WASHINGTON: Oklahoma City stretched the NBA’s best win streak to 13 games with a home victory Thursday while the reigning champion Boston Celtics held on for a last-shot win at Minnesota.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had game highs of 29 points and eight assists to spark the Thunder over the Los Angeles Clippers 116-98 at Oklahoma City, improving the Western Conference leaders to 28-5.

The Thunder’s win streak is the longest since the team relocated from Seattle after the 2007-08 season.

“It’s just being present, going day by day, working on ourselves and I think we’re doing a good job on that,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who added 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Thunder.

Oklahoma City trailed 52-48 at half-time but outscored the Clippers 42-20 in the third quarter and Los Angeles never closed the gap.

“We wanted to come out and just pick up the pressure,” Hartenstein said. “We weren’t playing the way we wanted, with the force we wanted. We wanted to pressure them and I think we did a good job of that.”

At Minneapolis, the Celtics were without Jaylen Brown due to a right shoulder strain and Kristaps Porzingis with an ankle sprain but won for the third time in four games to start a difficult road trip, dispatching the Timberwolves 118-115.

Jayson Tatum sparked Boston with 33 points on 13-of-27 shooting, 6-of-17 from 3-point range, and added eight rebounds and nine assists.

“No JB. No KP. We’ve had a rough stretch this last eight or nine games,” Tatum said. “So this January we’re going to try to turn it around and get back to our identity.

“What better way than to come in on the road in a tough environment against a really good team down two of your best players and the way that we responded, figured out a way to win, we will take that any day.”

The Celtics (25-9) made only four turnovers while forcing 16 by the Timberwolves (17-16), who made it close by outscoring Boston 20-4 at the free throw line.

The T-Wolves led 35-28 after 12 minutes, matching their top-scoring first quarter of the season, but the Celtics pulled ahead 62-51 at half-time.

Minnesota capped a 20-7 run with a 3-pointer by Donte DiVincenzo to pull level at 94-94 with 9:16 remaining.

DiVincenzo sank three free throws with 28 seconds to play to pull the Timberwolves within 118-115 and Minnesota got the ball after a Tatum miss with 3.1 seconds remaining.

“Rule number one. If you leave it short, it never has a chance to go in,” Tatum said,

Anthony Edwards missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Boston the victory.

“Just had to stick with it,” Tatum said of Boston’s defensive work. “They were hitting some tough shots. You’ve got to live with something, can’t take everything away. Stick to the game plan, compete.”

Derrick White added 26 points for Boston. Julius Randle led Minnesota with 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

The Celtics began a four-game road swing against top clubs with future stops at Houston, Oklahoma City and Denver.

“I love the way we competed. Our physicality was on point. That’s what it’s going to take,” Tatum said.

“We play four really good, difficult teams on the road. We’re going to need everybody in these games.”

Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton scored 33 points and added 15 rebounds to lead the Pacers over host Miami 128-115. Myles Turner added 21 points and Pascal Siakam contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds for Indiana.

Brooklyn’s Cameron Johnson scored 26 points and Cam Thomas added 24 off the bench as the Nets won 113-110 at Milwaukee.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists for the Bucks while Damian Lillard added 23 points but the Milwaukee stars missed shots late to doom a late rally.

Lillard’s jumper pulled the Bucks within 111-110 with 37 seconds remaining, but after a Brooklyn turnover, Antetokounmpo missed a driving layup attempt and Ziaire Williams sank two free throws to give the Nets a 113-110 edge with six seconds to play.

Lillard missed a potential tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.

BISHA, Saudi Arabia: Veteran Spanish driver Carlos Sainz made history when he won his fourth Dakar Rally last year and is confident that he has what it takes to challenge for victory in this season’s grueling race in Saudi Arabia.

Sainz’s fourth title came when he was 61 — the oldest winner of the race and the first Dakar victory for German outfit Audi.

Now 62, the Spaniard — the father of Ferrari Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr — recently became a grandfather, but the two-time world rally champion known as ‘El Matador’ professes to be in fine form.

“Personally I’ve done everything I can to arrive in a good physical condition and I will give everything to try to have a good race,” Sainz said at the launch of his new Ford Raptor car.

“We are comfortable, we have done all the jobs we can.”

Sainz added: “I expect first of all to enjoy, to have really good fun driving.

“I expect to have not so many problems and I expect to fight for the victory. I’m happy to help to try to win this challenge, the Dakar.”

No one has managed to take a machine fresh from the factory to victory since Ari Vatanen, who triumphed with the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 in 1987 and then with the 405 — its technical heir — in 1989, followed by the Citroen ZX in 1991.

But that hasn’t stopped Sainz’s rivals also choosing to blood new cars over the 5,115 kilometers (3,178 miles) of specials mapped out over 12 stages between Bisha and Shubaytah.

Five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar and France’s nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb will be piloting Dacia Sandriders, while Spain’s one-time Dakar winner Nani Roma will also be in a Ford.

One notable absentee from the action, however, will be France’s ‘Mr Dakar’, 14-time champion Stephane Peterhansel, who hung up his keys last year.

In the bike section, two-time winner Ricky Brabec (Honda) will be back to defend his title, with the American’s main rival likely to be Botswana’s Ross Branch (Hero), second last year.

A 434-strong colorful caravan made up of cars, bikes, quads and trucks sets out from Bisha with an opening prologue on Friday.

Twelve stages then await the 778 competitors from 72 countries, with a Jan. 17 finish in Shubaytah, on the border of the UAE.

This year’s route includes a second 48-hour stage in the Empty Quarter, a vast sea of sand with dunes as far as the eye can see.

Introduced last year, organizers said the concept of the stage, during which competitors have to bivouac on the sand and are not allowed outside help, was simple: “Juggling the twin challenges of endurance and performance while blasting through a thousand kilometers of desert in two days.”

“It’s the rally of maturity,” race director David Castera told AFP. “There’s a real level of difficulty, it’s a real, tough Dakar, which will push everyone beyond their limits, beyond their comfort zone.”

The 47th running of the event may be called the Dakar, but the last time the Senegalese capital actually hosted the finish was way back in 2007 — the security situation in Mauritania forced the 2008 cancelation.

It moved then to South America until finding a new home in Saudi Arabia since 2020.