New York (AFP) – Cade Cunningham scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to spark the Detroit Pistons to their franchise record-tying 13th consecutive victory, a 122-117 triumph at Indiana on Monday. The Eastern Conference leaders improved to 15-2 and matched the longest win streaks in Pistons history, 13 in a row in the 2003-04 and 1989-90 seasons — both campaigns in which they won the NBA Finals.
“It’s amazing,” Cunningham said. “We play for the Detroit Pistons, a historic franchise. To be able to make history for a historic franchise like this is special.” Cunningham, who added six assists, saw his run of six consecutive 25-point and 10-assist games ended. But Caris LeVert added 19 points off the bench and Jalen Duren had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Detroit. Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin missed a potential tying three-pointer with 11 seconds remaining and LeVert added two free throws to seal the Pacers’ fate.
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At Toronto, Brandon Ingram scored a season-high 37 points while Scottie Barnes had 18 points and 11 rebounds as the host Raptors boosted their win streak to eight games by defeating Cleveland 110-99. Toronto, on the team’s longest win streak since the 2019-20 campaign, improved to 13-5, second in the East, while Cleveland fell to 12-7 as their three-game win streak ended.
“Brandon did a great job,” said Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic. “He was obviously hot. We did a good job of finding him. He did a great job of getting to his spots and then getting good looks. I thought Brendon also did a great job defensively. He was rebounding the ball well. He was in right spots, getting deflections. He’s going both ways on the floor and really helping us to get wins.”
– Knicks, Heat win –
At Brooklyn, New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns delivered 37 points and 12 rebounds while Jalen Brunson added 27 points to power the Knicks over the host Nets 113-100, despite 31 points by Brooklyn’s Noah Clowney. Tyler Herro scored 24 points and Kel’el Ware added 20 points and 18 rebounds to ignite Miami in a 106-102 home triumph over Dallas, which boosted the Heat to 12-6 with their fifth win in a row.
Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic had a triple-double with 17 points, 16 assists, and 10 rebounds to spark the Denver Nuggets to a 125-115 victory at Memphis. The Serbian center leads the NBA in assists and rebounds and ranks sixth in scoring. The Nuggets (13-4) had 29 points from Jamal Murray and 27 from Peyton Watson in capturing their 10th win in 12 games.
Portland, led by Jerami Grant’s 35 points, defeated host Milwaukee 115-103 while Zion Williamson had 29 points to lead eight double-figure scorers for New Orleans in a 143-130 victory over visiting Chicago. The Houston Rockets, with Kevin Durant absent for personal reasons, rose to 11-4 with a 114-92 victory at Phoenix. Amen Thompson had 28 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists to lead the Rockets, who snapped Phoenix’s three-game win streak.
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