In the Memphis Grizzlies’ victory over the Houston Rockets, Marc Gasol dominates both offensively and defensively. The otherwise so reliable offensive fireworks around James Harden and Co. comes stuttering. Meanwhile, Ben Simmons leads the Sixers to victory with his first triple double, the Hawks lose without Dennis Schröder and the Wizards win after a crazy finish.
One of the favourites for the Rookie of the Year award impressively demonstrated in the Sixers why he is undoubtedly on this list. Ben Simmons played his first triple double of the young NBA career against the pistons in the fourth game. With 21 points (8/11 FG), 12 rebounds and 10 assists he led the Sixers to their first win of the season in 2017/18.
However, one should not underestimate the excellent performance of Joel Embiid, who contributed 30 points and 9 rebounds (7 turnovers). The duo ensured that Philadelphia was able to score 21 points in the second quarter.
However, the pistons didn’t give up. As in the previous game against the Knicks, Detroit made a comeback with Reggie Jackson (16 points, 7 Assists, 6 Rebounds), Avery Bradley (15 points) and Andre Drummond (14 points, 14 Rebounds, 4 Steals) scoring three points in the final section.
The answer promptly followed by Robert Covington with a three-point game and by T. J.. McConnell from downtown. Philly moved back up to 9 points and finally secured the win,”It was fantastic to play a triple double,”said Simmons after the match,”but it’s even better to clinch the victory.”
Without Dennis Schröder, who was injured at his ankle, it looked as if the Hawks in Florida would be mercilessly lost for a long time. This was due to numerous turnovers on the one hand, but also to the excellent performance of Josh Richardson and Wayne Ellington on the side of the Heat on the other. The latter lost six threesomes (!) in the second quarter alone and scored a total of 20 points.
Things went even better for Richardson. The 24-year-old scored 21 points and snatched 4 rebounds. J-Rich does his job in the offense, but above all in the defense,”said Ellington, explaining to his team mate,” He is extremely important to us. He’s a leader and he’s getting better every day.”
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The Heat even managed to gain a 21-point lead in the first half thanks to Richardson – which was quickly lost after a 33:12 race of the Hawks. While Miami put the last 13 attempts of Downtown on the ring, Atlanta Kent Bazemore and Taurean Prince were both 20 points each. John Collins also contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds from the bank.
In the end it was – of course – Richardson, who scored the Hawks’ 8 points in the final section and took the death blow. With two layups in a row in the last minute of the game, J-Rich finally put his team on the winning track and thus brought them to their second win of the season in front of their own audience.
Player of the game? Marc Gasol didn’t want to know much about this after his win against the Rockets. For the Big Man, it wasn’t his own (although extremely strong) performance but the Grizzlies’ defenses that were decisive for the game:”It was great that we were able to keep them from scoring at the end of the game,”says Gasol.”If you can trust your defenses to be there at the end of a game, you don’t have that much pressure on the offensive.”
And if a team can trust its defense, that’s Memphis. In the last six minutes Memphis only allowed two small scores, in the fourth quarter Houston only scored 14 points. The grizzlies finished the game with an impressive 20:2 run. Gasol also set off offensively a clear fragrance brand.
The Spaniard led his team to victory with 26 points (8/15 FG, 10/10 FT) as well as 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. He overpowered Clint Capela under the ring or hit his throws over smaller defenders. Mike Conley had problems with his litter (3/10 FG), but thanks to a strong closing phase he got 17 points and 4 assists. James Ennis III also performed well with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
On the other hand, Eric Gordon became the top scorer of his team. To get to the 27 points (7 assists) the Sixth Man of the Year scuttled 5 out of 15 threesomes. James Harden was not doing quite so well, but “The Beard” scored 22 points, handed out 8 assists, but also missed the ball 7 times. Even from a distance, however, Harden – like the entire team (9/38 threesomes, 23.7 percent) – had big problems (2/8). Houston was unable to maintain their 12-point lead from the third quarter due to the strong grizzlies defence.
Page 1: Gasol stops the rockets – Simmons and Embiid shine
Page 2:”The Greak Freak” is still on fire – Spurs win top game
Page 3: Wild finish in Denver – Phoenix wins without Bledsoe