The Portland Trail Blazers emerge victorious from a highly dramatic finish in Phoenix – thanks mainly to Damian Lillard, who turns up in the fourth quarter and kills the Suns with a game winner. The winning streak of the Sixers continues seamlessly, the Timberwolves look forward to double the good news and Daniel Theis is back with a solid game after his Career Night. The Mavericks lose a tight game in Utah and the Heat and Lakers also win.
With self-confidence from six consecutive victories, the Sixers entered the game, and super bowl winner Carson Wentz also heated up the crowd ahead of Tip-Off. The injured quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles rang the Liberty Bell, the mood at the Wells Fargo Center couldn’t have been better – and yet the Sixers got off to a very weak start.
In the middle of the first quarter, Philly had more turnovers than successful field goals, so they were 15:6 behind. With a 21:3 run, however, the hosts took control, which they were not supposed to relinquish so quickly. At the halfway point, the 76ers developed an 18-point lead and extended it to 22 points in the third section.
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But the Magic didn’t want to let go so easily at this time. Led by Aaron Gordon (20 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists), Evan Fournier (16 points) and Nikola Vucevic (15), Orlando made a comeback which brought her up to 9 points shortly before the end. A subsequent three-way attempt by Mario Hezonja, who would have reduced the gap to 6 points, however, got stuck on the ring.
After all, the Sixers brought the seventh consecutive victory – their longest run of success of the season – in dry clothes, with Joel Embiid outperforming the competition with 28 points and 14 rebounds, five more sixers scoring double-digit points. Ben Simmons contributed 17 points and 7 assists, J. J. Redick pocketed 6 of his 8 throws for 16 points. The sixers’ winning streak continued, while Orlando suffered his fifth consecutive defeat.
After three short defeats in a row, it was finally time for a loose blowout victory from a heat point of view. Luckily, Memphis Grizzlies were one of the worst teams in the NBA, with eight consecutive games (mostly quite clearly) lost to the visitors before the meeting in Miami. And there was no change in this series on South Beach either.
However, the start of the heat was not very promising. It was only after the half-time break that the hosts really kicked in, the strong third quarter (32:18) finally put them on the winning track. Six Heatles scored double-digit points, with Tyler Johnson scoring 23 points.
Otherwise, Justise Winslow (17 points, 7 rebounds), Josh Richardson (15 points, 5 steals) or Wayne Ellington (15 points, 5 assists) couldn’t be praised. All-Star Goran Dragic, however, held back a bit and only managed to score 6 points and 8 assists. However, this did not change anything about a dominant appearance of the Heat.
Miami outperformed the grizzlies in terms of points in the Zone (50:30), Fastbreak (13:2) and points from ball losses (16:8). The guests had to do without Marc Gasol (rest) and Tyreke Evans (ribs). Without the two best players of the team Andrew Harrison showed a good performance with 17 points and 6 assists.
A nice reward for Daniel Theis: After his career night against the pistons the day before, the German was allowed to use Madison Square Garden as a substitute for the injured Aron Baynes from the very beginning. Theis thanked him for his confidence with solid 6 points (2/3 FG) and 7 rebounds in 18 minutes. But the outstanding man that night was Kyrie Irving.
After some initial problems in the first half, the Point Guard turned up the heat in the third section. Irving scored 14 consecutive Celtic points and pocketed four threesomes in this phase, the last of which he gave his team a 10-point lead. She didn’t leave Boston alone in the final section. Though Irving (a total of 31 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists) held back a bit in the last 12 minutes with his scoring, he put his team-mates in the spotlight.
“He was still hot in the fourth quarter, which caused us a lot of trouble,”Trey Burke, who was the best knickerbocker with 26 points, then admitted,”We were worried about him, which gave other people a lot of space and they have good role-players” One of them is Jaylen Brown, who contributed 24 points and made one or the other spectacular darkness. Terry Rozier came 14 points from the bank, Al Horford played a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds).
Page 1: Sixers-Series continues – Theis is allowed to start
Page 2: Big game lady kills the Suns
Page 3: Mavs lose close match against Utah
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