The Oklahoma City Thunder took a share of the Western Conference lead as the NBA’s third-leading scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 37 points to lead the host Thunder over Orlando 112-100.
The Thunder’s winning streak extended to five games and with a 27-11 record, the club tied the Minnesota Timberwolves for the top spot in the West.
Josh Giddey scored 12 points with eight rebounds and four assists in 27 minutes in Sunday’s game (all-time AEDT). This included Giddey scoring his 1000th field goal of his career.
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Two other Australians spoke on Sunday, with Dyson Daniels from New Orleans and Josh Green from Dallas.
Daniels’ Pelicans won 118-108 despite not having Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum or Trey Murphy in the second end of a back-to-back game.
That meant Daniels got the start, rounding out the scoring with 10 points, six rebounds and seven assists in 37 minutes to play a key role in the team’s victory – New Orleans’ seventh victory in its last nine matches to advance to the West. sixth seed.
Elsewhere for the Pels, rookie Jordan Hawkins scored a season-high 34 points, hitting 11 of 19 shots from the floor, including 6 of 12 from three-point range.
Kyrie Irving’s 33 points led the Mavericks, who were without Luka Doncic due to an ankle injury. Green scored nine points with six rebounds and four assists.
SOMEWHERE ELSE …
Jaylen Brown scored 32 points and Jayson Tatum added 27 as the Boston Celtics remained undefeated at home, beating Houston 145-113 in former Celtics coach Ime Udoka’s return to Boston.
The Celtics improved to an NBA record 30-9 overall and 19-0 at home, with the league’s only undefeated club at home extending its team-record home winning streak to start a season.
Brown, who scored 21 points in the third quarter when the Celtics pulled away to stay, made 11 of 15 shots from the floor, 4 of 6 from 3-point range, and added six rebounds, two assists, two steals. and two blocked shots.
“Be aggressive. A lot of times the defense gets you going,” Brown said of his third-half success.
“I understand running and when we play like that in transition we are hard to beat.”
Udoka guided the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals, where they lost to Golden State, but he was suspended just before the start of training camp for the 2022-23 season due to an inappropriate relationship with a team staff member.
Udoka was eventually dropped and replaced by former assistant Joe Mazzulla permanently last February.
“I’m happy to see Ime back coaching on the sidelines,” Brown said. “I’m happy to see a lot of the staff that we spent time with there in Houston. I wish these guys good luck.
When asked how he felt about his departure, Udoka replied: “The work is not done. The relationships that you build and the people that you impact, so that would be the most important thing.
Regarding his regrets, Udoka was also neutral.
“The biggest thing I would say overall is let some people down, of course,” Udoka said. “But we talked about it and I saw a lot of these people throughout the summer and I talk about it regularly and so we’re past that point.”
Jokic scores his 12th triple-double for Denver | 00:52
Mazzulla downplayed the impact of Udoka’s return to the Rockets, who hired him as head coach last April.
“The fact that Ime is back is great,” he said. “But I don’t think it really has anything to do with winning or losing.” Both were important for the Celtics after they were beaten 135-102 in Milwaukee on Friday.
“Last game we didn’t feel like we were at our best,” Brown said. “We wanted to go out and make sure we stayed undefeated on the field.”
In Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 33 points, Damian Lillard added 27 and Khris Middleton scored 24 with 10 assists to lead the Bucks past Golden State 129-118.
Jonathan Kuminga scored 28 off the bench to lead the Warriors, who rested star guard Stephen Curry.
Chicago’s Nikola Vucevic had 24 points and 16 rebounds while DeMar DeRozan added 20 points to lead the Bulls past host San Antonio 122-116.
Tre Jones scored 30 points to lead the Spurs, who were without French rookie Victor Wembanyama, who is playing restricted minutes due to an ankle injury.
In Atlanta, Kyle Kuzma scored 29 points and the Washington Wizards (7-31) ended a six-game losing streak with a 127-99 victory over the host Hawks.
Playing without LeBron James due to a left ankle injury, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the in-form Utah Jazz 132-125 to fall out of play-in.
With this, Los Angeles, since its triumph in the in-season tournament, has moved from the sixth seed to 11th place – a span in which it is ranked 21st in defensive rating, 23rd in offensive rating and 25th in rating net, according to StatMuse.
Lauri Markkanen and Colin Sexton combined for 56 points for the Jazz in the victory, while D’Angelo Russell was the leading scorer with 39 points to go with eight assists and Anthony Davis racked up a triple-double (15 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists). ) with four blocks.
Utah earned its fifth straight victory – including its eighth win in nine games and 11 in 13 – to improve to 21-20 on the season.
ALL RESULTS
ROCKETS 113 CELTICS 145
THE MAGICIANS 127 FALCONS 99
MAGIC 100 THUNDER 112
WARRIORS 118 $129
KNICKS 106 GRIZZLE 94
BULLS 122 SPURS 116
PELICANS 118 THE MAVERICKS 108
LAKES 125 JAZZ132
