The Dallas Mavericks are fighting a close duel with the Cavaliers, but in the end they are the losers. Dennis Schröder and the Hawks experience a used evening, the cars sting out the clippers and Porzingis delivers the next show. In addition: The Warriors take the next victory, the rockets take revenge on the grizzlies and a super duo of the Suns defeats the Timberwolves.
“We’ve had a lot of unacceptable defeats lately,”said Bradley Beal after the home win against Atlanta,”but we’ve sat down and come out of it. His “sign” was above all the improved defence of the capitals, who decided the game in the second half.
After the first two quarters of the match were even, the favourite was able to control the guests better and better. This was especially true for the backcourt defence against Dennis Schröder (7 points, 2/16 FG, 5 assists), who did not score double-digit for the first time this season. His team couldn’t make up for this shortfall over the full 48 minutes, even if Taurean Prince (19 points) or Marco Belinelli (15) tried a lot.
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In the Wizards, John Wall suffered from his migraine, but still stood on the court for 24 minutes and hung up 13 points and 5 assists. Beal came to 19 points, while the bank was around Kelly Oubre Jr. Contributed 54 points to the win, which ended well.
Did Clippers coach Doc Rivers suspect evil for his team before the game? He praised the Big Man duo of the Pels in the highest tones and raved about its versatility and dominance. And it was exactly this dominance that the clips, whose strong start to the season has finally faded, felt.
DeMarcus Cousins scored 35 points and 15 rebounds, Anthony Davis added 25 and 10 on top. One of them always had an answer to many of the guests’ attempts to tip the game – but apart from a Possession 2 minutes into the second half, the Pels were always ahead and kept their lead until the final buzzer.
The recipe for success sounded like this:”We tried to keep DeAndre away from the boards and Blake from the zone,”Davis explained. DeAndre Jordan still got a double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds) Blake Griffin on 26 points and 6 assists. But there was not much going on at L. A. – especially the Ball Movement stagnated. There were just 16 templates in 35 field goals.
A 10-2-start of the guests took the current euphoric fans in the Madison Squar Garden out of the sails a bit – but that was only of short duration. The guys from the Big Apple shook off the weak start and after a few minutes they took the action into their own dominant hands.
Led by Kristaps Porzingis, who had been missing with a slight injury, the team won the first round with 32:23. The kings came close to a score in the second quarter, but a 21:7 run ensured the very early decision. In the second half, the lead was 33 points in phases.
Porzingis, who was once again celebrated with “MVP”choruses, played 34 points (11/21 FG) – you almost have to say “as usual” – and scored 4 of his 6 threes. Courtney Lee (20 points, 5/6 3FG) scored 20 points, while Skal Labissiere (19 points) was the most notable of the Kings Sophomore. Meanwhile, the starters were disappointed, and none of them ended up in the double-digit point range.
Page 1: Schröder with used evening, Porz again strong as a bear again
Page 2: Ball with historical Trip-Dub, Mavs barely failing Cleveland
Page 3: Spurs destroy bulls, warriors get underway
Page 4: Suns annoy the Wolves thanks to Super-Duo, Mitchell cheers Jazz