While Carmelo Anthony enjoys seeing the New York Knicks again, Lonzo Ball gets off to a weak start in his professional career – the Lakers lose out in a city duel with the clippers. Paul Zipser loses with the Chicago Bulls at the Toronto Raptors.
Loose canter for the Raptors. Even though neither Kyle Lowry (12 points, 9 Assists, 4 Turnover) nor DeMar DeRozan (11 points, 2/9 FG) had their best days, Toronto did not have any problems with the bulls, who were not too crowded anyway, and who arrived weakened after the brawl between Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis. The guests were still open in the first quarter, but then the strong Raptors Bank took over and the game was quickly won. Toronto was already leading with 21 points at the break.
“I really liked the way we moved the ball,”said Raptors coach Dwane Casey, over 26 assists on 39 field goals.”That’s exactly how we have to play.”
While Jonas Valanciunas (23 points, 15 rebounds) and Norman Powell (15) were two of the well-known names in the Starting Five, the bank’s newcomer C. J. was particularly strong. Miles soldered from outside (6/9 3FG!) and scored 22 points in 20 minutes. Delon Wright also played well with 13 points, while Jakob Pöltl was quite inconspicuous (18 minutes, 2 points, 1/2 FG, 5 rebounds). Rookie O. G. Anunoby liked his debut with 9 points.
The Bulls also enjoyed a good rookie debut – because in the absence of Mirotic and Portis Lauri Markkanen played well as Starting Power Forward (17 points, 8 rebounds). The Bulls’ top scorer was frontcourt partner Robin Lopez with 18 points, Justin Holiday scored 15 points, but he only scored five of his 16 throws.
Paul Zipser started as expected and played 24 minutes. He used this time for 7 points (3/6 FG), 5 rebounds and 3 assists, but also 3 ball losses.
That’s exactly how Carmelo Anthony will have imagined his reunion with the ex-team. In the first minute of the game, the long-time Knicks star waited on the three-line after an offensive rebound, was served by Russell Westbrook – and pocketed the game’s first throw. The hall rejoiced, Anthony touched her forehead several times with three fingers – so here we are. Afterwards he missed his next seven throws, but in the end it didn’t matter.
OKC generally didn’t start very well in the first quarter, but in the second and third passages they played the guests against the wall, thanks in part to Melo. The ten-time all-star finished the game with 22 points (8/20 FG) and, after a clear opening win, declared:”The chapter is over. We’re not talking about the Knicks anymore.”
There wasn’t much to tell. Kristaps Porzingis showed a good performance (31 points, 12 rebounds, 11/25 FG), but apart from Enes Kanter (10) there wasn’t even another double-digit kink. The comeback of the lavishly paid Tim Hardaway was particularly disappointing (8.3/10 FG). Curiously, the team’s big man Willy Hernangomez, a cornerstone of the team, was only allowed to play for four minutes at the end of the game. Kanter and Kyle O’ Quinn would have earned the minutes in the preseason, coach Jeff Hornacek announced.
OKC has already been doing a lot better. Especially Russell Westbrook showed exactly what you want to see: He threw very little (7/12 FG) and still got his almost obligatory triple double (21 points, 10 rebounds, 16 assists). The 7 ball losses could be absorbed very well in view of his dominance. Meanwhile, OKC’s top scorer was the third all-star: Paul George celebrated an impressive debut (28 points, 6 rebounds).
Ouch – that was clear! Despite all the hype, the Lakers had to realize at the start of the season that they are still a long way from playing successful basketball again. In a duel with the newly formed city rival, they didn’t stand a chance, the entire last quarter was actually only garbage time. And the young players sometimes barely got a leg on the ground.
Hardly anyone else embodied this more than Lonzo Ball, whose debut was eagerly awaited. His opponent Patrick Beverley had apparently made it his mission to welcome the No. 2 pick in the league – and he did. Ball rebounded properly (9), but he didn’t get anything on the line (3 points, 1/6 FG, 4 assists) and defensively he had big problems to stay ahead of Beverley. The other boys didn’t get any better. The highly acclaimed Kyle Kuzma remained pale (8 points), Brandon Ingram scored 12 points, but he needed 15 throws.
Only Brook Lopez (20 points), Jordan Clarkson (18) and above all Larry Nance, who played a double-double with 14 points (7/11 FG) and 12 rebounds, played well. However, he could not even keep his primary opponent Blake Griffin in check.
Griffin was definitely the best man with 29 points and 12 assists in the Clippers, but the whole team was a lot of fun. DeAndre Jordan rebounded passionately (14 points, 24 boards), Lou Williams (12) scored scoring from the bank. And Milos Teodosic scored badly (2/9 FG, 6 points), but with some of his 6 assists he was astonished again at the Staples Center.
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