De’Aaron Fox leads the Sacramento Kings to a clear victory at the Atlanta Hawks with a triple double. Meanwhile Joel Embiid defends his territory against the Los Angeles Clippers and dominated with 41 points. Dennis Schröder finds meanwhile more and more to his role with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder didn’t get a good start to the season, losing four of their first six games, sometimes dramatically. Also in this game she should not expect an easy opponent, the Hornets, especially Kemba Walker, were hot and delivered a real fight.
The home team started an 8-0 run right in the first quarter, while Paul George took too many throws on the other side and could only sink 3 out of 10 into the basket. Sophomore Malik Monk (21) made it clear from the start that he was in a good mood and transformed a four-point play.
The Hornets also got off to a much better start in the second leg, had a 12:4 run and played a good defense (Thunder with 35.4 percent field throw rate). However, this could be claimed by both teams, Charlotte also threw only 30.4 percent out of the field in the first half.
The second half also began with a Hornets run (14-0), but the hosts could not hold the lead for long. Even though Walker (21), Nicolas Batum (10) and Jeremy Lamb (13) had achieved a 17-point lead, Oklahoma City still equalled in the same quarter.
The 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook (29 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists) took control in the last leg (30:38) and scored just past a triple double. George, however, did not get going until the end and had in almost 40 minutes only 11 points (4/20) on the account. But this time there was really good support from the Bank der Thunder.
Alex Abrines surprised positively and scored 25 points, scoring five of his ten triple attempts. And Dennis Schröder also delivered his best performance of the season to date and performed more efficiently than last time (7/15 FG). In a good 30 minutes the 25-year-old scored 21 points, scored 5 goals and scored only 2 turnovers.
In principle, the distribution of roles in this game was clearly distributed, especially as the Cavaliers currently have other problems after the dismissal of Tyronn Lue and the previous disagreement with interim coach Larry Drew, and the end result also reflected this distribution of roles. But at the beginning it looked quite different.
The Cavs started strong and won the first quarter 27-15, with Tristan Thompson popping his first three throws and Denver appearing a little shocked. However, the favourites quickly fought back. The nuggets reduced the lead of the Cavs to 4 points and said goodbye with a 16:4 run into the half-time break. Juancho Hernangomez was able to strike three times from downtown alone.
In the second half, the playful quality of the nuggets finally prevailed, who had previously won six of their seven matches and surprised with strong defense. The team’s usual scorers were still quite inconspicuous, with Denver having six different players with a double-digit score instead.
Hernangomez scored 23 points (5/8 three FG), star-center Nikola Jokic left it at just 4 points in a good 22 minutes, he also had 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Cavs-Rookie Collin Sexton scored 12 points (5/11 FG) and Jordan Clarkson led his team with 17 points (7/14 FG). Cleveland’s triple quota ended up at a miserable 27.8 percent.
Joel Embiid dominated this game from the beginning and was not to be stopped by the Clippers at any time. Although the Cameroonian was already at 24 points during the break, the Sixers needed another outstanding run in the end to really end the affair.
At the beginning of the second half it still looked as if the Clippers could come back. Danilo Gallinari scored 11 points in the third quarter and brought his team from the corner to only 1 point to the 76ers with a threesome. Another goal from Downtown even gave L.A. the lead in the meantime, but then Markelle Fultz (12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) also came into play.
With his support Philadelphia started a 10:2-Run and brought himself back to the front with 4 points. In a hot final phase the Embiid show continued, the MVP candidate scored 9 out of 12 points of his team to extend the lead once again.
He finished the game with 41 points (16/32 FG) and grabbed 13 boards before blocking 4 throws from his opponent. Sophomore Ben Simmons had a solid double double with 14 points and 11 assists. On the Clippers’ side, three players passed the 20 point mark, but Tobias Harris (24), Gallinari (25) and Lou Williams (26) could not prevent the defeat.
Page 1: Dennis Schröder gets going – Joel Embiid dominates
Page 2: Historical Triple Double for De’Aaron Fox