Thunder roll over Pelicans to remain NBA’s lone unbeaten team

LOS ANGELES: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder thumped New Orleans 137-106 and emerged from Sunday as the NBA’s only remaining unbeaten team after losses for San Antonio and Chicago.

The defending champion Thunder matched the 7-0 start of their 2024-25 campaign.

But the Spurs, who were off to a 5-0 start for the first time in franchise history, fell 130-118 to the Suns in Phoenix, where the hosts held San Antonio’s French star Victor Wembanyama to a dismal nine points.

The New York Knicks handed the Bulls their first defeat of the season 128-116 at Madison Square Garden.

Oklahoma City dominated the winless Pelicans despite three key absences.

Guard Luguentz Dort was sidelined by illness, forward Chet Holmgren missed a third straight game with a lower back injury and All-Star Jalen Williams has yet to make his season debut after off-season wrist surgery.

The Thunder connected on 56 percent of their shots, including 20-of-48 from three-point range, keeping their offense popping with 33 assists.

Aaron Wiggins added 15 points while Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe added 13 each for Oklahoma City, who had eight players score in double figures.

While coach Mark Daigneault was pleased to see the shots falling, he said the dominant performance was a reward for the Thunder’s persistence in an early season stretch that hasn’t been as easy as their record makes it look.

“I thought the team showed a great maturity because we weren’t making a ton of shots early in the season but we just continued to improve the things that generate good shots,” he said.

“To me, it was more about the persistence that we’ve shown through a rough shooting stretch more so than how we played tonight in a vacuum.”