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LOS ANGELES: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder thumped New Orleans 137-106 and emerged from Sunday as the NBA’s only remaining unbeaten team after losses for San Antonio and Chicago.

The defending champion Thunder matched the 7-0 start of their 2024-25 campaign.

But the Spurs, who were off to a 5-0 start for the first time in franchise history, fell 130-118 to the Suns in Phoenix, where the hosts held San Antonio’s French star Victor Wembanyama to a dismal nine points.

The New York Knicks handed the Bulls their first defeat of the season 128-116 at Madison Square Garden.

Oklahoma City dominated the winless Pelicans despite three key absences.

Guard Luguentz Dort was sidelined by illness, forward Chet Holmgren missed a third straight game with a lower back injury and All-Star Jalen Williams has yet to make his season debut after off-season wrist surgery.

The Thunder connected on 56 percent of their shots, including 20-of-48 from three-point range, keeping their offense popping with 33 assists.

Aaron Wiggins added 15 points while Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe added 13 each for Oklahoma City, who had eight players score in double figures.

While coach Mark Daigneault was pleased to see the shots falling, he said the dominant performance was a reward for the Thunder’s persistence in an early season stretch that hasn’t been as easy as their record makes it look.

“I thought the team showed a great maturity because we weren’t making a ton of shots early in the season but we just continued to improve the things that generate good shots,” he said.

“To me, it was more about the persistence that we’ve shown through a rough shooting stretch more so than how we played tonight in a vacuum.”

San Antonio were riding high in the first month of the season thanks to the dominance of Wembanyama. The 21-year-old phenomenon went into Sunday’s game averaging more than 30 points and almost 15 rebounds per game since returning this season after treatment for a blood clot that brought his last season to a premature close in February.

But he endured a frustrating night in the face of suffocating Suns defense, going without a basket until nearly the final minute of the first half.

Wembanyama added nine rebounds, two assists, a steal, four blocked shots and six of the Spurs’ 14 turnovers and didn’t get to the free throw line once.

Team defense

“Just playing team defense,” Suns forward Ryan Dunn said of the defensive effort on Wembanyama. “He’s a one of a kind player (we) made it tough on him, gave him different looks.”

Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 26 points but the Suns, led by 28 points and 13 assists from Devin Booker, took control with a 31-point first quarter and didn’t trail after the opening minutes.

San Antonio trailed by as many as 31 in the third quarter and were down 24 going into the fourth.

The Spurs showed signs of life with a 12-0 scoring run early in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 14 on a three-pointer by Wembanyama with 6:24 remaining, but the Suns pulled away again.

In New York, Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, OG Anunoby added 21 and Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in 20 points and 15 rebounds as the Knicks avenged a lopsided Friday loss to the Bulls.

Aussie guard Josh Giddey delivered a triple-double of 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists for Chicago, which had opened the season 5-0 for the first time since a 12-0 start in 1996 — when they went on to capture the fifth of six titles with Michael Jordan on board.

NEW YORK: The New York City Marathon made history on Sunday with a course record set in the women’s competition and the closest race ever on the men’s side, which was decided by a fraction of a second.

Hellen Obiri of Kenya broke the women’s record while compatriot Benson Kipruto won the men’s race by edging Alexander Mutiso by three-hundredths of a second.

Obiri, who also won the race in 2023, finished in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 51 seconds. She was running with 2022 winner Sharon Lokedi until Obiri pulled away from her countrymate in the final mile, surging ahead and winning easily by 16 seconds to best the previous course record of 2:22.31 set by Margaret Okayo in 2003.

“It feels so great. ... I am so happy to run the course record,” Obiri said. “With 1K to go I felt like I was so strong. I have something left in my tank.”

Defending champion Sheila Chepkirui finished third. All three beat the previous course best on a beautiful day for running, with temperatures in the 50s Fahrenheit when the race started.

Kipruto and Mutiso separated themselves from the chase pack in the men’s race heading into Mile 24. Kipruto seemed to have put the race away, pulling away from Mutiso in the last 200 meters. But Mutiso, who also is from Kenya, wasn’t done, surging in the last 50 meters before falling just short. Kipruto, who was running the New York race for the first time, finished in 2:08.40. That finish topped the 2005 race that was decided by a second.

“I was aware that Mutiso was behind,” said Kipruto, who also has won the Boston, Chicago and Tokyo marathons. “It was so close and I knew because I know Mutiso is a strong guy.”

Albert Korir, who won in 2021, was third, giving Kenya a sweep of the top three spots in both the men’s and women’s races. Joel Reichow was the top American, coming in sixth.

Eliud Kipchoge, who turns 41 next week, wrapped up a historic run as one of the most accomplished marathoners in the sport. Kipchoge, who has won 11 major world marathons, finished 17th in his first time running NYC.

On the women’s side, the trio of former champions separated themselves heading into the Bronx at Mile 20. American Fiona O’Keeffe and Dutch runner Sifan Hassan had made it a pack of five once the group entered Manhattan a few miles earlier but couldn’t hang on for the final 6 miles.

This was the first time that the previous three women’s winners had been in the same race since 2018. The trio didn’t disappoint, putting forth stellar efforts. It was the second straight year that Kenyans took the top three spots.

O’Keeffe finished fourth, breaking the American course record as she finished in 2:22.49.

“Really exciting. I can’t take too much credit for the time, that was all on the women ahead of me,” O’Keeffe said. “Grateful to be back in the marathon. Feels like coming home.”

Fellow American Annie Frisbie finished fifth as four of the top nine finishers were from the US. Hassan, who won the Sydney Marathon two months ago, was sixth.

Chelsea Clinton was also one of the finishers, completing the course in just under 3:45. She was greeted at the finish line by her parents — former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The 26.2-mile course took runners through all five boroughs of New York, starting in Staten Island and ending in Manhattan’s Central Park. This is the 49th year the race has been in all five boroughs. Before that, the route was completely in Central Park. The first race had only 55 finishers while a record 55,642 people finished last year, the largest in the history of the sport until the London Marathon broke it earlier this year.

Wheelchair success

Marcel Hug and Susannah Scaroni both won the wheelchair races in dominant fashion. Hug, known as the Silver Bullet, has now won this marathon seven times. He finished 3:52 ahead of second-place finisher David Weir. Scaroni defended her title and was victorious for the third time in four years. She crossed the finish line 5:43 ahead of second-place finisher Tatyana McFadden, who has won the race five times.