NBA: Next home clap for Houston – OKC and Schröder turn up the heat

The Houston Rockets can’t win at home. Against the Portland Trail Blazers it sets the next sensitive defeat. The Oklahoma City Thunder around Dennis Schröder won against the Los Angeles Clippers thanks to a furious second half.

The old man’s still got it. Tony Parker scored 24 points and 11 assists against the Heat and thus provided the desired relief for Kemba Walker (19, 4/8 three), who this time had to shoulder less responsibility. The reservists of the Hornets contributed a full 66 points, Parker, Malik Monk (20, 7/10 FG) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (14) were also convincing.

Charlotte led with up to 20 points, but had to tremble a bit in the final phase, because Dwyane Wade (19, 6/10 FG) started another comeback attempt for the Heat and pushed the gap into the single digits.

But then Kemba-Time was the order of the day and the Hornets’ franchise player made the final cap on the game with two threes in a row. Besides Walker, Nicolas Batum also played well as a starter and also scored 20 points.

Miami, on the other hand, was not able to play out their economies of scale and even lost the rebound duel with 34:39, with the exception of Hassan Whiteside (16, 12 boards), no heat player took hold properly. Six players scored double digits, but no topped calf. Josh Richardson contributed 15 points (5/13 FG).

Ty Lue is history in Cleveland and under interim coach Larry Drew (or not?) the Cavs finally celebrated their first victory of the season, the revenge against Atlanta, who shot Cleveland out of the hall last week, so it can be considered a success.

Man of the day was Rodney Hood, who played his best game in the Cavs jersey and played 26 points (9/13 FG, 4/4 Dreier). Kevin Love, on the other hand, wasn’t there, he even had an operation on his toe. But even without Love the Cavs could win the game, also because they got 43 free throws (Atlanta: 17).

Especially in the second half the Cavs dominated the action and won the 24 minutes with 78:57. Besides Hood, Cedi Osman (20), Collin Sexton (17, 8 rebounds) and Tristan Thompson (11, 13 rebounds, 4 steals) also played well.

Rookie Trae Young was again the best man at Atlanta. The playmaker scored 24 points (9/13 FG), but could not prevent the debacle in the second half. Alex Len (22) transformed all his nine litters, Jeremy Lin (12, 8 Assists) showed his class again in the meantime.

Who’d have thought? After their fourth win in a row, the Kings are now already at 5-3, and the fact that Sacramento had already accumulated in Miami the day before played no role at all. On the contrary, the Kings had the longer breath in Orlando and set themselves apart with a 13:2 run at the end of the third quarter.

Buddy Hield, who played 25 points (9/15 FG) and 11 rebounds, contributed six points and was generally the best player of a good Kings team. Even a two-digit deficit in the first half did not discourage the young team, instead they kept Orlando after the change at 43 points and a throw rate of just 33.3 percent.

Around five minutes before the end, the Magic reduced their points to three, but seven turnovers in the final section destroyed any hopes of victory. Best scorer of the Magic was Aaron Gordon with 18 points (7/15 FG) and 10 rebounds, Nikola Vucevic scored 15 and 15. Rookie Mo Bamba showed himself to be better this time and got 7 points each and rebounds as well as strong 5 blocks.

Sacramento’s top rookie Marvin Bagley (10, 9 rebounds) was in action for 23 minutes and scored just past a double double. Otherwise the other Bigs of the Kings, Nemanja Bjelica (21, 8/13 FG) and Willie Cauley-Stein (14, 11 Boards) also showed good performances.

Page 1: Cavs take first victory – Kings continue to surprise

Page 2: Griffin misfire helps Boston – Next home clap for rockets

Page 3: Wizards crisis intensifies – Thunder’s mega comeback