With an unbelievable second half Damian Lillard leads the Portland Trail Blazers to victory against the Orlando Magic. The Detroit Pistons also remain undefeated against the Cavaliers, while LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers ended the winning streak of the Nuggets.
Still no defeat for the pistons – and still no victory for the Cavaliers! This evening was first and foremost due to the outstanding Andre Drummond, who terrorized the Cavaliers with 26 points and 22 rebounds – already the second time this season that the Center has played at least 20 and 20!
However, despite the dominance of the pistons under the boards (48:30 rebounds) the Cavaliers could keep up well over the 48 minutes. The guests in person of Kevin Love (foot injury) even lacked the best player. But Kyle Korver jumped into the breach. The veteran scattered 21 points (7/10, 4/7 threes) from the bench.
Among them was a four-point game 49 seconds before the end, which brought Cleveland up to 6 points. But that came too late. In addition to Korver, the other reservists around Jordan Clarkson (18) and Rookie Collin Sexton (14) also showed a strong performance.
On the other hand, Blake Griffin made a strong showing with 26 points (9/13 FG) and 10 assists after his 50-point game against the Sixers a few days ago. The Big Man also pocketed 4 threes (in 5 attempts), but at the same time also afforded 6 turnovers.
The ball losses were not just a problem for Griffin alone. Detroit gave up the Spalding 20 times, Cleveland only 9 times. So the pistons kept the guests in the game for a long time due to their own carelessness. But in the end it was enough for the pistons to make the best start to the season since 2008/09.
With Damian Lillard you definitely shouldn’t mess with it, a Magic fan had to experience this the hard way. “He kept yelling my name, ‘Oh, he doesn’t want to play tonight. He’s not that good.’ The whole first half, he just didn’t want to be quiet,” said Lillard of a somewhat cocky Orlando fan.
The Trail Blazers point guard, who only scored 7 points in the first half, had enough at some point: “I told him at the end of the second quarter we’d see.” And then it started, the big Lillard show. The 28-year-old overtook the Magic with 34 points in the second half (franchise record), at the end of the evening he had 41 points on his account – and Portland one more victory.
Together with C.J. McCollum (22) and Jusuf Nurkic (18 and 10 rebounds) he led the Trail Blazers to a 13-point lead in the third quarter. Although the Magic reduced the score to 3 points at the beginning of the final stage thanks to strong offense, the hopes of the home side were dashed after Lillard and McCollum were replaced again.
The backcourt duo scored 22 of the Trail Blazers last 26 points, securing the team their third victory in the fourth game. Orlando led by Nikola Vucevic scored with 24 points and 11 rebounds over 50 percent out of the field and 12 threes, but the Magic Portland could not stop.
Too strong were Lillard and McCollum or Zach Collins, who contributed 17 points and 6 boards from the bench and stayed perfectly out of the field (7/7 FG). Lillard also scored at least 40 points for the 17th time in his career, breaking Clyde Drexler’s franchise record.
By now everyone should have noticed: Defense is not necessarily a big issue in the Los Angeles Lakers games. No wonder Kobe Bryant enjoyed his visit to the Staples Center as much as any other Lakers fan.
The lack of a real rim protector on both sides was clearly noticeable. Both the Lakers and the Nuggets score in the opposing zone quasi at will. At the end of the evening the nuggets had 74 counters in the painted area (LAL: 64).
As a result, both teams crossed the 50-percent hurdle from the field, even though they had to fight for three points. Denver in particular remained rather pale from a distance (26.1 percent), but due to the strong presence in the zone it remained a balanced affair until the final minutes.
But after the nuggets had laboriously worked their way up to a 106:98 lead in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Lake Show took command. First, Lance Stephenson (xx) brought the hosts back with a fast 8-point return, then LeBron James set the exclamation mark with a crashing dunk and finally Lonzo Ball sunk a stepback threesome.
With a 19:4 run L.A. put himself in a good starting position, with another strong drive LeBron James put the lid on it just 40 seconds before the end. The King played the 74th triple double of his career and finished the game with 27 points (19/17 FG), 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Also strong was Kyle Kuzma (22).
On the other side, the Denver Nuggets suffered their first defeat of the season, even though three players had to score at least 20 points. Best scorer was Nikola Jokic (24 and 11 rebounds), followed by Jamal Murray (22 and 10) and Monte Morris (20 and 7 assists).