LeBron scores 26 as Lakers roll past Thunder
OKLAHOMA CITY — LeBron James scored 26 points and the Los Angeles Lakers routed the Oklahoma City Thunder 128-99 on Wednesday night for their franchise-record seventh straight road victory to start the season.
“We just have a bunker mentality on the road — just us,” James said. “But obviously, it’s even more just us because of the restrictions, COVID, everything that’s going on. So we’ve come together even closer.”
Montrezl Harrell added 21 points, and Anthony Davis had 18 points and seven rebounds. The defending champion Lakers have won four straight to improve to an NBA-best 10-3. They surpassed the 1985-86 squad with the 7-0 road start.
NETS 116, KNICKS 109
NEW YORK — Kevin Durant scored 26 points as the solo superstar before soon centering a Big Three, leading Brooklyn, shorthanded after agreeing to a
trade for James Harden, to a victory over New York.
Durant had to do a little more than planned after the Nets shook up their roster earlier in the day with a four-team blockbuster highlighted by the acquisition of Harden, the three-time NBA scoring champion.
With point guard Kyrie Irving missing a fifth straight game for personal reasons, the Nets had only nine players.
BUCKS 110, PISTONS 101
DETROIT — Giannis Antetokounmpo had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and Milwaukee easily beat Detroit for the third time this month.
The Bucks built a commanding early lead with a barrage of 3-pointers. Brook Lopez connected three times from beyond the arc in the first quarter, when the Bucks were 7 of 11 from long distance. Detroit was just 4 of 20 overall in the period and trailed 27-13 after one.
MAVERICKS 104, HORNETS 93
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Luka Doncic had 34 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and a career-high four blocks, Kristaps Porzingis scored 16 points in his return from a knee injury and Dallas beat Charlotte.
MORE GAMES POSTPONED
Contact tracing issues involving the Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards forced the NBA to postpone three more games Wednesday, raising the leaguewide total from this week alone to eight.
Phoenix’s home game Wednesday against Atlanta was called off, as was the Suns’ home game with Golden State on Friday. Also called: Friday’s game where the Wizards would have gone to Detroit. The reason in all three cases was the same, that the Suns and Wizards wouldn’t have enough players cleared to participate.