LeBron James finally makes his preseason debut, but the King looks a bit rusty and loses against the Chicago Bulls.San Antonio is also on the brink of bankruptcy, while the Big 3 of the OKC Thunder presents itself in a playful mood.
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That was very clear!While the Raptors’ bank was seen as a relatively common weakness last season, it was in pretty good shape in this match.In particular, new addition C. J.Miles provided Firepower from Downtown (19 points, 5/8 3FG), while Jakob Pöltl showed maximum efficiency (12 points, 5/5 FG, 6 rebounds).Fred VanVleet and Delon Wright supported the Starting Five with 10 points each.
It didn’t matter that Kyle Lowry was not in top form (2/7 FG), especially since Jonas Valanciunas (18 points, 10 rebounds), Serge Ibaka (14 points) and DeMar DeRozan (13 points) were already more than ready for the start of the season.Just in the third quarter, the Canadians finally took control.
However, it should be noted that some players have been spared the pistons, including Starting Shooting Guard Avery Bradley.Detroit played with a Starting Five, which you probably won’t see too often during the season.Andre Drummond was still the best of the starters with the obligatory double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds).Coach Stan Van Gundy must have been particularly pleased that Dre scored all of his 6 free throws.Meanwhile, Ish Smith was the top scorer of the guests with 22 points (and 8 assists) from the bank.
For far too long Pacers fans did not have to “tremble”.The first quarter was won against the Israeli guests at 36:16 and it was pretty clear what direction the game would take.Although Haifa sold respectably afterwards, it never really burned anything.
Indiana enjoyed a balanced performance of the Starting Five, all starters scored double figures, with Victor Oladipo (18 points, 4/5 3FG, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals).NBA veteran Josh Smith was the top scorer with 16 points.
LeBron James had probably imagined his preseason debut somewhat differently. For 30 minutes the king stood on the court, where he scored 17 points (8/13) and clearly led his team in the scoring.At the same time, however, he also achieved 8 turnovers and was thus not completely uninvolved in the fact that his cavs lost quite clearly against the not exactly high-caliber bulls.
Of course, James is expected to solve these problems relatively quickly.Kevin Love, on the other hand, could be a problem: The new Starting Center (3 points) was replaced during the match and treated on the left leg, but then he played down the meaning.In any case, the cavs lacked punch.Besides James, only Derrick Rose (13) and Iman Shumpert (12) scored double-digit points, while Dwyane Wade had a bad day (4 points, 1/7 FG).
This already looked different with the Bulls, especially with Justin Holiday, who got tired of the Cavs with his throws and drives (28 points, 4/7 3FG, 8/8 FT, 11 rebounds).Top-Pick Lauri Markkanen was also much stronger (18 points, 4/7 3FG) as well as Denzel Valentine (14).Paul Zipser stood as usual in the Starting Five and contributed 5 points (2/5 FG) to the victory.
Page 1: Bulls beat Cavs at LeBron debut
Page 2: OKC: The Big Three is in a playful mood