Stephen Curry makes his comeback as if he had never been away. Dennis Schröder also plays a big part in the victory of his Atlanta Hawks. LeBron James loses on his birthday thanks to a rookie – the San Antonio Spurs catch a used day.
Detroit had to forego his starting backcourt with Reggie Jackson (Ankle) and Avery Bradley (Leiste) and so coach Stan Van Gundy warned that others would have to step into the breach in this match. But that this would work so well, against the Spurs of all people, he hadn’t even dreamed of.
“This was really a team effort today,” said the coach, who was amazed after his team only allowed the Spurs 79 points and never found themselves in the back of the pack. Bradley representative Reggie Bullock advanced to the top scorer of his team with 22 points and also set a career high while Rookie Luke Kennard also delivered a new top score with 20 points from the bank.
The pistons proved to be really strong as a team. Andre Drummond (14 points, 21 rebounds, 6 assists) was once again not to be kept away from the board and Ish Smith (18) represented Jackson accustomed well. Anthony Tolliver scored only 1 point, but defended more than effectively against Kawhi Leonard.
The Spurs star was the top scorer of his team with 18 points, but he could not put his stamp on the game at any time. This was also true for LaMarcus Aldridge (15 points, 11 rebounds). All in all, the Spurs showed a very bloodless performance.
Much better than in the first half it could hardly have worked for the Magic. The hosts scored 24 fast-break points over the first two quarters alone, with a total of 66 points, leading them to the break with 14 points. In the meantime, it was even 18:”They ran us out of the hall,”Tyler Johnson of the Heat subsequently acknowledged. But that is not the way things should remain.
From the third quarter onward, Miami presented itself in a different state of health – initially mainly thanks to the aforementioned Johnson. The latter scored 22 of his 31 points in the third round and played a major part in his team’s efforts to reduce the gap by 10 points to just 4 points, while Goran Dragic did the same thing: in the fourth round, the Slovenian put on 14 of his 25 points.
Approximately two minutes before the end of the match, there were also 4 points in Dragic’s series, which finally put Miami in the lead. Strong Aaron Gordon (39 points) answered again with 3 free throws, but Dragic Johnson found another threesome. The next attempt by Evan Fournier (23 points) was then answered by Dragic himself and the game was decided.
In the end, Orlando’s tenth defeat in the last eleven games came as a result of the Heat’s improved defence. We changed the game completely after the break,”Dragic said happily.” We defended her better, and that was the decision.”
Page 1: Heat put down monster comeback – Pistons beat up Spurs
Page 2: Schröder towering over – Mitchell misses LeBron’s party
Page 3:10 Threesome! Curry delivers mega comeback