LOS ANGELES – Jalen Duren scored 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds to lead the lowly Detroit Pistons to a 120-104 “big-time” National Basketball Association victory over Oklahoma City on Jan 28, snapping the Thunder’s five-game winning streak.
The Pistons posted just their sixth win of the season despite the absence of leading scorer Cade Cunningham, who was a late withdrawal with knee trouble.
It looked like more disappointment for Detroit – who matched a league record for futility with 28 straight defeats this season – when the Thunder jumped to a 10-point lead early in the first quarter.
Said Pistons coach Monty Williams: “I just think our guys care. We had every reason to make excuses – a back-to-back against the best team in the West – and our guys just competed.”
But the Pistons were up by nine at half-time and never trailed in the second period.
Duren’s career-high in rebounds included nine of the Pistons’ 15 offensive boards.
“It’s cool,” the centre said of his first career 20-20 game, but he was more pleased to put up a win after the Pistons lost four of their previous five games.
That included a double-digit loss to the woeful Washington Wizards on Jan 27 in Cunningham’s first game back from an eight-game injury absence.
“It was big-time,” Duren said of beating the Thunder. “Especially after yesterday – we didn’t come out nothing like we wanted to yesterday, we were really flat.
“Today the main focus was keeping that energy. We knew what type of team this is, they’ve been playing great this year.
“We knew we had to come out ready to play.”
The Thunder had 31 points from newly named All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a defeat that dropped them to 32-14 – tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves atop the Western Conference.
Next up for the Thunder is a clash with the Timberwolves on Jan 29 (Jan 30, Singapore time) for top spot in the West.
“That’s the best thing about the NBA schedule is it keeps turning,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.
“Tomorrow is a new opportunity, obviously a big challenge for us against a team that we just beat on the road. We’ve got to throw our best punch in that game.”
At Indianapolis, Canadian guard Bennedict Mathurin came off the bench to score 24 points and lead the Indiana Pacers over the Memphis Grizzlies 116-110.
Cameroonian forward Pascal Siakam and Jalen Smith each added 19 for the Pacers, who improved to 27-20.
In Atlanta, Saddiq Bey grabbed a rebound and jammed in the game-winning dunk with 1.1 seconds remaining to give the Hawks a 126-125 victory over the visiting Toronto Raptors.
Trae Young had game highs of 30 points and 12 assists for the Hawks, while Bey contributed 26 points and 13 rebounds and Bogdan Bogdanovic added 24 points for Atlanta.
Young’s jumper with 27 seconds remaining gave Atlanta a 124-123 lead but Scottie Barnes answered with a jumper to put the Raptors ahead 125-124 with 7.1 seconds remaining.
Young missed a final jumper with two seconds to play but Bey grabbed the ball and slammed in the decisive dunk.
Paolo Banchero scored 26 points to lead the Orlando Magic over visiting Phoenix 113-98, the Suns losing despite a 44-point performance from Devin Booker.
Kevin Durant was the only other Phoenix player in double figures as the Suns fell to 26-20, sixth in the West.
He said: “I wasn’t very smart with the ball. I lead by example by doing stuff like that, and that kind of messed the whole game up.
“I just think that sets a bad precedent for the team and everybody feeds off of that, and it just snowballs off that. Really that’s what lost the game.” AFP
