Thunder roll over Pelicans to remain NBA’s lone unbeaten team
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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (No. 2) shoots during the second quarter at Paycom Center.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LOS ANGELES – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder thumped the New Orleans Pelicans 137-106, emerging from Nov 2 as the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) only remaining unbeaten team after losses for the San Antonio Spurs and the Chicago Bulls.
The defending champions matched the 7-0 start of their 2024-25 campaign.
But the Spurs, who were off to a 5-0 start for the first time in history, fell 130-118 to the Suns in Phoenix, where the hosts limited San Antonio’s French star Victor Wembanyama to a dismal nine points.
The Knicks handed the Bulls their first loss of the season 128-116 in New York.
Oklahoma City dominated the winless Pelicans despite three key absences.
Guard Luguentz Dort was sidelined by illness, forward Chet Holmgren missed a third straight game with a lower-back injury and All-Star Jalen Williams has yet to make his season debut after off-season wrist surgery.
The Thunder connected on 56 per cent of their shots, including 20 of 48 from three-point range, keeping their offence popping with 33 assists.
Aaron Wiggins added 15 points while Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe contributed 13 each for Oklahoma City, who had eight players score in double figures.
While coach Mark Daigneault was pleased to see the shots falling, he said the dominant performance was a reward for the Thunder’s persistence in a stretch that has not been as easy as their record makes it look.
“I thought the team showed a great maturity because we weren’t making a ton of shots early in the season, but we just continued to improve the things that generate good shots,” he said.
“To me, it was more about the persistence that we’ve shown through a rough shooting stretch more so than how we played tonight in a vacuum.”
San Antonio were riding high in the first month of the season thanks to the dominance of Wembanyama.
The 21-year-old phenomenon went into the Nov 2 game averaging more than 30 points and almost 15 rebounds per game since returning this season after treatment for a blood clot that brought his last season to a premature close in February.
But he endured a frustrating night in the face of the suffocating Suns’ defence, going without a basket until nearly the final minute of the first half.
Wembanyama added nine rebounds, two assists, a steal, four blocked shots and six of the Spurs’ 14 turnovers and did not get to the free-throw line once.
“Just playing team defence,” Suns forward Ryan Dunn said of the defensive effort on Wembanyama. “He’s a one-of-a-kind player, (we) made it tough on him, gave him different looks.”
Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 26 points. But the Suns, led by 28 points and 13 assists from Devin Booker, took control with a 31-point first quarter and did not trail after the opening minutes.
San Antonio trailed by as many as 31 in the third quarter and were down 24 going into the fourth.
The Spurs showed signs of life with a 12-0 scoring run early in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 14 on a three-pointer by Wembanyama with 6min 24sec remaining, but the Suns pulled away again.
In New York, Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, O.G. Anunoby added 21 and Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in 20 points and 15 rebounds as the Knicks avenged a Oct 31 loss to the Bulls.
Australian guard Josh Giddey delivered a triple-double of 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists for Chicago, who had opened the season 5-0 for the first time since a 12-0 start in 1996 – when they went on to capture the fifth of six titles with Michael Jordan on board. AFP
