NBA: Next bankruptcy: PG-13 takes care of the Mavs

Despite a good half, the Dallas Mavericks will go down against the OKC Thunder, Dirk Nowitzki will collect a flagrant foul. Meanwhile, the rockets beat Indiana almost effortlessly, and Detroit continues their winning streak.

These pistons continue to be fun! It set the fifth consecutive victory against Miami, with a 10-3 record, Detroit has now set the best start to the 2005/06 season, when the Wallace brothers and co. for the title on a regular basis. They’re not up to date yet, but apart from the Celtics there’s no hotter team in the Eastern Conference right now.”The guys just fought all the time in the second half,”coach Stan Van Gundy praised.”I was really proud.”

The Heat had turned out to be a tough nut before, especially Hassan Whiteside with strong 20 points and 12 assists. Goran Dragic (18), Dion Waiters (16) and Jos Richardson (15) also caused problems for the pistons, so that the game remained tight into the last quarter. However, Detroit broke away in the middle of the round thanks to a 10-0 run and never looked back. Luke Kennard, a rookie, who could not necessarily count on minutes of rotation in the end, was distinguished.

This time, however, Kennard scored a strong 14 points from the bank, where he scored several important throws in the last quarter. This impressed Pistons top scorer Tobias Harris (25 points):”It’s strong how he presents himself as a rookie,”said Harris,”The way he gave us a push from the bank today and confessed his husband in important minutes made us proud.”

The NBA live at SPOX! All games in the LIVESTREAM calendar

In addition to Kennard and Harris, Avery Bradley (24) and Reggie Jackson (17) also played strong games in the pistons. Ish Smith got 11 points from the bank and 7 assists, Andre Drummond scored only 8 points, but took 17 rebounds and distributed 4 assists.

That was a pretty straightforward matter. Already in the first quarter it became clear that the defensively weak Pacers had no means to control Houston’s Pick’ n’ Roll somehow, after twelve minutes the guests were already ahead with 35:18. And even after that, thanks to Maestro James Harden (26 points, Season-High 15 Assists) the Rockets didn’t have any problems at all, as they were able to take the momentum of the good start with them “We are very careful to have good starts and not to run behind a backlog. In the end, we’re doing better,”Harden said happily.

The rockets were better in all respects, but their superiority was particularly evident from the three-way line: The guests met 17 threesomes, Indiana only 8. Eric Gordon (21 points, 3 threesomes) and Trevor Ariza (15 and 5) in particular radiated danger here. Within the zone, Clint Capela regulated everything with a dominant performance (20 points, 17 rebounds).

“This was a professional victory,”praised Rockets coach Mike D’ Antoni.”They came in and did the right thing from the beginning. We played well. We just have to keep going like this.”

Myles Turner delivered 13 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Carmelo Anthony was out of the game with back problems at OKC, and Steven Adams missed the match. And yet the Thunders were not too keen on Mavericks, who were too strong and too quick for Dallas in the third quarter. Because there was still Paul George and birthday boy Russell Westbrook, who could throw the show and led OKC with a 26:10-run in the third quarter to a secure victory.

PG-13 scored 37 points (and 7 threesomes), Westbrook hung up 27 points. According to coach Billy Donovan, however, it wasn’t just the two stars that were important:”Defensive was our best game so far from start to finish,”said Donovan,”We played very well just in the second half. “Without appearing so good without two starters, it was really strong, from top to bottom.”

Meanwhile, there was a lot of trouble with the Mavs about another game in the third quarter. In the first half, they had sold very well and were only trailing by 2 points in the break, only to collapse completely.”We have to fix it,”insulted Rick Carlisle.”It has slowly become a mentality. You have to take care of the ball and play defense. Third-quarter 39 points to go down today has decided the game.”

Harrison Barnes with 22 points and 13 rebounds was the top scorer of the Mavs, and the two Guards Yogi Ferrell (18 points) and Rookie Dennis Smith (15 points) were also convincing. The recently punished Nerlens Noel was again only used for two minutes. For the Germans it was also a used evening. Maxi Kleber was used for eight minutes and scored 2 points (1/3 FG) and 1 rebound, Dirk Nowitzki scored 5 points (2/7 FG), 1 rebound and 1 assist in 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, another scene caused excitement. When Jerami Grant climbed up to the dark in the third quarter, Nowitzki caught him accidentally in the face. At first this was considered a normal foul, but after a review it turned out to be an unsportsmanlike foul. When Nowitzki complained loudly about it, he also collected a technical and Carlisle had to stand between him and Referee Sean Corbin to settle the situation.

Meanwhile, George, who was asked after the game whether he had given Westbrook a birthday present, gave George the closing words:”I gave him 37,”the forward replied.