OKLAHOMA CITY –<\/p>\n
The Oklahoma City Thunder keep finding answers.<\/p>\n
Cason Wallace matched his career high with 27 points, and Isaiah Joe added 22 as Oklahoma City beat the Toronto Raptors 116-107 on Tuesday night, securing its fifth win in the last six games and improving to an NBA-best 21-7 on the road.<\/p>\n
The Eastern Conference-leading Pistons saw their five-game winning streak snapped Monday in a 114-103 home loss to the surging Spurs. San Antonio\u2019s defense bottled up All-Star guard Cade Cunningham, who finished with 16 points on just 5-of-26 shooting.<\/p>\n
\n Latest Thunder injury report<\/p>\n
Out:<\/p>\n
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander \u2014 abdominal strainIsaiah Hartenstein \u2014 right soleus injury managementAjay Mitchell \u2014 abdominal strain\/left ankle sprainJalen Williams \u2014 right hamstring strain<\/p>\n
Doubtful:<\/p>\n
Alex Caruso \u2014 left ankle sprainChet Holmgren \u2014 low back spasms<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander has now missed nine straight games.<\/p>\n
\n Wallace continues to rise<\/p>\n
With stars sidelined, Wallace has stepped into a larger role and delivered.<\/p>\n
The second-year guard followed up his recent 20-point, 10-assist performance against Cleveland with another standout night, adding six assists and eight rebounds versus Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have guys out, we have guys playing different roles,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cYou never want to have guys out, but this has been a great stretch for Cason\u2026 and he has risen to the occasion.\u201d Wallace credited increased aggression after Toronto tied the game late.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we were being more aggressive once they tied the game\u2026 it was time for us to flip that switch,\u201d Wallace said. Down the stretch, Wallace scored four straight points and set up Joe for a key three-pointer to help Oklahoma City regain control.<\/p>\n
\n Joe\u2019s shooting changes defenses<\/p>\n
Joe\u2019s hot shooting continues to bend opposing game plans.<\/p>\n
Wallace praised his teammate\u2019s shot-making:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hits some tough shots\u2026 as a defender, you\u2019re like, I hope this doesn\u2019t go in \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t touch the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Next up: Thunder vs. Pistons<\/p>\n
Now Oklahoma City heads to Detroit for one of the more intriguing interconference matchups of the week.<\/p>\n
Where and How to Watch<\/p>\n
Matchup: Thunder at PistonsDate: Wednesday, Feb. 25Time: 6:30 p.m. CSTLocation: Little Caesars Arena, DetroitTV: ESPN, FanDuel Sports Network<\/p>\n
The Eastern Conference-leading Pistons are coming off a loss to San Antonio and will look to avoid back-to-back defeats for the first time since December.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City, meanwhile, is 5-3 without Gilgeous-Alexander and riding a three-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
One thing is clear: even undermanned, OKC keeps stacking wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Thunder keep finding answers. Cason Wallace matched his career high with 27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-490529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}