The Golden State Warriors beat the Washington Wizards Thursday night, to make it a nine-game win streak. Meanwhile, though the Los Angeles Lakers had Rajon Rondo back to run the team, they still lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 105-120 at home.

This was the third game Golden State played with Cousins whose time on the court grew to 24 minutes, allowing him to score 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and one block. 

Stephen Curry was the key to the Warriors' win with 38 points, of which only six came from the 3-point line. With their nine consecutive wins, the defending champions have already left the No.2 Denver Nuggets two games behind them in the Western Conference.

The Wizards though had three players score over 20 points. Without a real big man in the paint, they were unable to stop 2.11-meter, 130-kilogram Boogie from wreaking havoc in the paint. Washington trailed 36-50 in rebounding and 48-70 in scoring in the restricted area, wasting their lead in 3-point shooting (15-7).

The Oklahoma City Thunder won their fourth consecutive game after the 122-116 victory against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Russell Westbrook put down a triple-double with 23 points, 17 rebounds and 16 assists in only 19 minutes. His orchestrating of the offense helped the Thunder lead throughout the first three quarters. Paul George dropped 23 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

New Orleans were missing four key players – Anthony Davis, Julius Randle, Nikola Mirotic and E'Twaun Moore – so Jrue Holiday had to try to do everything, which explained why he led in scoring (22 points), rebounding (nine) and assists (13). The Pelicans kept trying to come back in the game as six of their players score double digits but the 16-point-deficit was too much for them to narrow down in the last quarter.

The Portland Trail Blazers visited the Talking Stick Resort Arena to take on the young boys of the Phoenix Suns. Since the home team's rookie Deandre Ayton could not play, the Suns had to launch more attacks outside the paint, shooting more three-pointers and rely more on transition offense. Though the Suns sank 13 shots from the 3-point line, one more than the Trail Blazers, they made 38 attempts. By contrast, their opponent reached 46.15 percent for 3-point rate to make 12 three-pointers.

Without Ayton, Phoenix lost control of rebounds (39-53) and could not stop Portland from scoring as the team dropped at least 30 points in three quarters. Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Jake Layman all put down 20+ points to give the Trail Blazers their 30th win of the season.

The Los Angeles Lakers finally got some good news with Rajon Rondo's return from injury. With a real point guard, Rondo put down 15 points, six rebounds and 13 assists in his return. He even sank three of five shots from the 3-point line. Brandon Ingram also contributed with 20 points, six rebounds and two steals.

However, Minnesota's dual young stars, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins ruined the Lakers' efforts. Towns was unstoppable on both offense and defense with 27 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and 3/5 from three-point range. Wiggins contributed 23 points and eight rebounds. The Timberwolves dominated the Lakers in rebounding (55-39), free throws (22-9), second-chance points (34-13) and turnover points (34-16). After this loss, the purple and gold were 1.5 games away from the No.8 Los Angeles Clippers, while the Timberwolves were only half a game behind.