The Detroit Pistons have continued their series and attack the playoff pitches after beating the Trail Blazers. The Wizards don’t seem to mind the absence of John Wall, the Heat take on an unnecessary bankruptcy and the nuggets and jazz loosely win.
This is how fast it can go: the crisis with eight defeats in a row has finally been forgotten by the pistons. With now four victories in a row, they have turned the spit around and raised their balance sheet again. 500, which puts them level with the eighth-placed sixers.
They started the evening with a dry spell of almost 3 minutes without a point, but two successful free-throwers from Reggie Bullock broke the knot. It was also Bullock who, a short time later, threesome 9:7 for the hosts – it was their first lead and at the same time the last change in the lead of the game. No matter what the Blazers did, the hosts had the right answer.
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For example, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, C. J. was threatening to kill himself. McCollum after several successful litters to run hot. His team stank Lunte, but a comeback failed to materialize because Rookie Luke Kennard scored 6 quick points for his team in a row on the other side. That was typical, because no Detroit player really stood out from a good team, six players scored double-digit points, including three players of the Second Unit (Langston Galloway, Kennard, Anthony Tolliver).
Blake Griffin, with whom the pistons are still undefeated, was the team top scorer with 21 points (9 rebounds, 6 assists), Andre Drummond set his obligatory double-double (17 points, 17 rebounds). In Portland Damian Lillard reached 20 points, McCollum (14 points) had only a few moments.
Who would have thought it? The Wizards remain unbeaten in the fourth game without John Wall and now have five consecutive wins. And even better from the point of view of the capitals: Pacers was successful against the direct playoff competition.
The guests took control of the game at an early stage and benefited from the fact that the Pacers needed more than 4 minutes to get their first throw out of the field. This resulted in a first cushion, which initially melted together again. At the beginning of the second quarter, a threesome from strong Bojan Bogdanovic (29 points, 9/15 FG, 5/7 3FG) put Indiana in the lead.
But the joy of it didn’t last long, because the wizards answered with a 13:0 run. This time the hosts did not recover as well, even though they rebelled again and again thanks to other great plays from Bogdanovic. They did not reach less than 7 points in the further course of the game.
Once again, Washington mostly acted without a “real” point guard. Bradley Beal took over most of the ball handling and did a decent job with 21 points and 3 assists. A total of seven wizards players landed in the double-digit points area, including Otto Porter (13) and Kelly Oubre (15) in addition to Beal.
After a great January it looks as if the Heat could use the upcoming All-Star Break. They lost their fourth game in a row – against the worst team in the league a wild final spurt was not enough to prevent the bankruptcy.
After all, the Defense Miami was not up to scratch for much of the game. Although they had to do without Aaron Gordon (hip), the Magic created a lot of open litters (48.8 percent FG, 43.3 percent 3FG). So they turned the game around in the second half, after the first round had gone to the favourites. About 8 minutes to go, Orlando led 107:93.
But if you now take a look at the final score, you will notice that only 4 points were added for the Magic. Miami pulled himself together again and started a final spurt, led by Josh Richardson (20 points). With a 16:2 round they equalized the game. However, Jonathon Simmons had the answer before it got wild in the last seconds. After a loss of Marreese Speights’ ball 13 seconds before the end, the Heat had a timeout and the chance to equalize or even win.
Tyler Johnson started with the layup, but was blocked by Bismack Biyombo. The Refs whistled Goaltending, but corrected this after a review. At 1.8 seconds on the clock Miami got another chance by throwing it in, but Justise Winslow didn’t manage to get it to a fellow player – that’s it!
Top scorer of the Magic was Mario Hezonja with 20 points, D. J. Augsutin and Simmons were 16 each. On the other hand Richardson Bam Adebayo (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Hassan Whiteside (19 points, 14 rebounds) were convincing.
Page 1: Pistons and Wizards continue their upward trend
Page 2: Jazz beating up pels, nuggets loose