The Dallas Mavericks’ winning streak ends with a game winner by Stephen Curry, while the Houston Rockets have no problems in the first game without James Harden. OKC sweeps over the Lakers while DeMar DeRozan puts down the next gala performance. The Wolves are shocked by Spencer Dinwiddie.
For the first time in this season, the rockets had to get by without their bearded MVP candidate – James Harden is known to be missing at least two weeks due to thigh problems. And although the Magic should not necessarily be regarded as the ultimate yardstick, after this clear victory it became clear that the rockets will be rather rare even without hards. They still have a rather low cadre – and a second maestro in Chris Paul.
Although he stayed pale as a scorer (8 points, 3/13 FG), the offense was once again outstanding. CP3 had 10 assists (13 in total) in the first half alone and played a major part in Houston’s 55:41 break. In the third quarter, the guests expanded their lead by up to 28 points, before they took their foot off the accelerator.
The top scorer of the rockets was quite surprisingly the newly committed Gerald Green, who scored an outstanding seven of his ten threesomes and scored 27 points. Clint Capela scored 21 points, with both Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson scoring 27 points. With this balanced offense, the Magic never got by – even though Houston had to put up with another drop of bitterness. Nene injured her right knee and had to be replaced. It was not yet known whether it was something serious.
With 16 points, Aaron Gordon was the top scorer in the Magic competition, but the high-flyer scored only 7/23 from the field. In total, the Magic hit only 38.5 percent of their throws and 19.4 percent of the three-line.
The Spurs once again left half the band at home with Parker, Ginobili, Leonard, Gay and Green, but against San Antonio you would still have to work hard if only the assistant coaches were standing on the court – and the young sixers could feel that in this match. Although they were able to gain an 11-point lead at the break, the Spurs then bite back and turned the number into a tight match.
Joel Embiid was one of the main reasons why the sixers kept the upper hand in the final stages, even though he was listed as questionable until about an hour before the game. The center had injured his hand on Saturday, but now he was used and played 35 minutes in which he scored 21 points (6/12 FG), 11 rebounds, 4 blocks and 4 assists.
One of these templates was for a long jumper from J. J. Redick (20 points), who combined the game with Ben Simmons’ Dunk in the end, won in favour of the Sixers. Simmons was Philly’s strongest player with 26 points – and this time he stayed pretty cool on the free-throw line (10/15 FT), so Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had to quickly put the Hack-a-Ben strategy back in the drawer.
In the Spurs, especially Patty Mills (26 points) and LaMarcus Aldridge (24 points, 14 rebounds) sold well in the absence of half the squad.
The wizards seem to get better and better getting going. Five of the last six games were won and the game against New York was a pretty clear affair – which again had a lot to do with Bradley Beal. The Shooting Guard was back in action for the first time since his appointment as Player of the Week and continued exactly where he left off with 27 points (11/14 FG).
For a half time the Knicks were able to keep up with the good offense of the Wizards – it went back and forth at high speed and only a jumper with the siren of John Wall (25 points, 9 assists) put Washington in the lead with 64:63 at all. Afterwards, however, all the dams broke. The Wizards opened the third quarter with a 15:3 run and never looked back, the Knicks didn’t manage to clean themselves up again.
Kristap’s Porzingis (16 points, 5/13 FG) had to do with the fact that Kristap’s Porzingis was once again struggling with his litter, the Knicks’ Starting Five were clearly inferior to the hosts, with all starters having a plus/minus rating of -16 or worse. The bank was clearly better on this day: Michael Beasley was top scorer of the guests with 20 points (8/14 FG), Kyle O’ Quinn got 13 points and 10 rebounds.
In the wizards Marcin Gortat scored a Season High with 21 points, the Polish Hammer scored a strong 9/10 throws. Markieff Morris came with 11 points and 11 boards on a double-double.
Page 1: Rockets march without hards – Simmons kills the Spurs
Page 2: Dinwiddie kontert Butler – DeRozan dominates again
Page 3: Cold-blooded curry sinks the Mavs
Page 4: OKC beats up discouraged Lakers