Despite beating the banged-up Golden State Warriors for the second time this season, the Oklahoma City Thunder know they need to be more consistent after Danilo Gallinari scored 19 points, Dennis Schroder added 18 in their 114-108 win on Saturday.
Oklahoma City led by 23 late in the second quarter before Golden State roared back to tie the score heading to the fourth. The Thunder then went up by 14 midway through the fourth and the Warriors mounted another rally before falling short.
“I mean: We showed that we can turn it on, but you know that’s not going to work most nights in the league,” said the Thunder’s Chris Paul, who had 16 points and nine assists.
Photo: AP
Steven Adams scored 13 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 12 to help the Thunder win for the third time in four games.
D’Angelo Russell scored 17 of his 32 points in the third quarter to lead Golden State, including a three-pointer at the buzzer to tie the score at 84-all.
Alec Burks had 23 points for the Warriors, while Glenn Robinson III finished with 18. Omari Spellman sprained his left ankle and did not return after halftime.
“We are a young team that is learning, but I’m not happy with where we are,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We should not just accept our fate. We shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves and say well we have all these injuries and you know we are playing two-way guys or whatever and going for the lottery and all this crap. We should win some games”
After Golden State took an 88-86 lead on Willie Cauley-Stein’s jumper early in the fourth, Paul scored four points during Oklahoma City’s 9-0 run to regain the lead for good. Hamidou Diallo’s jumper pushed the advantage to 106-92 with 5 minutes, 1 second remaining.
“We knew that we were not playing with the right intensity and we needed to bring it back,” Gallinari said. “We didn’t bring it in the third quarter. We did a good job in the first two quarters and so it was about the intensity of the game.”
The Warriors pulled to 112-108 with 17.7 seconds to go, but that was as close as they got.
In San Antonio, Texas, Jaylen Brown scored 30 points as the Boston Celtics routed the San Antonio Spurs 135-115 in a victory that was tempered by the loss of Gordon Hayward, who broke his left hand late in the first half.
The Boston forward broke his hand after colliding with San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge with just over a minute remaining in the first half. Hayward was sent for an X-ray that confirmed the diagnosis.
The Celtics said that he would miss at least a month and could undergo surgery.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Brandon Ingram had 25 points and nine rebounds as the New Orleans Pelicans overcame 26 turnovers to beat the Charlotte Hornets 115-110 and snap a three-game losing streak.
In Chicago, James Harden narrowly missed his first triple-double of the season, finishing with 42 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists as the Houston Rockets pulled away in the second half to beat the Chicago Bulls 117-94.
In Memphis, Tennessee, Luka Doncic fell just short of a triple-double with 24 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists to lead the Dallas Mavericks over the Memphis Grizzlies 138-122.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB