The Sixers win against the Hornets in overtime thanks to a monster performance by Joel Embiid. The nets shoot the nuggets down via game winners and the Wolves remain without a win away.
The crisis of the Wizards is getting worse and worse! After a bitter defeat against the Mavs, the next gossip came in Orlando. But let’s take it one at a time.
As is so often the case this season, the wizards, like the fire brigade, came out of the cabin and quickly gained a 9-point advantage. As is so often the case this season, however, the capital cities cooled down just as quickly and saw themselves trailing by 25:32 at the end of the first quarter. Thanks to 14 (!) ball losses in the first half it looked even worse for the guests during the break.
In addition, Orlando had a hot hand from the outside the whole evening and sunk sovereign 13/31 threes. Especially Aaron Gordon (20 points, 7 rebounds) and Nikola Vucevic (21 points, 14 rebounds) had a hot hand, just like Rookie Mo Bamba, who stayed almost perfectly out of the field (7/8 FG for 15 points) and attracted attention with a cracking putback dark.
In the Wizards, Bradley Beal was the best scorer with 27 points (10/21 FG), John Wall came up with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists. Kelly Oubres 19 points from the bench could not prevent the ninth defeat in the eleventh game of the season.
What a thriller in Philly! The Sixers saved a long-won game with trouble and hardship into extra time, but finally got the upper hand and kept their perfect balance at the Wells Fargo Center.
However, the visitors came super into the game and sunk without further ado the first 8 points. The Sixers, however, had a stable distance throw in their luggage and, thanks to rookie Jonah Bolden’s first NBA triumvirate to be hit, made up for it in time for the first end of the quarter with 33:33.
The Sixers then continued to distance themselves as Charlotte found no answer at all to the physis of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, who dominated the enemy zone at will and collected one dunk after the other. On the other hand, Kemba Walker in particular had a pitch-black evening for three quarters of the time and only accommodated two of his 16 throwing attempts in the basket.
In the last section, however, the team from the city of fraternal love suddenly missed a flowerpot themselves, so that the Hornets took the lead for the first time since the first quarter. Walker also finally took on normal form and scored 17 points in the last twelve minutes, including a clutch-three, which brought Charlotte 1:20 in front with 5 points before the end. However, Embiid knew how to answer with a threesome on his part and two transformed free throws, so that it went into overtime.
Once again Embiid was the outstanding man, pulled clever fouls and secured the victory for the Sixers with an incredible statline (42 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assist, 4 blocks, 19/22 FT). Ben Simmons contributed his decisive part with another 22 points, 8 rebounds and 13 assist.
The Hawks seemed to have decided in the collective to do most of the defensive work in this game. After a few moments they were 8:26 behind in front of their home crowd without superstar Blake Griffin taking a single throw for the pistons. Not much should change in this impression in the State Farm Arena.
“We did a really good job working with exactly what the defensive gave us,” Griffin said after the match. “If we play this way and let the ball go well, it’ll be a lot more fun.”
And this despite the fact that the former No.1 pick scored a far from good evening and only hit two of his ten throws for 6 points. But with 9 assists he always put his fellow men in the limelight and also grabbed 9 boards.
Best thrower in the ranks of Detroit was again Big-Man colleague Andre Drummond with 23 points (10/15 FG) and 11 rebounds. With the Hawks, Jeremy Lin from the bank was the only bright spot. Linsanity had 19 points (5/9 FG), 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in just 22 minutes playing time on his proof of work.
Page 1: Sixers win OT thriller, Wizards still devastating
Page 2: Nets shock nuggets, Wolves lose again