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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Isaiah Joe combined for 70 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder bounced back to winning ways with a 126-101 drubbing of the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
Oklahoma City were left licking their wounds after their much-anticipated tussle against the No.1 ranked Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday ended in a chastening defeat. But the Western Conference leaders showed no signs of a hangover with a blowout victory over the Knicks, in what had been billed as a potential NBA Finals preview.
The Knicks were effectively forced into damage limitation mode after a blistering start from Oklahoma City saw the visitors surge into a 31-17 lead after the first quarter. The Thunder kept their foot on the pedal in the second, pouring in 39 points to take a mammoth 70-43 halftime lead that the Knicks never looked like catching.
Gilgeous-Alexander spearheaded another dazzling offensive performance from the Thunder, finishing with 39 points from 15-of-21 shooting while Joe caught fire with eight three-pointers off the bench to deliver a 31-point display. Oklahoma City's win saw them stretch their lead to 31-6 at the top of the Western Conference standings, six games ahead of the second-placed Houston Rockets.
In other games Friday, there was an upset in Boston as the reigning champion Celtics stumbled to a 114-97 loss to the Sacramento Kings. DeMar DeRozan scored 24 points to lead the scoring but the plaudits went to center Domantas Sabonis, who finished with 23 points and a whopping 28 rebounds. Malik Monk added 22 points with Keegan Murray adding 19.
Boston's problems stemmed from a below-par offensive performance which saw them shoot at 40.5%, making only 11 of 41 three-point attempts. "When you're having inefficient offense, it puts pressure on your defense," Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. "And if you're only going to shoot 28% from three, it means you're going to have to do a lot of other things really, really, really well. We've got to do better."
