Thunder rumbles past Jokic's Nuggets to open the NBA campaign

The Oklahoma City Thunder, powered by big games from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren, opened their NBA season with a dominant 102-87 victory over Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets on Thursday in Denver.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished second to Jokic in most valuable player voting last season, scored 28 points and Holmgren added 25 points, a career-high 14 rebounds, four blocked shots and two steals for the Thunder, who led with as many as 20 Points.

Oklahoma City withstood a triple-double from Jokic, who won his third MVP trophy in four years last season. The Serbian star scored 16 points with 12 rebounds and 13 assists.

But the Nuggets hit just 35.4 percent of their field shots and made just 15 of 54 shots in the second half as the Thunder raged.

OKC and Denver finished last season with an even record of 57-25. The Thunder secured first place in the Western Conference with a tiebreaker, but lost in the Conference semifinals to Dallas.

Holmgren impressed on both ends of the court, blocking a shot from Jokic in the third quarter and sprinting for a dunk.

“I just try to go out there and make plays and help make winning plays,” Holmgren said. “And we put enough of them together tonight to get a win.”

– Thompson shines for Mavs –

Four-time NBA champion Klay Thompson scored 22 points in his Dallas debut, giving the defending Western Conference champion Mavericks a 120-109 win over the San Antonio Spurs.

Slovenian star Luka Doncic scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Mavs, who fell to the Boston Celtics in last season's NBA Finals and signed Thompson as a free agent in the offseason in hopes of advancing further this season.

Thompson, who won four titles in 13 seasons with the Golden State Warriors, was excited about his first trip to the Mavs.

“You couldn’t ask for a better start,” Thompson told TNT. “Just sharing the flow with (Kyrie Irving), Luka and the rest of the guys – something really special after a hard month of really good work.”

“But it’s just a small step to where we want to go,” Thompson added.

San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, looking to build on last season's Rookie of the Year campaign, made just five of 18 shots from the field en route to 17 points.

The Spurs also committed 19 turnovers, which led to 17 Mavericks points.

Chris Paul, an 11-time All-Star point guard expected to add veteran experience to San Antonio's young squad, scored all of his points on a single 3-pointer and finished one of six with eight assists.

Coming off a season-opening loss to the New York Knicks, the defending champion Boston Celtics got off to a slow start against last season's second-worst team, Washington, which opened by as many as eight points.

The score was tied 51-51 with five minutes left in the second quarter, but Boston closed the first half with a 13-3 run and went on to a 122-102 victory.

Jaylen Brown celebrated his 28th birthday with 27 points and Jayson Tatum added 25 with 11 rebounds for Boston, which had 19 points from Derrick White.

“It was our first road game…we started off a little slow, but we stayed the course and were able to get the win,” Brown said.

bb/pst