'Masterpiece': SGA ties career high with 45 pts.

INDIANAPOLIS — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tied his career high with 45 points to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 120-114 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night.

Gilgeous-Alexander hit 15 of 22 shots and all 11 free throws in Oklahoma City’s ninth consecutive victory. He had a career-high 16 points in the fourth quarter.

Gilgeous-Alexander was coming off a 41-point night in a win against the Washington Wizards on Monday. He became the first Thunder player with consecutive 40-point games since Russell Westbrook had three straight in 2019. Paul George, Kevin Durant and Dale Ellis are the only others to do so in franchise history.

“Everybody seemed to make a big play for us tonight that we really needed on a night where we were playing a very hot opponent,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “With that said, Shai was outstanding tonight. That was a masterpiece. I mean, he was at his own pace the entire night. I thought he moved it out of the early helps and got his teammates activated, but great blend of passing and attacking, great blend of shooting and attacking. He just had total control of the wheel tonight.”

Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Isaiah Hartenstein had 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder.

Andrew Nembhard scored 23 points and Pascal Siakam added 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who had their five-game winning streak snapped. Bennedict Mathurin finished with 18 points and Myles Turner had 11 rebounds.

After Tyrese Haliburton scored to give the Pacers a 107-103 lead, the Thunder answered with an 8-0 run to go ahead 111-107 with 1:39 remaining.

The Pacers led by 15 in the first half before settling for a 61-53 halftime lead. They were ahead 84-83 after three quarters on Jarace Walker‘s 3-pointer with 13 seconds left in the period.

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.