initially appeared on the New York Post<\/a> and was republished with permission<\/p>\nMilwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo. Picture: AP Photo\/Morry GashSource: AP<\/p>\n
The Indiana Pacers have toppled the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder 117-114, withstanding a 47-point performance from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to win an NBA Finals rematch.<\/p>\n
The Pacers, back in Oklahoma City for the first time since falling in game seven of last season\u2019s championship series, took a 39-28 first-quarter lead then fended off every Thunder charge.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in the fourth quarter as the Thunder, trailing by 12 with 4:44 remaining, twice cut the deficit to one.<\/p>\n
The reigning Most Valuable Player drained a pair of free-throws to pull the Thunder within 115-114 with 7.8 seconds left, but Jarace Walker responded with two free-throws to seal it for Indiana.<\/p>\n
Walker said the win \u201cmost definitely\u201d meant a bit more to the Pacers, who have sunk to worst record in the league (11-35) with Tyrese Haliburton sidelined this season with the torn Achilles tendon suffered in the game seven defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing out how we did last year, it was definitely circled on the calendar and it was a great team win,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n
Andrew Nembhard scored 27 points and handed out 11 assists for Indiana. Walker added 26 points and Pascal Siakam chipped in 21.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Picture: AP Photo\/Gerald LeongSource: AP<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said the Thunder\u2019s slow start was too much to overcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we played pretty well despite it not being a great shooting night,\u201d Daigneault said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played well enough to win for 36 minutes and we needed 48. Credit them, they played all 48 and they held us off when we tried to get back in it multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Detroit, Houston star Kevin Durant scored 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting to help the Rockets end the East-leading Pistons\u2019 four-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Tied at half-time, the Rockets out-scored the Pistons 34-20 in the third quarter to seize control, never trailing in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Alperen Sengun added 19 points for the Rockets, who were coming off an overtime loss at Philadelphia a day earlier.<\/p>\n
Amen Thompson added 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Houston \u2014 gaining statistical bragging rights over his twin brother Ausar, who scored 12 points with eight rebounds and three assists for Detroit.<\/p>\n
Jalen Duren scored 18 points to lead the Pistons with Cade Cunningham adding 12 points and eight assists in his return from a one-game injury absence.<\/p>\n
The Boston Celtics, fuelled by Jaylen Brown\u2019s triple-double of 27 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, edged the Nets 130-126 in double-overtime in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Payton Pritchard led Boston\u2019s scoring with 32 points and Michael Porter Jr scored 30 to pace the Nets.<\/p>\n
Knicks make franchise history with win | 03:27<\/p>\n
Brooklyn centre Nic Claxton\u2019s tip-in dunk tied it at 104-104 with 1.9 seconds left in regulation.<\/p>\n
After five lead changes in the first overtime Boston\u2019s Spanish rookie Hugo Gonzalez drained a three-pointer to tie it again and force the second extra session, in which the Celtics never trailed.<\/p>\n
After taking one of the most humiliating beatings in team history, Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez challenged his Nets to show more fight \u2014 and they did, albeit without victory.<\/p>\n
The Nets (12-31) have dropped a dozen of their last 14, the worst a 120-66 on Thursday (AEDT) to the Knicks. It was the second-largest margin of defeat in franchise history, and their lowest scoring output since a 90-65 loss to Miami on March 12, 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s about how you respond. Obviously, you don\u2019t like to feel embarrassed. It was a tough feeling,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cBut we were out there together and the best thing you can do is [Thursday] watch some film, talk to each other, get some work done this morning, do it again and go out there and respond as a group. \u2026 Once again, how you respond is how you should be judged.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phoenix Suns fell 110-103 to the Hawks in Atlanta, a defeat made more painful by the departure of star guard Devin Booker after he rolled his ankle late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Booker had scored 31 points before exiting with the Suns up 91-84. Onyeka Okngwu scored 25 points for Atlanta and Jalen Johnson added 23 points and 18 rebounds.<\/p>\n
\u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA trade deadline has potentially taken an unexpected twist. Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo exited Saturday\u2019s (AEDT) 102-100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1736,1784,676,2692,7,5730,45,75,2949,670,65814,909,1716,76131,5918,329,76126,187,296,2292,2660,133,420,76128,7994,76125,164,2559,292,3528,126,2990,643,248,938,1622,2740,76130,295,1739,102,121,6,11,1136,191,1729,1734,1740,310,475,179,62068,5738,472,8544,76129,26580,76127,7751,2098,4908,40238,76124,1730,1980],"class_list":["post-557346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-america","tag-andrew-nembhard","tag-atlanta","tag-ausar","tag-basketball","tag-basketball-game","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-brian-windhorst","tag-brooklyn","tag-bucks-star","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-calf-injury","tag-cbs-corporation","tag-championship-series","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-city-thunder-guard","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit","tag-devin-booker","tag-doc-rivers","tag-espn-inc","tag-florida","tag-four-game-winning-streak","tag-franchise-history","tag-gerald-leong","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-head-coach","tag-houston","tag-hugo-gonzalez","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-jalen-johnson","tag-jarace-walker","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-kevin-durant","tag-mark-daigneault","tag-massachusetts","tag-med-room","tag-miami","tag-michigan","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-post-company","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-one-game-injury-absence","tag-overtime-loss","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-press-conference","tag-soleus-strain","tag-state-of-georgia","tag-team-history","tag-team-win","tag-texas","tag-trade-deadline","tag-trade-rumours","tag-unexpected-twist","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-wisconsin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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