Shai sparks Thunder in Knicks rout, Kings stun Celtics

NEW YORK, United States — 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 (Saturday, Manila time). 

Oklahoma City were left licking their wounds after their much-anticipated tussle against the No.1 ranked Cleveland Cavaliers a couple of days ago 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.

- Celtics jolted -

In other games, 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."

In Orlando, Giannis Antetokounmpo spoiled Paolo Banchero's return from injury after a 34-game absence with a