Embarrassing defeat for Grizzlies: Memphis goes down with 61 points in Charlotte – Kemba Walker shoots out all the lights. Meanwhile, the Sixers take their fifth consecutive victory with an easy blowout win in Orlando, while the Pelicans celebrate a hard-won victory. The Hawks lose in Sacramento.
What a game by Kemba Walker! After Dwight Howard, due to his 16th birthday. When the technical fouls of the season were suspended by the NBA for the match against Memphis, the 27-year-old jumped more than impressively into the breach: 46 points, 10 converted threesome and a plus/minus rating of +47 Walker had to show at the end of the evening.
The All-Star sunk 13 of his 18 attempts out of the field, 10 of his 14 throws from downtown found their way through the cage and Walker set the tone from the very first minute. With 17 points in the first quarter (37:14) and 18 points in the second round he brought his team onto the winning track without detours – the Grizzlies were hopelessly inferior.
Memphis lost 19 balls and hit only 22.2 percent of downtown. On an evening when Walker and colleagues turned out all the lights, that was of course far too little to keep up at all. Despite a solid performance by Tyreke Evans (16 points, 7/11 FG, 7 rebounds) the Grizzlies were trailing with 33 points at the break. In the course of the game, the gap even increased to an incredible 65 points (137:72).
Not surprisingly, the Hornets celebrated the highest victory in franchise history at the end of the evening (61 points difference). In addition to the outstanding Walker, Marvin Williams and Dwayne Bacon (15 points each) also performed well.
“You don’t see a game like this every day,” Walker said himself. “We played well. We knew that[the Grizzlies] would be without Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, who are both great players. Grizzlies-Guard Evans, on the other hand, was more than served: “That was embarrassing! The whole thing. They laughed the whole time.”
The champagne bottles have not yet been taken out in the Philadelphia 76ers’ Locker Room, but some Sixers fans may have toasted a special performance after the victory against the Magic: After six years in a row with more defeats than victories, Philly secured his first season with success in Florida with a positive balance for a felt eternity.
Not only that, with their fifth victory in a row, the Sixers are moving quickly towards the playoffs. The Magic didn’t pose a big hurdle that evening, the game was already decided after 24 minutes. After Orlando kept up more or less well in the first quarter, all the dams broke in the second section.
Led by Joel Embiid (17 points, 9 rebounds), Ersan Ilyasova (18, 7/11 FG) and J.J. Redick (12) made the guests short work, with a 12:0-run shortly before the turn of the page Philly set off up to 23 points (70:47). And even after the break it didn’t really get any better from Magic’s point of view.
“We knew we had the lead behind us, but we were still able to keep up the pressure,” Philadelphia extended their lead to 35 points in the meantime. Afterwards Brown could completely spare his starters in the final section. On the Magic side, only Rodney Purvis, who contributed 19 points from the bank, was convincing.
Page 1: Walker dismantles the grizzlies
Page 2: Davis and Rondo lead Pelicans to victory