article initially appeared on The New York Post<\/a> and was republished with permission.<\/p>\nDoncic’s fresh slice of history | 03:00<\/p>\n
PISTONS ESCAPE NUGGETS RALLY\ufeff<\/p>\n
Cade Cunningham finished with 22 points as the Detroit Pistons held off a late rally from the depleted Denver Nuggets to hang on for a 109-107 road victory on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Detroit, who improved to 34-11 to extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference standings, appeared to be cruising towards a comfortable win after opening up an 18-point lead early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
But a Denver line-up missing four key starters, including Nikola Jokic, refused to roll over and gradually chipped away at the Detroit lead, getting to within one point of the Pistons at 107-106 with four seconds remaining in the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Denver star Jamal Murray could have forced overtime after being awarded three free throws with one second remaining and Detroit leading 109-106.<\/p>\n
However, Murray missed his second and third free throws and the Pistons escaped.<\/p>\n
Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray drives to the rim. Picture: AP Photo\/David ZalubowskiSource: AP<\/p>\n
THUNDER ROLL PELICANS<\/p>\n
In other games on Tuesday, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander extended his incredible 20-point scoring streak to 118 consecutive games as the Oklahoma City Thunder improved to 38-10 with a 104-95 defeat of the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n
Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 29 points, six rebounds and four assists as he edged closer to Wilt Chamberlain\u2019s mark of 126 straight 20-point performances, a record set between 1961 and 1963.<\/p>\n
Chet Holmgren added 20 points and Isaiah Joe bagged 17 off the bench to provide Gilgeous-Alexander with scoring support.<\/p>\n
Tempers flared after the final buzzer when a confrontation between the Thunder\u2019s Lu Dort and New Orleans\u2019 Jeremiah Fears triggered a melee involving multiple players from both teams.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said the post-game skirmish was the result of lax officiating.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood guys, good crew, but I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes,\u201d Daigneault said.<\/p>\n
Hostilities spill over in Thunder win | 00:54<\/p>\n
In Philadelphia, Joel Embiid and Paul George combined for 61 points as the 76ers blew past the Milwaukee Bucks 139-122.<\/p>\n
George put on a long-range shooting clinic, bagging nine three-pointers en route to 32 points, while Embiid added 29 and Tyrese Maxey 22. The Sixers improved to 25-21 while Milwaukee fell to 18-27 after their third straight loss.<\/p>\n
Embiid, who has struggled with injuries in recent seasons, meanwhile took encouragement from another solid outing which followed a 38-point against the New York Knicks on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single time I step on the floor I get emotional because the last few years have been extremely tough, what I\u2019ve been through,\u201d Embiid said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy, finally being consistent being on the floor \u2014 I don\u2019t take it for granted. It\u2019s a good feeling.\u201d Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, the New York Knicks rolled to their third consecutive win with a 103-87 defeat of the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks scoring at Madison Square Garden with 28 points as New York finally pulled away with a 31-point final quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an ugly game,\u201d Brunson said afterwards. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t pretty, but we were able to grind it out and find a way to win and I think that\u2019s really important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 with AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets wasted a career night by Michael Porter Jr. and a late lead with a minute to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[2095,5888,64,63,229993,19704,229995,3894,226970,12116,1662,7214,800,229998,7666,12090,229996,226969,16476,149502,3901,229994,7232,230004,13339,20516,121681,3904,155480,590,3879,1025,1666,12280,2041,2067,3371,5673,5548,31650,12274,5136,29169,7185,229999,163807,106424,5674,144827,229997,10144,85,230003,230001,230002,230000,52204,2614],"class_list":["post-442552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brian-lewis","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-career-night","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-city-thunder-guard","tag-comfortable-win","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-espn-inc","tag-fights-break","tag-final-minutes","tag-final-quarter","tag-fourth-quarter-run","tag-gerald-leong","tag-grayson-allen","tag-isaiah-joe","tag-jamal-murray","tag-long-range-shooting-clinic","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-lottery-race","tag-louisiana","tag-madison-square-garden-lp","tag-mark-daigneault","tag-michael-porter","tag-mortgage-matchup-center","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-post-company","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-paul-george","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-phoenix-suns-guard","tag-road-victory","tag-road-win","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-scoring-streak","tag-scoring-support","tag-single-time","tag-sports","tag-suns-dillon-brooks","tag-tempers-flare","tag-tensions-spill","tag-thunder-roll","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-united-states-of-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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