The Golden State Warriors rallied from a late fourth-quarter deficit, beating New Orleans 128-122 in overtime on Sunday to extend their NBA winning streak to 16 games.
Stephen Curry had 34 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Warriors, who became the ninth team in league history to launch a season 21-2.
Klay Thompson contributed 29 points and Draymond Green added 11 points and 13 rebounds for Golden State, who erased an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit.
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The Warriors opened overtime with a 9-1 scoring run while holding New Orleans without a field goal for more than two minutes.
Tyreke Evans notched 34 points, eight rebounds and five assists and Jrue Holiday added 30 points, nine assists and five steals for the Pelicans, who were without prolific forward Anthony Davis due to a chest contusion he suffered on Friday last week against Cleveland.
The Warriors, who survived 19 turnovers, were again without Australian big man Andrew Bogut and David Lee — Bogut nursing a knee injury and Lee with a troublesome hamstring.
Greene and Harrison Barnes both played with their noses packed after they each took hits to the face.
In Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook had 28 points, eight assists and eight rebounds, and Kevin Durant added 23 points and eight rebounds as the Thunder won their sixth straight game, beating the Phoenix Suns 112-88.
Westbrook recorded his eighth straight game of scoring at least 20 points, and getting five rebounds and five assists since his return from a broken hand.
By halftime, he had 24, five rebounds and six assists. He narrowly missed getting his ninth career triple-double.
With the win, Oklahoma City — who started the season 3-12 — moved within a half-game of eighth place in the Western Conference.
In Washington, the Wizards downed the Utah Jazz 93-84 after John Wall had 16 points, eight assists and six rebounds.
Wall also had five steals and three blocks, Bradley Beal scored 22 points and Paul Pierce added 15 for the Wizards, who nearly succumbed to a letdown game after their big win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday last week.
Meanwhile, in Miami, Mike Dunleavy scored 22 points as the Chicago Bulls overcame a sloppy start to beat the offensively inept Heat 93-75.
Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points to lead the San Antonio Spurs over the Denver Nuggets 99-91, while Kyle Lowry carried the Toronto Raptors past the New York Knicks 95-90 in overtime.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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