What a bitter evening for the Pelicans! In the final seconds of the victory against the rockets, DeMarcus Cousins gets an Achilles tendon tear. The center of the Pels will probably be cancelled for the rest of the season. There is better news from Cleveland, where the Cavs finally win again. Meanwhile, the Hawks are losing in Charlotte.
Dwight Howard and especially the Atlanta Hawks will probably remember this Revenge game even longer. The center not only played the 29- Double-Double of his season (18 points, 15 rebounds, 4/7 FG, 10/14 FT), but also got on his ex-team’s nerves with a total of 7 blocks in the defense.
“He always tells us when the opponents go to the basket that he will try to block the throw,”said Kemba Walker after his victory against the Hawks,”That’s why he’s here,” which Howard proved impressively in the past few games, with Howard blocking at least six throws in two of the last three games.
But Howard couldn’t prevent the Hornets from trembling for victory for a long time. Led by Kent Bazemore, Atlanta fought their way back into the game despite an early deficit. The Shooting Guard scored 26 points and Taurean Prince contributed 21 points. He was also the one who led the Hawks four minutes before the end with a steal and then Dunk.
After all, however, Walker made sure that this lead was quickly lost again. On the way to his 29 points, he scuttled two enormously important threesomes in the crunchtime. The Point Guard led his team to a decisive 12-0 run which ended the game. In addition to Walker and Howard, Nicolas Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist also performed well with 19 points each. Dennis Schröder, on the other hand, remained pale. The German only scored 11 points (5/14 FG9 and 2 rebounds.
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This victory is certainly good for the maltreated Cavs soul. After the two bitter defeats against the Thunder and Spurs, LeBron James answered with the 63rd place. Triple-Double of his career and led the Cavaliers to victory. But not all that glitters was gold.
In addition to his strong 26 points (11/17 FG), 11 assists and 10 rebounds, James also scored rather inglorious 11 turnovers – a career high for LBJ. It’s like a quarterback throwing four interceptions and still winning,”Lebron summed up his own performance and said,” I just made a few bad decisions.”
But that wasn’t enough to snatch the victory away from Cleveland.
In addition to James, J. R. also convinced. Smith, who at least found his way back to his litter in this game. The 32-Jähigre hammered the Pacers 7 Dreier around the ears (with 13 attempts) and finished the game with 23 points. As announced, Cavs coach adjusted his starting five a little bit and let Tristan Thompson start from the beginning. He thanked him with a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds), as well as Kevin Love (10 points, 13 rebounds), who moved to the Power Forward position. Derrick Rose also contributed 14 points from the bank.
What a bitter evening for the Pelicans! A few seconds before the end, the Big Man fell to his knees after the fight for an offensive rebound. Cousins suddenly felt enormous pain on his left heel. Unable to strain his foot, he collapsed. Eventually, he limped into the cabin with the support of his team mates, and a short time later came the bad news: Achilles’ tendon tear! As the Pelicans announced after an initial investigation, cousins will be absent for the rest of the season.
Under these circumstances, the fourth consecutive win over one of the best teams at the Western Conference was a complete failure. The pelicans showed a strong performance in the 48 minutes before, especially with the Twin Towers Anthony Davis and cousins the rockets had enormous problems.
The latter had a strong triple double before his injury (15 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists), The Brow also scored 27 points, 11 rebounds as well as 5 assists and 5 blocks each. Since backcourt also provided helpful support in the form of Jrue Holiday (21 points, 7 assists) and Darius Miller (20 points), New Orleans even achieved a 21-point advantage in the third quarter.
But that should not have been the case. Houston turned the match around with a 20:6 run, to which Chris Paul alone contributed 10 points. The Point Guard finished the game with a maximum score of 38 points (11/19 FG, 8 assists), but had to leave the stage early with six fouls just before the end of the season. Despite good performances by James Harden (23 points, 11 assists) and Eric Gordon (27), the comeback failed.
Miller brought the Pels on the winning track with one of his 6 three horses (with 10 tries) almost two minutes before the end. Although the rockets could not be shaken off afterwards, cousins used an offensive rebound about 15 seconds before the end. This put New Orleans in front with 4 points and brought home the victory from the free-throw line – albeit at a tremendous price.