For the third time in a row, the Golden State Warriors have suffered a defeat. Against the San Antonio Spurs, Kevin Durant and Co. are not satisfied with a late comeback. Meanwhile the Orlando Magic continue their winning streak and the Portland Trail Blazers jump to number 1 in the west.
After two defeats in a row before, an opponent like Wizards, who had weakened this season, seemed just right from Portland’s point of view. The Trail Blazers started from the first second like the fire brigade, sank 7 of the first 9 attempts from downtown and had a 32:12 lead after just 8 minutes.
After all, the Wizards found a strong answer. With a 15:0 run led by John Wall (24 points) Washington fought back in the first run. However, this high should only be of short duration.
The second quarter was very similar to the first, but with the small but subtle difference that this time the landlords did not make a comeback. Portland won the second run with 30:16, Damian Lillard and Co. were in front with 21 points during the break. That was ultimately the decision.
The Point Guard of the Trail Blazers was the man who outdid everything. Lillard gave the Wizards 40 points (12/29 FG) and also 6 rebounds and 5 assists. C.J. McCollum (27 and 7 rebounds) and Jusuf Nurkic (13, 14 and 8 assists) also performed well. After this success and the defeat of the Warriors, Portland is now in 1st place of the Western Conference.
Washington, on the other hand, had to cope not only with the second consecutive defeat, but also with the loss of Dwight Howard. The center injured its buttocks again – it had already missed the start of the season with the same injury – and had to leave the parquet in the second quarter.
Speaking of getting started like the fire department. This description also applied to the Orlando Magic that evening – and in particular to Aaron Gordon. The landlords hit all 10 of their first field casting attempts, a large part of this scoring load was taken over by the Big Man. After only a few minutes Gordon was on 17 points and 7 of 7 out of the field.
The Knicks, on the other hand, seemed overwhelmed in all respects. At the end of the first section, the guests had scored 31 of their own points on the scoreboard, but the Magic scored 44 points in the same period! It was then the Knickerbockers’ bench around Trey Burke and Enes Kanter that brought New York back into the game.
In the first half alone, Burke scored 16 points, and in the end the 26-year-old scored 31 points (11/20 FG, 1/7 threesome). Tim Hardaway Jr. also scored 32 points coming from the bench and Kanter played the next impressive double with 21 and 19 rebounds.
The Knicks made two comeback attempts at the same time: At first, the visitors fought their way back to the half-time break (66:67) and after Orlando had again moved away to 12 points after the side change, Burke and Hardaway Jr. answered with an 11:2 run.
But that wasn’t enough in the end. The Knicks just couldn’t stop Orlando. The Magic scored 57 percent from the field and set a new season high with 131 points. Thanks to Gordon (31, 13/17 FG), Nikola Vucevic (28, 10 boards, 9 assists) and Jonathan Isaac (16), who was particularly strong in the final section, the Magic moved away 116:104 six minutes before the end. New York couldn’t recover from that.
The defeat series of the Golden State Warriors continues. Against the Spurs it hail already the third bankruptcy in series. Worse still, the reigning champion took just two wins from the last seven games.
Against the Spurs it didn’t look too rosy for the guests from the beginning. With a 10:2 run, San Antonio lost for the first time towards the end of the first section, the Dubs then had to run almost the entire game behind.
Golden State took the lead for a short time in the middle of the second run, but in the end it went 48:56 from Warriors view into the cabin. In the third section, the Spurs seemed to take complete control. In the meantime DeMar DeRozan and Co. were even in front with 18 counters.
But the comeback of the Dubs wasn’t long in coming. Kevin Durant (26 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists), Klay Thompson (25) and Quinn Cook (16) led their team back within striking distance, but could not turn the game anymore.
This was partly due to the once again weak shooting of the dubs (5/26 threes, 19.2 percent), but also to LaMarcus Aldridge. First the Big Man increased with 2 of his 24 points (plus 18 rebounds) just 3 minutes before the siren to 95:90 for the Spurs. Shortly thereafter, he didn’t give Damian Jones a chance with a monstrous block.
On the other side, DeRozan (20 and 9 assists) had some free throws – the Spurs didn’t let anything burn anymore. Besides the newcomers from Canada and LMA, Rudy Gay (19) also delivered a strong performance. Jakob Pöltl scored 4 points and 5 rebounds in 8 minutes. After three defeats in a row, the Spurs finally managed to win again.