The Warriors play themselves into a frenzy as they beat the Orlando Magic, while the New Orleans Pelicans are taken apart by Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell. The Bulls lose despite good Paul Zipser, with the Toronto Raptors outnumbered Jakob Pöltl. And: Paul George leads OKC to victory over the Timberwolves.
There are days like these, when the Warriors’ offences simply move in their very own spheres. Just like this evening: The dubs played a proud 46 assists against Orlando, most of a team this season.”46 Assists are the madness,”said coach Steve Kerr, and Stephen Curry also made it clear:”That’s what we are all about: Ball-Movement. Everyone touches the ball and we help each other because we’re all a threat.”
In the end, this was not the case in every game, but against Orlando the Dubs were in a good mood from the start and scored 41 points in the first quarter. In the next round, the lead went into double digits and in the end, the Magic had no chance of getting anywhere, despite the strong Aaron Gordon (29 points) and Evan Fournier (22). Orlando’s coach Frank Vogel also made it clear:”We’re not tough enough in defense right now. It’s not enough against the Champs.”
Which would have been difficult on this day anyway. In the Dubs, Klay Thompson was top scorer with 27 points, Kevin Durant delivered 25 and Stephen Curry (23, plus 10 assists) and Draymond Green (12 points, 10 assists) came in double doubles. Rookie Jordan Bell outperformed the bench with 16 highly efficient points (8/10 FG) as well as 4 rebounds and 3 blocks.
That was the only real excitement that could be overcome. Just five minutes before the end, when the game was already decided, Durant took his second technical and was expelled from the hall.
Surprisingly clear for the wizards, even though John Wall had to pause again. But the wizards remembered the defence and forced the pistons to only 15 points in the third quarter – for the guests it was the worst quarter of the season – “That was teamwork,”said Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy,”everyone who played badly”.
Indeed, it was not the day of the pistons who had won three victories at a time before. Andre Drummond delivered the usual double-double (14 points, 17 rebounds) and Tobias Harris played well (15 points, 6/11 FG), but no one could really make a mark on the game. And defensively, the pistons were unable to cope with Markieff Morris in particular, who showed Washington with 23 points (10/16 FG) his best performance of the season so far.
“It was about time I played a good game at last,”said Morris, who had played only 18 points over the last three games and therefore had a video session with Wizards coach Scott Brooks before the game to get out of the hole.
Led by Morris, the wizards showed a good team performance, especially Otto Porter from Tomas Satoransky from the bank with 17 points each, while Bradley Beal (10 points, 7 turnovers) got a used day,”That gives us some confidence before an away trip with five games”, Brooks was pleased.”Especially since we don’t know when John will return.
What a game in Canada! Two of the Eastern Conference’s most offensive teams were almost non-existent for more than 48 minutes, and whenever Toronto had actually moved away, Indiana was once again within striking distance. Only free throws of the once again really good DeMar DeRozan (26 points) in the final minute finally brought the decision. But it wasn’t necessarily the Guard-Play that was the special feature of the Raptors in this game.
Toronto, which is already one of the best teams in terms of points in the Paint, set a new seasonal record with 70 points in the Zone. One of the main reasons for this: Jakob Pöltl. The Austrian put up a career high with 18 points and hit each of his eight throws out of the field, besides he picked up 6 rebounds and blocked 2 throws.”We’ve been working a lot on my finishing lately, and I think that pays off”, said Pöltl.
This game was a sensational success, although the Pacers had big problems keeping the Raptors from scoring points anyway. In addition to DeRozan and Pöltl, five other Raptors landed in Double Figures. Even the grandiose Victor Oladipo (36 points) could not completely conceal this, even though he was close.
Page 1: Pöltl dominates – Warriors with season record
Page 2: Bulls bankruptcy despite good Spišer
Page 3: OKC keeps wolves cold – Mitchell electric