted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers never looked like shaking off their early season torpor on Monday despite facing a Detroit team missing both Cade Cunningham and Tobias Harris.

Jalen Duren did the damage for Detroit with 31 points while Daniss Jenkins scored 26, with five Detroit players making double figures.

“We’ve gotta be better, really, in all areas,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

In Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell’s 37-point salvo helped the Cavaliers to a 118-106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bucks jumped out to an early 14-point lead in the first quarter but were gradually reeled in by the Cavs.

Defeat for Milwaukee was compounded by an injury to star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who left the game in the second quarter with a groin issue.

“We won’t know anything until tomorrow, but it didn’t look great, I can tell you that,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of Antetokounmpo’s injury.

“We’ll know more tomorrow.”

– AFP

Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

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