Westbrook, Thunder breeze past shorthanded Bulls
The anticipated matchup between Russell Westbrook and Jimmy Butler fizzled, but Westbrook sizzled to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 109-94 win against the Chicago Bulls on Monday at the United Center.
Led by Westbrook’s 21 points, nine rebounds and 14 assists, the Thunder cruised to the victory while capitalizing on Butler’s illness, which prevented him from attending Chicago’s morning shoot-around.
Butler, who was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week earlier Monday, played just 28:48 and finished with one point. He went 0-for-6 from the field, 0-for-2 from the three-point line and was removed in the second half because of the illness.
Dwyane Wade had 22 points, Michael Carter-Williams added 15 and the Bulls got 11 points each from Jerian Grant and Cristiano Felicio.
It wasn’t nearly enough to stay with the Thunder, who had three players join Westbrook in double-figure scoring, including Steven Adams (22 points), Enes Kanter (20 points) and Victor Oladipo (13 points).
Pelicans 110, Knicks 96
Anthony Davis poured in 40 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked three shots to lead the New Orleans over New York at Madison Square Garden.
It was the fifth time this season Davis scored at least 40 points, second most to Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, and his 25th double-double. Davis was forced to leave the game late in the third quarter with a hip injury he sustained after a hard foul from Kyle O’Quinn.
The Knicks, losers of eight of their last nine games, were without guard Derrick Rose, whom team officials would only say was “not with the team.”
Rose was listed in the starting lineup, but was not in the locker room before the game. He was replaced by Brandon Jennings, who scored a team-high 20 points.
Rose, 28, has been struggling as of late for the Knicks and was benched for the full fourth quarters of consecutive games prior to Monday.
Davis scored 18 points in the third and hauled in eight rebounds before being forced to leave with 1:16 left in the quarter.
Davis went crashing into the first row of the baseline stands after he was contacted from behind by O’Quinn, who was assessed a flagrant-2 foul and ejected.
Timberwolves 101, Mavericks 92
Karl-Anthony Towns had 34 points and 11 rebounds as Minnesota topped Dallas.
Andrew Wiggins scored 13 points and Ricky Rubio added 13 points and a season-high 15 assists for Minnesota, which snapped a four-game losing streak in a battle of teams at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
Harrison Barnes scored 30 points for the Mavericks, who fell for the sixth time in eight games. Dirk Nowitzki added 26 points, hitting a season-high five three-pointers.