The Boston Celtics are expanding their impressive winning streak in a duel with the Atlanta Hawks as Kyrie Irving shows his perhaps best game in the new Jersey. The Nets win in Brooklyn, the Warriors win a job against the Heat.
After the victory over East Champion Cleveland on Sunday, Boston was probably the strongest team of the Eastern Conference in Atlanta. And even though the Hawks once again sold very well, which was mainly due to Dennis Schröder (23 points, 6 assists), this time it was a close defeat. Celtics were able to secure their ninth victory in a row, which they managed to achieve in 2010 in the Big 3 era with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen:”It would have been nice to win two consecutive victories against such teams, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough today,”Schröder explained.
The game was close to the final seconds. Boston had already dropped off at the beginning of the last quarter, but Atlanta led again 1’40 “before the end. A threesome of the outstanding Kyrie Irving (35 points, 7 assists) to 104:103 secured Boston the decisive lead, it was the 25th place. Change of leadership of the game – and it should remain the last.
It was fitting that Irving had the closing words – with his drives and handles he enchanted the audience throughout the whole match. Even in Atlanta there were “MVP, MVP”calls for Irving, who had 14 of his 22 throws in the basket,”It’s a beautiful game if you play it the right way,”Uncle Drew summed it up,”It won’t look good at every Possession, but you have to be able to focus on the next one. I understand that better than most.”
In addition to Irving, Rookie Jayson Tatum was also enthusiastic about Celtics, who played 21 points and 8 rebounds. Al Horford bruised back to his former field of activity, narrowly missing the triple double (15 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists). Daniel Theis was used in the duel against his good friend Schröder for 14 minutes and scored 3 points (1/1 FG), 2 rebounds and 2 assists. In the Hawks, Dedmon (19 points, 12 rebounds) and Marco Belinelli (19) were strong alongside Schröder Dewayne.
In the duel between these two young teams, one could have expected a dizzying score, as defence is not particularly important either in Phoenix or in Brooklyn. However, both teams were at odds with their litter: The Nets came out of the field at 40.2 percent, with the Suns it was only 34.9 percent, although they started well. So Brooklyn was able to reach a great final quarter of D’ Angelo Russell, and after four bankruptcies in a row it was time for another “W”.
Russell had spent a quiet evening before, but in the last round he finished 13 of his 23 points. The former No. 2-Pick (8/13 FG) also had 8 assists and 6 rebounds and was the matchwinner for his team. Joe Harris (18 points from the bank) also performed very well. DeMarre Carroll came up with 14 and 11 rebounds on a double-double.
Despite the defeat, there was at least one small reason to cheer for the Suns: Devin Booker (18 points) was the fourth fastest player in history (after LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant) to break the 3,000 point mark for his career. Top scorer of the Suns was T. J. Warren at 20.
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Nearly halfway through the Warriors there was very little running together. Kevin Durant (a total of 1/6 3FG) and Stephen Curry (2/9 3FG) didn’t hit their threesomes, so the offense looked rather lame. The heat also exasperated the dubs with a pretty good defense, so that Golden State was (mostly) close to the lead because the hosts also defended very well. Especially KD and Kevon Looney (both 3 blocks) were responsible for this.
But at the end of the second quarter, at the beginning of the third, Golden State suddenly got going. Klay Thompson met a threesome, then Curry – and all of a sudden the Dubs were leading by 20 points. If you had looked at the mobile phone in between, you probably would have missed it, but the Warriors quickly decided their fourth game in a row. Of course, it didn’t get any more exciting in the end, the Dubs didn’t let the high leadership take over anymore.
However, the whole thing was not really pretty – both Golden State (36.8 percent FG) and Miami (36.1 percent) produced tickets for tickets. The top scorers of the game were Durant and Heat-Forward James Johnson with 21 points each. Best man on the court was Draymond Green with 18 points and 9 rebounds (4/6 3FG). With the Heat, Dion Waiters was particularly lacking in the offensive. Goran Dragic was still down to 19 points, Hassan Whiteside played very weak (3 points, 1/9 FG, 6 rebounds).