With a monstrous triple double, Ben Simmons compensated for his disappointment over the lack of an all-star nomination, similar to Andre Drummond’s – but raging in vain. Damian Lillard dismantled the Timberwolves and Schröder did not stand a chance against the Raptors.
Dwight Howard had also heard about the historical night of DeMarcus Cousins against the Bulls and wanted to prevent a similar performance against his Hornets by all means. So when Cousins realized that Dwight was barely on his side, he knew that he had to give a certain amount of responsibility to his fellow players.
As Howard Cousins defended up to the three-way line and had to leave his post as a zone defender, Cousins saw opportunities for his guards:”I told Jrue (Holiday) that the zone is completely free. He’s a big guard, and no one in the league can defend him one-on-one, so I just told him to take advantage of it.”
Holiday (19 points, 8/15 FG) took the advice of his center and, with two consecutive drives to the basket in the final phase, provided the 96:92 lead, which the Pelicans could no longer take.
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At least from the statline Howard (22 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks) outdid cousins (16 points, 5/10 FG, 13 rebounds) and also participated in the 8 turnovers of Boogie. Kemba Walker contributed 20 points (8/21 FG), Anthony Davis (19 points, 7/16 FG) shared the top scorer status with Holiday.
After Andre Drummond led his pistons with 11 seconds to play with 89:87, the Utah Jazz looked at their rookie, who had been responsible for such situations in the last weeks.
However, Donovan Mitchell’s first attempt was pushed into the front row of viewers by Andre Drummond. At the following throw-in Ricky Rubio looked back at Mitchell, but then played a fine pass to Joe Ingles, who made it to the cut and put the equaliser in extra time. Ingles was the hero of the game with two consecutive threesomes in overtime.
In a very balanced team performance Mitchell (15 points, 6/21 FG) together with Rudy Gobert (15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks) was top scorer of jazz. Rubio showed a convincing performance with 11 points (4/8 FG), 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
So the Jazz ruined Andre Drummond’s statement that he wanted to tell the NBA coaches with 30 points (11/17 FG), 24 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 blocks that they made a big mistake not to choose him as an all-star. Drummond had already expressed his displeasure at Twitter.
Already in the first quarter, the Pacers set the course for a safe victory against the Phoenix Suns, who were marked by a four-game round-trip. The Suns did not really show any real resistance until Indiana had already spared their players in the final quarter.
All-star debutant Victor Oladipo (21 points, 6/11 FG) showed a correspondingly good temper on the court and thanked his fellow players with 9 assists.”I drew a lot of attention to myself and then my boys were open,”said a lucky Oladipo.”If we play as a unit at both ends of the court, we are very effective.”
For the Pacers, Joe Young (6 points, 2 assists) started for the first time on top of Darren Collison, who missed the match for unknown reasons.
The starters of the Suns were more or less a total failure. So it was useless that Greg Monroe’s 16 points (7/11 FG) and 17 rebounds from the bank Greg Monroe played a full double-double and Rookie Josh Jackson (20 points, 7/11 FG) had one of his better casting nights in his young NBA career.
Page 1: Pistons lose despite Drummond statement, Pels with next victory
Page 2: Fantastic Simmons vs. the Sixers, Hawks without a chance
Page 3: Lillard disassembles Wolves, Celtics finish negative run