Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Wednesday scored 37 points to propel the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 120-107 victory over the Phoenix Suns and a 2-0 lead in their NBA playoff series, while the Detroit Pistons topped the Orlando Magic to knot their series at 1-1.
NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers as defending champions the Thunder took a commanding lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series with another comprehensive victory.
“Shai made the right play all night,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “His floor game was outstanding. He seemed to spray it all over the place, had a great tempo and got us really good shots.”
Photo: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Chet Holmgren scored 11 of his 19 points in the third quarter, when he also produced three of his four blocked shots.
Jalen Williams scored 19, but the forward — limited to just 33 games in the regular season — exited in the third quarter, the team saying he apparently aggravated a hamstring injury.
The Thunder, trying to become the first repeat NBA champions since the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018, did not miss a beat.
They pushed their lead to as many as 26 points early in the fourth quarter and repelled a Suns surge that saw Phoenix cut the deficit to 10 with less than four minutes remaining.
“All we can do is play next man up, and we built that muscle throughout the season pretty well,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of the latest injury to Williams. “I’m super confident in this team to be able to go and get the job done no matter who’s out there.”
In Detroit, Michigan, the Pistons used dominant defense and a third-quarter scoring spree to beat the Magic 98-83.
Cade Cunningham scored 27 points and handed out 11 assists, while Tobias Harris added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Eastern Conference top seeds Detroit, who were stunned in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.
Clearly stung by the upset on their home floor, the Pistons set an early defensive tone with seven of their 11 blocks in the first quarter, but it was tied 46-46 at halftime.
The Pistons opened the third quarter on an 11-0 scoring run to gain some separation and by the time they polished off a 38-16 third period they were in total control.
“We knew that first half wasn’t to our standards of playing and we had to really figure out defensively how we were going to impact the game,” Harris said. “I thought we came out with just the type of energy and the type of effort that we needed on the defensive end. And I thought offensively we were able to find the gaps in the defense that we needed to make the right plays.”
The Pistons, who had six players score in double figures, snapped an 11-game home losing streak in the playoffs that dated back to May 2008.
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