The Atlanta Hawks surprisingly won the Cleveland Cavaliers thanks to a strong Dennis Schröder. The Miami Heat played a mega-lead at the Clippers, but in the end they won nevertheless.
After his 57-point gala against the Wizards, the focus was of course on LeBron James. Would he deliver the next one-man-show or would the Cavs manage to win again as a collective? An opponent from Atlanta, who is at the end of the table, seemed to be made for it.
But then it turned out to be absolutely nothing. The boys from Ohio proved impressively why they are the worst (!) defense of the league and opened all doors to their own zone with the tip-off. So the Hawks got quick and easy points, which led to 12:5 and 25:11 leadings. Timeouts by Tyronn Lue provided a quick remedy, but constant improvement was not in sight. Cleveland was only able to shorten the distance in the middle of the second quarter – only to be taken by surprise again.
In the final phase, however, the game was suddenly still on Messer’s tailor. Since the Hawks showed some nerves at the free-throw line, Cleveland was out of nowhere only two points behind and the last attack of the game – but a total of three finals didn’t find their goal.
Especially against Dennis Schröder the Cavs-Backcourt around J. R. Smith, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade usually have no remedies. The German hit his opponents arbitrarily in the one-on-one and used this for his own points (28 at 9/13 FG) and 9 assists. His 6 ball losses are forgiven him for that. DS17 received support from Taurean Prince and Luke Babbit (4/8 3FG), each of whom hung up 17 points. Rookie John Collins was on hand with a strong double-double (12 points, 13 rebounds).
LeBron James scored 26 points and 13 assists in the cavs, Dwyane Wade (25 points) and Kyle Korver (23 points, 5/11 3FG) led the second unit.
Was it the early tip-off time for west coast conditions (local time: 12:30 o’ clock!)? Or the fact that the clips had to be back-to-back? Or a mixture of both?
However, the clips seemed to be extremely flat at the beginning of the game and started accordingly. The throwing rate was low and Doc Rivers’ team suffered unusually high ball losses. They took advantage of the heat – who had to make do without Dion Waiters spontaneously, as this father has become – mercilessly. There were numerous fastbreak points, many of them by threesome, which was L. A. double hurt, of course.
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In the course of the first three quarters, it seemed as if the Heat were celebrating a sovereign away win – they led for a long time with over 20 points. But then came the fourth quarter. The Clippers obviously saw themselves grabbed by the honor and – Patrick Beverley was the driver – they played a defensive joke. So they initiated a 27:4 run, which guaranteed a thrilling crunchtime.
8.7 seconds to go, James Johnson scored two freebies for Heat to score 102:101, making the last L. A. possession. belonged to him. The spalding went to Blake, who didn’t make his attempt from the half distance. Josh Richardson from the free-throw line then secured the final score.
Best man of the Heat was Hassan Whiteside with 21 points and 17 rebounds, Tyler Johnson came to 19 points. Blake Griffin scored 23 points for the Clippers and Lou Williams contributed 22 points from the bank. Danilo Gallinari had to leave the field in the third quarter with a hip injury. There is no diagnosis yet.