Dwyane Wade is back at the Miami Heat and has equal share in the victory against Milwaukee Bucks. The Cleveland Cavaliers win thanks to LeBron James and Kyle Korver with the last line-up in Atlanta. Chicago wins an emotional game against Minnesota while Blake Griffin loses against his old love. Damian Lillard drops 50 points in just three quarters.
The pistons lost their first game with Blake Griffin against the Clippers. The reason for this was a weak fourth quarter, in which Detroit only scored 15 points and thus lost the game despite an 80:77 lead after 36 minutes.
The Power Forward had a tough time against his old team-mates. The Jumper (7/19 FG, 1/7 threesome) didn’t really want to fall, but together with Reggie Bullock he was the top scorer of his colours with 19 points. Coach Stan van Gundy once again sent in only eight players, while the recently added Guard Jameer Nelson was available, he still has to wait for his first appearance in the Pistons jersey.
The fight among the baskets was exciting. Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan were the two best rebounders of the league in a direct duel and they gave each other nothing. The bigs came on 17 rebounds each, but could hardly score against the others (Drummond: 15.5/15 FG, Jordan: 5.2/7 FG). However, the Clippers had a Lou Williams in their ranks, who scored 13 of his 26 points (7/12 FG) in the fourth quarter.
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Austin Rivers (16) showed a good performance in the first game after an ankle injury, including former pistons players Tobias Harris (12.8 rebounds) and Avery Bradley (10.8 boards). Griffin, on the other hand, was extremely pissed off after the game and stomped directly into the cabin after the siren without saying goodbye to his former teammates.
A one-sided affair in the city of brotherly love. The Pelicans had no shares at all in this game and after six minutes only four points. Joel Embiid dominated early on and already had a double double on the credit side during the break. At the end there were 24 points (11/18 FG), 16 rebounds and 3 blocks on the statistics sheet for the Cameroonian.
The pels stabilized a little bit after the weak start, but it remained too little offensively. As one of the league’s best offensives, only 34.7 percent of the visitors came from the field. Anthony Davis stood for the weak performance of the Pelicans. The franchise player scored a meager 14 points (6/19 FG) and grabbed 8 rebounds.
The preliminary decision was made at the end of the third section, when Philly scored the last 14 points of the quarter and extended the lead to 32 points. So it was 12 minutes of garbage time at the sold-out Wells Fargo Center, where Pels-Guard Ian Clark scored 15 points and Oldie Emeka Okafor with 4 blocks. Rajon Rondo (5,10 Assists) only came from the bank this time, for him started DeAndre Liggins, but he had no points in 19 minutes.
In addition to Embiid, Dario Saric (24.8/11 FG) played a good game for the Sixers, and Ben Simmons (10.9 rebounds, 8 assists) missed a triple double in only three quarters.
None of the four newcomers to the Cavs were ready for the game in Atlanta, so Cleveland played with just eight players after the upheaval to the Trade Deadline. But that was enough against the Hawks, where Dennis Schröder (25 points, 10/18 FG, 4 assists) showed a strong performance.
But Cleveland just got the Hawks killer in their ranks. Almost traditionally LeBron James breaks up Mike Budenholzer’s team according to all the rules of the art – and that was no different this time. 22 points, 12 rebounds and 17 assists (adjustment career best value) the King hung up in Atlanta and at the same time rewound almost 41 minutes.
Above all Kyle Korver benefited from his models, who scratched his career high (32) once again at the biblical age of almost 37 years with 30 points (7/13 threesome). And Korver knew where he had to say thank you,”Man, the ball was running for us today,” said the shooter,”I can’t remember when I last took so many throws, so the Cavs’ offenses clicked again, 53.5 percent of the attempts found their way into the basket, 31 assists were played.
“We communicated a lot at both ends of the court, the ball was running and everyone had their own rhythm:” So the first starting Cedi Osman came up to 16 points (best score) and Tristan Thompson (10.11 rebounds, 2 blocks) reminded more of the 2016 edition. Jeff Green, coming from the bank, contributed another 24 points.
Page 1: Griffin loses against old love – LeBron and Korver too much for Schröder
Page 2: Celtics comeback not rewarded – Cheered calf return in Miami
Page 3: LaVine tops Butler – Lillard drops 50 in three quarters