Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drops 33 as rolling Thunder rout Celtics for 15th straight win
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 points to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 105-92 home win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday (Monday, January 6, Manila time).
The Thunder extended their winning streak to a franchise-record 15. Oklahoma City’s winning streak is tied for the longest this season with Cleveland, which won 15 consecutive games to start the season.
Aaron Wiggins, the star of Oklahoma City’s fourth-quarter comeback against the Knicks on Friday, scored 15 points off the bench. Luguentz Dort had 14, Cason Wallace added 13 and Jalen Williams put up 10.
The Thunder tightened things up defensively after giving up 65 first-half points, holding the defending champions to just 27 points in the second half. Boston hadn’t scored fewer than 44 points in a half this season.
The Celtics were just 8 of 40 (20 percent) from the field in the second half.
Jayson Tatum had 26 points and 10 rebounds for Boston, whose three-game winning streak was snapped. Brown added 21 points — all in the first half. Brown was 0 for 7 from the floor after halftime. Kristaps Porzingis added 19 points and nine boards.
Oklahoma City improved to 11-0 against the Eastern Conference this season.
The Thunder trailed by as many as 13 in the game and 11 in the second half before they fought their way back. Gilgeous-Alexander, who also finished with 11 rebounds and six assists, had his hands all over a 9-0 Thunder run in the fourth quarter that turned the tide.
The Thunder took the lead on a pair of Gilgeous-Alexander free throws, before Dort’s steal and dunk put them up 89-85.
After a Boston miss, Gilgeous-Alexander drained a step-back 3-pointer over Jrue Holliday to stretch the lead to seven. Two possessions later, he blocked Tatum’s shot at the rim, then found Isaiah Hartenstein for an alley-oop dunk in traffic.
After the Thunder squandered several other chances to extend the lead, Dort hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put Oklahoma City up 100-88 with less than two minutes remaining.
The second came courtesy of Gilgeous-Alexander, who stole the ball from Jaylen Brown and then found Dort for the 3-pointer.
The Thunder have trailed by double figures in each of their last four games before coming back to win. – Rappler.com