Gilgeous-Alexander, Paul lead Thunder past Raptors

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander matched his career-high with 32 points, Chris Paul had 25 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists and Oklahoma City Thunder beat Toronto Raptors 98-97 on Sunday night for ir sixth win in seven games.

Nerlens el added 13 points and Darius Bazley had 11 to help Thunder win ir fifth straight in Toronto. Oklahoma City has won 11 of 15 overall.

Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet each scored 20 points and Serge Ibaka had 12 points and 14 rebounds for Raptors. y lost for third time in four games.

Patrick McCaw scored 13 points and Terence Davis had 11 for Toronto.

Gilgeous-Alexander made go-ahead basket on a jump shot with 36 seconds left in fourth quarter, n grabbed rebound on a missed 3-pointer by VanVleet. third-year guard, who was born in Toronto and raised in nearby Hamilton, has scored 32 points three times in his past five games.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s basket was sixth straight scoring play to change lead in a tight final quarter. lead changed 20 times in game, and teams were tied 10 times.

Thunder missed ir first seven attempts from 3-point range before a buzzer-beater from Paul gave visitors a 22-20 lead after one quarter. Toronto, which made 15 of 21 field goal attempts in Saturday’s win at Boston, shot 6 for 21 in first quarter Sunday. Raptors player made more than one basket in first.

Toronto led 42-34 on a 3 from VanVleet with 3:44 to go in first half, but Gilgeous-Alexander scored eight points as Thunder rallied to tie score at 47-47. Gilgeous-Alexander had 14 points in second and made eight field goals in opening half, as many as rest of his teammates combined.

Paul made three straight baskets to begin third, putting Oklahoma City up 60-52 with 9:36 left in quarter. Toronto made seven of 14 attempts from 3-point range in third, and VanVleet scored final five points of quarter to put Raptors up 80-76 heading to fourth.

TIP-INS

Thunder: G Dennis Schroder (right ankle) was inactive. It’s first game Schroder has missed this season. … F Danilo Gallinari (left ankle) sat for fourth straight game.

Raptors: Starters Pascal Siakam (groin), Marc Gasol (hamstring) and rman Powell (shoulder) all sat for sixth straight game. Toronto was also without G Matt Thomas (left middle finger) and C Dewan Hernandez (right ankle).