Lonzo Ball becomes a sniper in the Crunchtime and ensures a surprising success of the Los Angeles Lakers at the San Antonio Spurs. Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers remain home strong and defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder. Miami reaches a big point against the pistons.
That was a strange party in Orlando. In the duel between two teams, who don’t really want to win too many games, it remained exciting until the last minute, also because none of the teams really wanted to grab the victory. In the last 3:03 minutes the lead changed back and forth six times, in the end it was Evan Fournier who, with a threesome 22.5 seconds to go before the end, made the preliminary decision. Rookie Jonathan Isaac then blocked another litter of grizzlies and so at the end stood the legendary 13th minute. for the grizzlies.
At Memphis neither Marc Gasol nor Tyreke Evans were active, the scoring came instead from Ben McLemore (20 points), Jarrell Martin (19, plus 11 rebounds), Mario Chalmers (15) and Kobi Simmons (14). Meanwhile JaMychal Green scarcely hit a roll (2/12 FG), but nevertheless sniffed at the triple double (10 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists).
For Orlando, Fournier and Nikola Vucevic were the top scorers with 19 points each. D.J. Augustin and Mario Hezonja, who also showed a spectacular windmill, came in 16 each.
That was an absolute big point for the Heat. In the Eastern Conference standings, Detroit is Miami’s worst pursuer, who could attack eighth place again – all the more importantly, it was to defeat this direct competitor in their home arena. Coach Erik Spoelstra was accordingly satisfied:”Two desperate teams that didn’t give each other anything. That’s what this league is about. This victory was excellent.”
It made his team a bit more exciting than it should have been. Already in the first half the hosts had already led with 18 points in the meantime, but especially the strong Blake Griffin they couldn’t get a grip on. With 31 points, the Power Forward played a major role in the fact that Detroit walked back again in the last quarter. However, the pistons always had big problems when Griffin was sitting.
“He was dominant and whenever he sat on the bench, nothing happened at all,”Stan Van Gundy was angry. Understandable: In 36 minutes with Griffin Detroit was +7, in 12 minutes without him -16th “We have to turn it around and start a run sometime now”, Griffin said in allusion to the playoff hopes, which are clearly dwindling in the meantime.
In the middle of the fourth quarter it was Rodney McGruder and Kelly Olynyk who, with two consecutive threesomes, secured an 11-point lead for Miami, which Detroit could no longer catch up. Olynyk was together with Josh Richardson also top scorer of the Heat (17 points). In addition James Johnson scored 14 points, Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow delivered 13 points each and Dwyane Wade 11 points from the bank. Hassan Whiteside scored 8 points and 19 rebounds.
Who knows where the Lakers would stand if the season had just started a little bit later? Meanwhile, the young team is getting along better and better – the victory in San Antonio was already the fifth victory in a row and thus particularly impressive, because Brandon Ingram was one of the best players of the last weeks not available at all. The Spurs also entered the last quarter with an 11-point lead. And yet the Lakers fought their way back again.
For much of the game, this had to do with the strong Julius Randle, who could not be controlled by the Spurs and hung up 25 points. Isaiah Thomas also did a good game (21 points), similar to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (18, with 13 rebounds). And yet the final phase belonged first and foremost to Lonzo Ball.
The rookie, who recently returned from his injury break, played one of the best games of his young career in San Antonio. He scored a total of 6/10 threesomes (Career High), where timing was the decisive factor. He scored three of these three goals in the last three minutes, including the equaliser and finally the decisive throw. He finished the match with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists as the clear match winner.
Of course, the spurs left a bitter aftertaste. Even without LaMarcus Aldridge, the game had been under control for a long time, but in the end they let themselves be taken by a hungry team to win the victory that would have been needed in the playoff race of the Western Conference. Even the good Pau Gasol (19 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks) could not prevent this.
Page 1: Big Point for the Miami Heat – Lakers and Lonzo Ball beat the Spurs
Page 2. Jazz march on – OKC loses in Portland