The Cleveland Cavaliers have an evening to forget. In addition to the defeat against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Cavs also have to cope with the loss of two players. Meanwhile, the wizards stop the Pelicans’ winning streak and the pistons finally win again. The Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets achieve important victories in the playoff race.
After the last four defeats in a row and ten bankruptcies from the last twelve games, it was clear to the pistons that if they wanted to keep up the chance of the playoffs, they urgently needed a sense of achievement against Chicago. For 18 minutes, however, it looked rather gloomy for this project.
In the middle of the second quarter, the guests from the Windy City were in front with 39:29, before the pistons finally knocked the switch.”I think our defense was pretty good all evening long,”head coach Stan van Gundy summed up after the match,”but our offense didn’t really get going until the second quarter. After that, we played really well.”
So good that Detroit shot the guests out of the arena with 70:44 in the further course of the game and finally achieved a safe blowout victory. Top scorer was Blake Griffin, who scored 25 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Reggie Bullock still contributed 21 points, while Andre Drummond showed little in the attack (5 points, 2/7 FG), but took 17 strong rebounds.
Despite a good start to the game, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg was not happy with his team’s performance:”If you only hit 35 percent of the team on the road and have 14 turnovers, you don’t stand a good chance of winning,” said Cameron Payne with 17 points and Kris Dunn with 13 points. They were the only cops with a double-digit score. Paul Zipser was still not available due to his foot injury.
After the 20-point gossip against jazz a few days ago, the Pacers showed morale. Against the worst team of the Eastern Conference the hosts presented themselves from the beginning on the height and let absolutely nothing burn: Already after twelve minutes Indiana had to show a 34:15 lead.
In the second round, the Pacers quickly extended their lead to 21 points, and in the third section it was now even 31 points. Indiana pocketed 14 of her 28 attempts from downtown and scored 25 fastbreak points (ATL: 6),”They made it look easy today,”Pacers coach Nate McMillan said satisfied.”Our boys hit their throws.”
Another piece of good news came from Darren Collison on the floor. The Point Guard finished his first game after knee surgery and scored 17 points in 21 minutes,”If you’re hoping for something, it’s exactly what he showed today,”McMillan said,”He hasn’t lost anything of his old strength. It’s good to have him back on the court.”
Also Victor Oladipo and Myles Turner (12 rebounds) scored 17 points each, Cory Joseph scored 18 points and 7 rebounds. The best scorer of the Pacers was Bojan Bogdanovic, who scored 21 points and pocketed 8 of his 15 throwing attempts. Things didn’t go quite as well for Dennis Schröder. The German got at least 15 points and 4 assists, but had some problems with his litter (6/14 FG). Tyler Dorsey scored 18 points for the Hawks, but that didn’t change the second straight defeat.
The race for playoff places in the Western Conference is still very exciting – and the Utah Jazz are still on the road to success in the battle for their big goal. Against the grizzlies, Utah clinched their fifth consecutive victory. The pressure on the competition therefore remains, even though jazz continues to rank ninth behind the nuggets.
Until the middle of the second quarter, however, the hosts were still able to tighten the game. It was not until a subsequent 14:6 run that Utah broke away for the first time, and in the further course of the game the guests were not to give up their lead either. After the Jazz were able to extend their lead to 15 points in the third section, the fair was more or less read.
Jae Crowder delivered his best performance in a jazz jersey so far, probably even his best performance this season. With his 22 points (Season-High) he advanced to the top scorer of Jazz, Crowder pocketed 6 of his 11 threesomes. Apart from that, Utah convinced with a balanced team performance.
Ricky Rubio contributed a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists), Joe Ingles scored 16 points. On the side of the Grizzlies, Dillon Brooks was the most conspicuous with 18 points, Marc Gasol played 9 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks. The already 16. But even the Spaniard could not prevent defeat at all.
Page 1: Pistons report back – Hawks go down
Page 2: Wizards stop Pelicans winning streak
Page 3: Trail Blazers shock Warriors – Cavs lose to LAC