Warriors win despite Gilgeous-Alexander’s 52 points

Oklahoma Thunder, who are now the Western Conference’s top scorers, defeated the Golden State Warriors 116-109 with a 52-point haul from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Canada’s Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points in the first half as his side led 58-48 at the break but Golden State fought back to pull away for victory.

The home side were led by Andrew Wiggins’s 27 points, while Stephen Curry scored 17 of his 21 in the second half.

“We just stayed solid. Just all around effort”, said Curry.

“We need every win possible. In terms of the win column, we haven’t really developed anything. So this is a great test”.

Golden State improves their record to 24-23 while Thunder remain top of the Western Conference despite their defeat.

With a victory over the Miami Heat in one of the other games on Wednesday, the Cleveland Cavaliers stayed in the lead over the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics.

The Cavs, who were missing Darius Garland, Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro, were led by 34 points from Donovan Mitchell in a 126-106 win.

Kristaps Porzingis hit eight three-pointers for a score of 34 against the Chicago Bulls, which was a 122-100 victory for the Celtics.

Meanwhile, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has raised the possibility of switching from 12-minute to 10-minute quarters.

He cited the need to adhere to international regulations and an evolving television audience as one of the causes of the potential change in his appearance on The Dan Patrick Show.

Silver added that the league is not taking any active steps to implement it, and that it would require further investigation.

“I’m a fan of four 10-minute quarters. I’m not sure that many others are”, he said.

“It’s such a dramatic change to the game. That would need to be discussed more frequently, in my opinion.

Olympic and other international games are 40 minutes long, while US collegiate men’s games are played in two 20-minute periods. Throughout its history, the NBA has played 48-minute games.

Should the NBA make the change, it would likely make some single-game and single-season records impossible to break.

One of the things we’d like to see happen with time is developing a more uniform set of rules around the game because this game is so global, Silver said.