NBA: Kevin Durant scores game-high 33 points against Celtics as Warriors register 10th straight win; Spurs beat Pelicans

Los Angeles: Kevin Durant scored a game-high 33 points as the defending NBA championGolden State Warriors won their 10th straight game with a 115-111 victory over the Boston Celtics on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_5970391” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (35) leaves the court after a 115-111 victory over the Boston Celtics. Reuters[/caption] Stephen Curry scored 24 points and Klay Thompson finished with 21 as the Warriors won the first head-to-head meeting this season between powerhouse teams from the Eastern and Western NBA Conferences. “They started off that fourth quarter on a nice little run to cut the lead and we stayed poised,” said Durant. “My teammates had my back. But coming in here on the road to get a W in Boston is pretty solid for us.” Kyrie Irving scored 32 points with 10 assists and Al Horford had 22 points and 13 rebounds for Boston, who had their five-game win streak stopped. The game featured 21 lead changes as Thompson made a couple of clutch free throws in the final minute, and then Curry iced the victory with a pair of foul shots with six seconds left in front of a crowd of 18,600 at the Boston Garden. Spurs beat Pelicans Elsewhere, LaMarcus Aldridge played through the pain of a sore left wrist to tally 28 points and 12 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs beat the shorthanded New Orleans Pelicans 126-114. Aldridge had 16 points in the first half, and then added 12 more in a key scoring burst in the third quarter which saw the Spurs break the game open. The visitors used a 25-12 run to stretch a three-point lead to 85-69. Rudy Gay had 22 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio, who ended a two-game winless streak. Jrue Holiday had a game-high 29 points and Jahlil Okafor added 24 points and 15 rebounds for the depleted Pelicans, who lost their third consecutive game. Anthony Davis, Julius Randle, Nikola Mirotic and E’Twaun Moore were all missing from the Pelicans’ lineup with injuries. The Spurs were without their top scorer DeMar DeRozan, who was sidelined with a sore left knee. Coach Gregg Popovich said before the contest that DeRozan is dealing with several nagging injuries and will benefit from some extra rest time. San Antonio led 60-57 at halftime in front of a crowd of 17,700 at Smoothie King Center arena. Also, Nikola Jokic delivered a triple-double in his return from a one-game suspension and the Denver Nuggets beat the Philadelphia 76ers 126-110. Jokic finished with 32 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in the win. Jokic, the Nuggets’ leader in points, rebounds and assists, missed Denver’s 132-95 rout of the Phoenix Suns on Friday because he was serving a one-game suspension for leaving the bench during an altercation in Utah earlier in the week. The 76ers gave leading scorer Joel Embiid the night off.