After 16 victories in a row, the Celtics series is torn! The main culprit was Dion Waiters. In Memphis, Harrison Barnes provided an unbelievable Buzzer-Beater for a rare season highlight of the Mavs. In a crazy 14-game night there was a lot going on!
At home, the Hornets are simply a bank! We love to play at home,”said Dwight Howard immediately after the game and thanked the fans for their support. At the same time, however, he also noticed the miserable away balance of his team (1-7):”But now we have to show the same energy when we play away from home”.
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Energetic Charlotte showed a lot of energy in the last quarter: with 4 minutes to play they were still 9 points behind, but Kemba Walker (24 points, 8/22 FG) and Jeremy Lamb (24 points, 9/17 FG) brought them back into the game and then also took overtime. With 26 points and 13 rebounds, Howard showed a very strong performance and also had an enormously important block shortly before the end of the fourth quarter.
John Wall (31 points, 13/26 FG, 11 assists) was of course understandably disappointed despite his strong performance:”We had actually already won the game. But you have to pay tribute to them for the way they fought and grabbed the game.”
With an unintentional head bump, Brooklyn’s Tyler Zeller woke the sleeping giant:”For a long time LeBron James acted passively, but after having to be sewn in the third quarter because of the action in the cabin, King James played well in the final quarter.
He scored 23 of his 33 points within the last 12 minutes,”LeBron simply took over,”said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson soberly, summing up:”We tried everything but couldn’t stop him. We could have doubled it, but he’s such a great passport – we didn’t want to leave them with open threesomes.”
In addition to James, Kevin Love convinced with a double double (18 points, 10 rebound) and Dwyane Wade (18 points, 8/13 FG) showed an efficient performance from the bank.
Brooklyn showed a good performance offensively with 52 per cent of the field throwing rate and 38 per cent from outside, was able to counter the 42 points of the Cavs in the fourth quarter only too little. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (20 points, 8/11 FG) presented himself extremely effectively and Joe Harris (18 points, 7/10 FG) also showed his offensive talent against his former team.
With a 16-0 start to the game, the Sixers set the course for a convincing victory early on. At the very latest, the game was over when Joel Embiid had a scary block against Damian Lillard shortly before the end of the third quarter. Embiid first spoke of a “normal block”, but then made a clear statement about his defensive qualities:”I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I think I’m the best defender in the league.”
In any case, it was again an extremely dominant performance by the man from Cameroon. 28 points (11/19 FG) 12 rebounds and 2 blocks recorded Embiid. His congenial partner Ben Simmons also filled the statistics sheet (16 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks).
Blazers coach Terry Stotts was at least satisfied with his team’s defensive performance:”I give us a 1 for the defence and a 3- for the offense,” CJ McCollum alone pulled the score down with a very weak throw (5 points, 1/14 FG). Damian Lillard scored 30 points, but there was no mention of efficiency (11/27 FG).
Page 1: The King turns up, Sixers dominate Portland
Page 2: Griffin shines with Triple-Double, Celtics-series tears
Page 3: Rockets on fire, Barnes throws Dallas to victory
Page 4: Pels beat spurs, bucks can’t do it without Giannis
Page 5: Bulls catastrophic, Fox beats Ball