Shai shines as Thunder downs Rockets for season's 50th win

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put up his fourth 50-point game of the season as Western Conference leader the Oklahoma City Thunder marched on with a 137-128 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday.

NBA leading scorer Gilgeous-Alexander had 51 points with seven assists, making all 10 of his free throws as the Thunder moved to 50-11 on the season.

He made a dominant start to the game, making 20 of the Thunder's 30 first-quarter points.

A contender for the league's Most Valuable Player award this year, Gilgeous-Alexander shot 18 of 30 from the field including 5-of-9 on three-point attempts.

Thunder didn't have it all its own way however with Houston leading by nine in the second quarter before Oklahoma City went in a point up at the break.

Thunder took control in the third quarter, breaking out to a 102-89 lead before the final quarter, when Houston battled back again to get within six.

But consecutive three-pointers from Luguentz Dort late in the fourth made sure of the 27th home win (against four losses) for the Thunder.

"It's about us just being who we are and we didn't have enough of it tonight, up to our standard, but we did enough to get the 'W'," said Gilgeous-Alexander.

"I'm just trying to be aggressive, trying to get my team energy, trying to make the right play. Whatever the ball and the game tells me to do, I do," the Canadian added.

Cam Whitmore top-scored for Houston with 27 points and 11 rebounds while Reed Sheppard put up 25 points for the 37-24 Rockets.

More traveling calls urged

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr wants NBA officials to call more violations for traveling.

Kerr received a technical foul in the third quarter of the Warriors'119-101 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night after becoming irate when what he viewed as an obvious travel wasn't called. Kerr even pointed to the crowd, where some fans were screaming for a traveling call.

"I don't understand why we are not teaching our officials to call travel in this league," Kerr said. "They do a great job and work their tails off and communicate well, but I see five or six travels a game that aren't called."

Kerr said his own team is just as guilty as the rest.

After watching film, the coach said he saw his own team travel four times in Saturday night's loss to Philadelphia. None of them were called.

"You know it's a problem when there are like a hundred fans in the stands and every coach on the sideline when I'm watching film and everyone is (signaling for a travel call)," Kerr said. "Everyone is seeing it, so we are clearly not teaching as a league our officials to look at the feet."

This isn't the first time that Kerr — a former NBA guard — has criticized officials for inconsistent enforcement of traveling violations. He said he's expressed his thoughts to the league and that things need to change "for the good of the game".

"The entire game is based on footwork," Kerr said. "We need to enforce traveling violations and we are not doing it and I don't understand why. ... These (officials) are awesome. They do a great job, and they have a million things to watch, but footwork is the entire basis of the game and we need to call traveling. It will be a much better game if we clean it up."

Spicy Curry

Stephen Curry returned to his hometown Charlotte and led the Warriors to the win over the Hornets. He had 21 points and 10 assists.

Miles Bridges led Charlotte with 35 points and nine rebounds but the Hornets fell to their seventh straight loss.

"We had some lows for sure," said Curry of the Warriors' performance. "We were convincing enough for stretches where we could get some stops but we can play better, for sure," he added.

The Dallas Mavericks lost star guard Kyrie Irving to a left knee sprain in the first quarter as they fell to a 122-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

The Mavericks, still reeling from the trade which saw them lose Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, have lost four of their last five games while the Kings have won four straight.

Irving suffered the injury driving to the basket and was carried off court — he is the fourth Mavs starter now sidelined by injury.

Agencies Via Xinhua