Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points in just three quarters as the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder thumped the New Orleans Pelicans 137-106 on Sunday to push their season-opening win streak to 7-0.<\/p>\n
The Thunder, who have matched the 7-0 start of their 2024-25 championship campaign, dominated the winless Pelicans despite three key absences.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
The Thunder connected on 56% of their shots, including 20-of-48 from three-point range, keeping their offense popping with 33 assists.<\/p>\n
Aaron Wiggins added 15 points while Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe added 13 each for Oklahoma City, who had eight players score in double figures.<\/p>\n
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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 an early season stretch that hasn’t been as easy as their record makes it look.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“And tonight we got good shots again — we have the last two games — and they fell.<\/p>\n
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“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.”<\/p>\n
The league’s other two remaining unbeaten teams, Chicago and San Antonio, were in action on Sunday.<\/p>\n
At 5-0, the Bulls are off to their strongest start since they opened 12-0 in 1996 and went on to capture the fifth of six titles won with Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n
They will try to extend the streak when they take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, where the hosts are trying to snap a three-game skid.<\/p>\n
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The Spurs are 5-0 to start a season for the first time in franchise history thanks to the dominant form of French star Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old phenomenon is averaging 30.2 points, 14.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 4.8 blocks per game since returning this season after treatment for a blood clot in his shoulder that brought his last season to a premature close in February.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama and the Spurs bid to extend their winning streak when they take on the Suns in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
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