Dennis Schröder gets a really strong evening against his ex-team. The German is the outstanding man in the victory of the Thunder against the Hawks. The rockets rehearse with their regular rotation, while the spurs have to accept a severe setback. Jazz remains unbeaten in the preseason.
Was Dennis Schröder particularly motivated in the duel with his ex-team? The German started directly like the fire brigade and showed some strong actions in the beginning minutes. Already after about 8 minutes DS17 had 9 counters on its account.
Afterwards Schröder did not let up, at the end of the day he had 20 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 turnovers in 27 minutes. Schröder sunk 9 of his 14 throws out of the field (1/2 threes) – the efficiency had been the big problem in both preseason games before.
The Hawks had relatively little to oppose against the bear-strong Thunder duo consisting of Schröder and Paul George (22 points, 6 rebounds, 6 steals). Both finished the game with an outstanding plus/minus value of +30. Steven Adams also showed an appealing performance with 8 points and 9 rebounds, Hamidou Diallo contributed 13 points from the bench.
Alex Len was the best scorer on the side of the Hawks, who spared some regulars, with 18 points. Top-rookie Trae Young scored 16 points and 2 assists and sunk 5 of his 13 attempts out of the field (2/5 three). The performance of Kent Bazemore was particularly disappointing (9 points, 2/7 FG in 30 minutes).
Rockets-Head-Coach Mike D’Antoni used the rotation in the third preseason game, which you can also expect in the regular season. In addition to the Starting Five, Carmelo Anthony (29 minutes), Gerald Green (22 minutes) and Eric Gordon (20 minutes) got many minutes. The starters stood on the floor for about half an hour.
The best scorer was not surprisingly James Harden. Last season’s MVP scored 21 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds. Nevertheless, not everything went smoothly for the 29-year-old. Beside his throwing problems (5/14 FG, 3/10 Dreier) Harden had to fight with 7 ball losses.
Nevertheless, the Rockets managed to win, as the guests in the fourth quarter – after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich took his starters from the field – were able to pull away decisively. Besides Harden, P.J. Tucker (19 points, 7 rebounds), Gerald Green (13) and Anthony (12 and 6) also showed a good performance. Isaiah Hartenstein was not used due to ankle problems.
San Antonio, on the other hand, suffered a severe setback in the second quarter. After it became known the day before that the Texans had to give up rookie Lonnie Walker IV for several weeks due to injury, Dejounte Murray will now also be cancelled.
The Point Guard injured his right knee and had to be brought on a wheelchair from inside the arena. From a sporting point of view, DeMar DeRozan made a good impression with 22 points and 5 assists, Rudy Gay contributed 13 points. Otherwise the Spurs remained pale for the most part, Jakob Pöltl (2 points in 14 minutes as starter) could not set any accents either.
Despite a dominant performance by Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves had to accept their third bankruptcy in the fourth preseason game. The center of the hosts dominated under the basket and with 33 points (11/19 FG, 2/3 threesome) as well as 12 rebounds a strong double-double was put on.
The big problem: The Timberwolves gave up the splitting more than twice as often compared to the Bucks (21:10) and gave the guests a lot of simple points (27:23 points off turnover). Milwaukee, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, won the game relatively unambiguously.
The Greek got 21 points and 10 rebounds, he received helpful support from Christian Wood (14) and Khris Middleton (13), among others. Malcolm Brogdon, Tony Snell and Donte DiVincenzo each scored 12 points. At Minnesota C.J. Williams was the best thrower with 12 points besides KAT.
The Big Three of the Trail Blazers was in a really strong mood this evening. Damian Lillard (23 points, 7 assists, 9/11 FG), as well as C.J. McCollum (21 and 4) and Jusuf Nurkic (20, 11 rebounds, 5 blocks) played great and made the regular season fun.
But when Head Coach Terry Stotts took the starters off the field in the fourth quarter and gave the reservists the rudder, Utah really turned up the heat. The Jazz won the final section with 39:20 and won the fourth preseason victory in the fourth game.
Alec Burks (12 points) was the strongest player, but Georges Niang and Dante Exum also convinced with 9 points each. Among the starters Donovan Mitchell stood out with 21 points, Joe Ingles with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.