The Boston Celtics sweep over the still undefeated pistons – also thanks to Daniel Theis, who lays down a strong game. Meanwhile Giannis Antetokounmpo provides a shock second and top pick Deandre Ayton makes the best game of his career. The Pelicans go down against Utah, the Portland Trail Blazers a late comeback against Miami is not enough.
Did you finally see the Celtics in Detroit that you had expected before the season? Against the still undefeated pistons, Boston showed an overwhelming defense over long distances – the home side had almost no chance from the beginning.
Blake Griffin, who played 33.8 points per game in the first four wins of the Pistons, had no chance at all. Every single one of his first 7 throws went wrong, the much smaller Jaylen Brown had Griffin obviously enormous problems.
“We knew that we mostly had to play small against [Griffin] and Drummond, so we just tried to be very active,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens explained the tactics. Brown not only did a very strong job in the defense, but also led his team with 19 points in the offense.
Beside Brown and Marcus Morris (18 points, 8 rebounds) Daniel Theis also played a great game. In 19 minutes the German scored 17 points (7/9 FG, 2/3 Dreier) and 8 boards and had a plus/minus value of +20, the second best in the whole team.
Celtics already caused a large part of the damage in the first half. After the first 24 minutes Boston was in front with 63:41, the game was decided. Theis had already collected 14 of his 17 counters by this time.
On the other hand Andre Drummond was the best man with 18 points (8/12 FG) and 8 rebounds, Griffin finished the game with 16 points. Gordon Hayward meanwhile delivered his best game of the new season with 15 points (6/11 FG) and 5 rebounds.
New Orleans had to do without Anthony Davis, who was spared due to elbow problems. And the absence of the Big Man, which had been outstanding so far, made itself – admittedly not surprisingly – enormously noticeable.
Thanks to Nikola Mirotic (25 points, 4/9 threes) and Jrue Holiday (18), the hosts were still able to keep up relatively well in the first quarter, but in the second section the Jazz team was able to break away. The guests attacked above all the enemy zone, where without the eyebrow huge holes sometimes gaped.
Rudy Gobert benefited most from this. At the end of the day, the center played a strong double-double with 25 points and 14 rebounds (plus 4 blocks) – the Frenchman sunk 11 of his 13 attempts out of the field, also thanks to the support of Ricky Rubio, who also played a good role in Gobert’s performance.
“When Ricky plays like that, it’s hard to lose,” the center was then full of praise for his point guard. “We have a lot of people who can score. And if Ricky puts more pressure on the defense, we’re hard to defend.” Rubio collected a total of 28 points, 12 assists and 6 boards, Donovan Mitchell also contributed 22 points to the victory.
The second quarter that Jazz won with 36:18, they broke the neck of their hosts. The Pelicans had too little to oppose Utah and also had to cope with the injury of Elfrid Payton (ankle). New Orleans reduced Garbage Time to 11 points, but that was not enough to prevent the first defeat of the season.
A good 24 hours after the Bulls had to put up with a solid 29-point slap in Charlotte, Chicago managed something like compensation. “I was disappointed by our deployment on Friday [against Charlotte],” Zach LaVine subsequently put on record. “It was good to bring this victory.”
LaVine contributed 27 points and 11 rebounds (career best) to the success against the Hawks, Jabari Parker helped with 18 points – 9 of which he played in the decisive fourth quarter. After the Bulls started into the final section with a 67:63 lead, they hammered Atlanta a total of 7 threes (in 10 attempts) around the ears.
The landlords could no longer keep up with this, partly due to the fact that Trae Young caught a pitch-black evening. The top rookie missed all of his 6 attempts from downtown, Young only scored 13 points (3/12 FG) and 4 assists at 5 turnovers.
His teammates were also only able to convince to a limited extent: Although Taurean Prince was the top scorer of his team with 16 points, he also fought with his throw (5/14 FG) and numerous ball losses (6). “After two games in which we were good, that was a good lesson in how to deal with success,” Head Coach Lloyd Pierce summed up. “We’ve tried too much sometimes, our 22 turnovers show that.”
Page 1: Strong Theis at Celtics victory – Jazz sweeps over Pels
Page 2: Sixers win thriller – Cavs continue without victory
Page 3: Ayton towers over – Bucks beat Orlando