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.
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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.
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.”
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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