LeBron James shows against the Chicago Bulls that he is still the gold standard of the NBA, while Aaron Gordon is playing the game of his life against the Brooklyn Nets. Daniel Theis uses his first longer appearance to win over the Knicks, while the Pelicans once again fear for Anthony Davis.
Thanks to the many line-up changes, things are not going well for the cavs yet, and the start was also with the new old starters J. R. against Chicago. The not exactly ambitious bulls stayed in striking distance until the last quarter, after the Cavs had turned the game more or less in the meantime. In the end, Cleveland secured the victory in his own arena, because LeBron James still had enough arrows in his quiver in the last quarter.
“That’s how it is when you play against the best player on the planet,”Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said afterwards. His team had done quite a lot right – but in the end James always had the answers. LeBron (34 points, 13 assists) once again filled almost every position on the court and shone in the absence of the injured Derrick Rose as a playmaker – but also with his brutal efficiency (13/20 FG).”I know every play from every position,”James said afterwards, who had occupied every position between Point Guard and Center.”This makes it easier for me to switch to other positions”.
Apart from LeBron, Kevin Love was also in a good mood (20 points, 12 rebounds), and the Cavs got a lot of support from the bank when it came to scoring. Jeff Green scored 16 points, while Dwyane Wade (11.5/7 FG) showed his best game as a cavalier. Kyle Korver also scored 11 points.
In the Bulls Justin Holiday was top scorer with 25 points, Jerian Grant came on a double-double (12, plus 10 assists). Rookie Lauri Markkanen also performed impressively (19 points, 8 rebounds), while Paul Zipser also had a strong performance. In 34 minutes the Bulls’ starting small forward scored 11 points (5/11 FG), 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Playing with the Nets is obviously something you can watch again this season with enthusiasm! Defense is not to be expected there, but Brooklyn is constantly rocking up to absurd scores with his opponents. That was again the case against Orlando – and it could have been enough to win. If on the other hand, Aaron Gordon hadn’t played the game of his life.
The forward had been almost unstoppable for the whole game. In the last quarter, he led his team’s comeback with Evan Fournier (28 points) until 36 seconds before the end of the match, when he scored the three-way lead – his fifth goal in the same number of attempts and his 39,40 and 41 points – of course, Career High. After D’ Angelo Russell (29 points) lost the ball on the other side and Fournier pocketed two free throws, Orlando’s third win in the fourth game was bagged.
“I just threw with self-confidence, it was a quick throw,” said Gordon, who also picked up 14 rebounds,”It felt good when I let go of the ball.
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After the hectic start to the season, including Gordon Hayward’s horror injury, Celtics had four days off to gather and recover. And the Knicks felt the impact – the guests in Boston hardly had a chance from the start. 13 points ahead after a quarter, 21 at the break. The Knicks struck a miserable 8.3 percent of the three-line (1/12) in the course of the game and thus won their third defeat in a row without much resistance.
Celtics was not Kyrie Irving (20 points, 7 assists) the most conspicuous player this time, the top scorers were the two Young Guns in the Starting Five: Jaylen Brown (23 points) presented himself for his 21st birthday. Birthday himself with the game ball and a victory, No. 3-Pick Jayson Tatum also played strongly (22) and scuttled four of his six threesomes. Al Horford garnished the whole thing with 13 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists, and Daniel Theis’ performance was also very pleasing from a German point of view: The ex-Bamberger was allowed to play for the first time in this match for a really long time (21 minutes) and took advantage of this time impressively with 11 points (4/6 FG), 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks. His +14 Plus/Minus rating of +14 was even the best in strong Celtics after Terry Rozier (+24).
In the Knicks, Enes Kanter (16 points, 19 rebounds) held up best, while Kristaps Porzingis (12 points, 3/14 FG) and Tim Hardaway (6,2/11) played extremely weak.
Page 1: LeBron-Show, crazy Gordon and strong performance of Theis
Page 2: Pelicans fear for Davis