LeBron James briefly forgot the Cleveland Cavaliers crisis with a heroic performance. Against the Timberwolves he met the game winner in overtime. The pistons remain undefeated with Griffin, the rockets continue to roll inexorably and the spurs make short work of the Suns.
Number 5! The pistons have remained unbeaten since Blake Griffin’s arrival and now show a positive balance again – it smells like playoffs in Motor City. However, the Nets offered resistance in this duel up to the Cruchtime.
There, however, was Griffin time, after the Big Man had previously acted rather inconspicuously. But then he turned up the heat and scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including one or two demoralising goals for the Nets after they had repeatedly scratched Detroit’s tight lead.
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Allen Crabbe was the main reason for their success. Rather, the best also picked up the best until the end and slammed the pistons in the final section 19 points. All in all, he came to 34th “This is the Allen we need”, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson praised accordingly. Among the pistons who played with an eight-man rotation, Griffin Andre Drummond, who scored 27 rebounds in addition to his 17 points, was convincing. Stanley Johnson scored 19 points, second best Nets-Scorer was Joe Harris.
After a great run in December and January, the Heat have to watch out that they don’t get into a real crisis. It was the fifth consecutive defeat against the Rockets and all of a sudden the ninth place (detroit) put them in danger.
The rockets, on the other hand, sniff the top seed and the warriors are only half a game away. The Guard duo James Harden/Chris Paul was once again responsible for the coup in the South Beach tour of action, with the two of them together scoring 65 points. Everything was still open 8 minutes before the end. Josh Richardson (30 points) had put his team in the lead with 87:85, but the Texans responded with a 9:0 run. The landlords did not recover from this.
The beard ended up with 41 points (13/25 FG) and 6 assists, CP3 scored 24 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists,”We had two assassins on the court today,”coach Mike D’ Antoni analyzed accordingly. Apart from Richardson in Goran Dragic there was another 30 point scorer at the Heat – unusual for Erik Spoelstra’s otherwise so well-balanced boys.
Good news these days is rather scarce for the Vice Champion from Ohio. Most of the time it’s about necessary trades, bad defense, a counted coach or problems with the team chemistry – but all that was pushed aside that night. Thanks to LeBron James and a crazy game winner.
But first things first. In a highly entertaining game that was dominated by the offensive on both sides, no team made a decisive difference. The Cavs had the biggest lead 6 minutes before the end of the fourth quarter (119:111), but the Wolves came back. With 55 seconds left on the clock, Karl-Anthony Towns even put them in the lead with 129:126, but LeBron James then struck a three-way equaliser. It should be the last basket of regular playing time – Overtime!
In this LeBron again had his heroic moments. In a balanced score, he blocked the allegedly last throw of Jimmy Butler’s game. The ball was then awarded to his team. Jeff Green played a long inbound pass on James, who got some air at the free-throw line and met a fadeaway to win with the Buzzer.
“When I caught the ball, I immediately felt the confidence in myself as I had already experienced so much in my career,”James summed up the throw after the game. The two actions were the icing on the cake: With 37 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds he managed an impressive triple double. J.R. Smith contributed 20 points, while Butler (35 points) and Towns (30) shone on the other side.
Page 1: LeBron’s heroics and inexorable rockets
Page 2: Jazz still on the road to success, Spurs roll over Phoenix