LAKERS BLOW 26-POINT LEAD
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from 26 points down to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 123-115 on Wednesday night for their first win of the season.
The Thunder equaled their biggest comeback ever to get over the hump after solid showings against Philadelphia and Golden State in their previous two games.
Gilgeous-Alexander said Oklahoma City never considered giving up.
“It’s a 48-minute game,” he said. “Crazier things have happened. So we knew it was possible. I myself have come back from a deficit almost that big, so I knew it was possible. Just stay the course. Every game, every moment for the whole season.”
Darius Bazley added 20 points and rookie Josh Giddey had 18 points and 10 assists for the Thunder, who opened the season with four losses.
Gilgeous-Alexander said he expected the Thunder to break through eventually.
“I knew it would happen,” he said. “I knew we’d get better every game, or try to. The group of guys are hard-nosed guys, competitive guys. At the end of the day, we just want to win.”
The Lakers played without LeBron James, who sat out his second straight game with a sore right ankle.
Russell Westbrook, the former Thunder star, had yet another triple-double in
Oklahoma City. He had 20 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists for the 185th tripledouble of his career before being ejected in the final seconds. He was cheered loudly during pregame introductions.
Anthony Davis scored 30 points for the Lakers, who fell to 2-3.
“It’s a game that we’re definitely supposed to win,” Davis said. “We’re not supposed to lose at all. But we’ll learn from it and move forward.”
The Thunder led 118-115 with 9.7 seconds left when Carmelo Anthony intercepted an inbounds pass by Giddey. Anthony badly missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game, and the Thunder rebounded.
Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort was fouled with 4.7 seconds to play. His first free throw rolled in, and he made the second to put the Thunder up five.
Bazley intercepted the inbounds pass and dunked with 1.5 seconds left. Westbrook took exception to Bazley not running out the clock and was ejected for getting his second technical of the night.
Kings 110, Suns 107: Harrison Barnes hit a 3-pointer over Devin Booker at the buzzer to lift visiting Sacramento over Phoenix.
The Kings led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter but the Suns rallied late. Booker found Mikal
Bridges for an alley-oop dunk with 34 seconds remaining to tie the game at 107.
Phoenix got a defensive stop on the next possession but Booker’s difficult 18-foot jumper with 4.1 seconds left was off the mark.
Cavaliers 92, Clippers 79: Collin Sexton scored 26 points to lead visiting Cleveland past Los Angeles. Nicolas Batum and Reggie Jackson each had 16 points to lead the Clippers, who scored just 14 points in the first quarter and 15 in the fourth.
Heat 106, Nets 93: Bam Adebayo had 24 points and nine rebounds to lead visiting Miami over Brooklyn. Jimmy Butler added 17 points for Miami. P.J. Tucker finished with 15, and Tyler Herro and Dewayne Dedmon each contributed 14.
Kevin Durant finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds for the Nets.
Timber wolves 113, Bucks 108: D’Angelo Russell scored 29 points, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards each added 25 and visiting Minnesota held off short-handed Milwaukee.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 40 points and 16 rebounds for the Bucks. They were without point guard Jrue Holiday and center Brook Lopez.
Raptors 118, Pacers 100: Fred VanVleet had a seasonhigh 26 points and a careerhigh 10 rebounds, OG Anunoby scored a seasonhigh 25 points and Toronto won at home for the first time in 20 months, beating Indiana.
Indiana’s Malcolm Brogdon scored 18 points in 22 minutes but injured his left hamstring early in the third quarter and did not return.
Wizards 116, Celtics 107:
Montrezl Harrell scored 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting and had 11 rebounds in visiting Washington’s victory over Boston.
Jayson Tatum had 23 points for Boston, Dennis Schroder added 22, and Robert Williams III had 13 points and 11 rebounds. The Celtics have won back-toback road games.
Trail Blazers 116, Grizzlies 96: CJ McCollum scored 25 points, Damian Lillard added 20 and host Portland beat Memphis.
Anfernee Simons had 17 points off the bench for the Blazers, who held Ja Morant to a season-low 17 points.
Hawks 102, Pelicans 99:
Trae Young scored 31 points and Atlanta had 21 offensive rebounds to hold off host New Orleans. John Collins had 16 points and 12 rebounds to help the Hawks improve to 3-1. De’Andre Hunter scored 13 points, and Bogdan Bogdanovic added 12.
Hornets 120, Magic 111:
Miles Bridges scored 31 points, Gordon Hayward added 24 and visiting Charlotte beat Orlando for its fourth victory in five games.
Bridges, who scored 30 or more points for the third time in four games, hit a 3pointer with 1:02 remaining to put the game away.