Basketball – The Warriors collectively win

Undefeated, Golden State won in Oklahoma City a fourth straight NBA success on Tuesday. You have to go back to six years, when they had the best regular season in league history (73 wins, 9 losses) before falling in the final against Cleveland, to find such a debut for the Warriors. At the time, they had won 24 straight wins before conceding a first setback.

It will be very difficult for them to achieve such a feat, because Kevin Durant is now in Brooklyn and Klay Thompson (Achilles tendon) is preparing his return for Christmas, but what they collectively achieve is convincing. Against OKC (106-98), Stephen Curry (23 pts, 6 rebounds) showed the way, Andrew Wiggins (21 pts) and Damion Lee (20 pts) followed and Draymond Green (8 pts, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals) was helpful.

Golden State remains in the lead in the West, ahead of Utah, the other undefeated team in the conference, which followed with a third victory against Denver (122-110).

The turning point of the match came shortly before the break, when Rudy Gobert (23 pts, 16 rebounds), otherwise excellent, involuntarily hit Jokic’s right knee. Untenable until then (24 pts, 6 assists, 6 rebounds), the reigning MVP, contused, did not play the second period and the Jazz knew how to take advantage of it. “I don’t think it’s too serious,” then reassured Nuggets coach Michael Malone.

LeBron James on the bench (ankle), providing his teammates with tactical advice during the time-outs, the Lakers suffered, but had the last word at the Spurs, after extra time (125-121).

They owe their second consecutive victory to Anthony Davis (35 pts, 17 rebounds, 4 blocks), who scared his right knee, and to Russell Westbrook, author of his first big performance (33 pts, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) under the purple and gold jersey.

In New York, the Knicks offered the Sixers (112-99) for the first time since 2017, ending a series of fifteen losses. They made the difference in the second quarter, by inflicting a big gap (39-16) on their opponents.

If Kemba Walker was New York’s top scorer (19 pts), the performance was collective since five players scored at least ten points. Among them, Julius Randle (16 pts, 11 rebounds, 7 assists) and Evan Fournier (18 pts, 4 assists), who defended particularly well, helping to muzzle Joel Embiid (14 pts to 2/7, 5 stray balls).

Finally, for their first of the season at home, the Mavs defeated the Rockets (116-106), thanks in particular to 26 points from Luka Doncic (14 rebounds, 7 assists) who was quite clumsy (10/25).