The Boston Celtics remain unstoppable, although after Al Horford Jayson Tatum is injured. The pistons take the next victory against Indiana, New York loses without Kristaps Porzingis. Golden State’s a hell of a neighborhood against Minnesota.
The pistons stay hot as fries. Although the first quarter was lost against the Pacers at 22:30, Stan Van Gundy’s team got off to a better start and had the game under control at the break. Pacers-Guard Victor Oladipo, who had caused the most trouble for Detroit with 21 points, had to acknowledge that “they were really good”.
Al Jefferson was still pleased with 19 points from the bank, while Myles Turner was barely able to score (8 points, 6 rebounds) and was dominated by Andre Drummond (14 and 21).
After a good start, the Pacers have now delivered four games in a row:”That’s part of the process,”said coach Nate McMillan,”We knew we’d run into resistance during the season, and that’s what it looks like. Things change quickly and you have to play it out again.”
Meanwhile, the pistons were happy about their best start to the season since 2008, with Tobias Harris confirming his strong form with 23 points and 8 rebounds. Point Guard Reggie Jackson also played well with 18 points and 6 assists. However, it was striking: Drummond, who had recently been hit well by the free-throw line, put all seven attempts from Charity Stripe on the ring in this game.
After Kristaps Porzingis was declared “out” in the run-up to the game due to problems with his ankle and elbow, it was possible to assume that the winning streak of the Knicks would probably come to an end. After eight games, Elfrid Payton was available again for the first time and then shone with 11 points and 11 assists in 29 minutes’ time.”A feast for the eyes,”said coach Frank Vogel,”That’s what it felt like to see Elfrid out there again.”
That was understandable in that Orlando was last without D. J. Augustin and therefore only Shelvin Mack was available as point guard. With Payton back in the lineup, the offense ran much smoother. After 32 seconds of play Payton found Aaron Gordon for an Alley-Oop for the first time and so it went on – with 21 points, Gordon was one of the three main winners of the Point Guard and scored four of his six threes.
In addition, Nikola Vucevic scored 24 points in Orlando Vucevic and Evan Fournier with 23 points, both scoring three triples each. Jonathon Simmons also benefited from being ordered back to the bank. In his traditional sixth-man role, Simmons scored 16 points. At the Knicks, the Latvian unicorn Tim Hardaway showed a really strong performance with 26 points and 11 rebounds, but he lacked support.
Given the failure of Al Horford (brain shake) it could have been assumed that Celtics’ furious series of victories would come to an end. When Rookie Jayson Tatum, who suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter – he will be examined further on Thursday – it could have been really dangerous. It almost came to an end in the third quarter, when the 20-point lead shrank to only 2 points in the meantime. But their depth brought Celtics the tenth victory in a row.
Topscorer was not Kyrie Irving, who delivered some highlights but didn’t hit much (19 points, 7/21 FG, 0/7 3FG, 5 Assists) – Topscorer was Horford representative Aron Baynes with 21 points (Career High), for which he also got 8 rebounds. Marcus Morris (18) and Terry Rozier (14) were also pleased, Marcus Smart delivered 9 points and 6 assists from the bank. Daniel Theis also made good use of his 22 minutes of time: The German scored 8 points (3/6 FG), 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals. With a Driving Dunk he also caused astonishment in the T. D. Garden.
In the Lakers, Brandon Ingram and Jordan Clarkson defended themselves against defeat with 18 points each, while Lonzo Ball once again took a very imprecise stance (9 points, 4/15 FG). After all, the No. 2-Pick delivered 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 blocks. Julius Randle showed a strong performance from the bank with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Irving was in the meantime impressed by the atmosphere during the game against Celtics’ big rival:”You definitely noticed that there was a different atmosphere here than in normal games, of course there were the’ Beat LA’ chants. I’ve only seen this on YouTube and it was very impressive to see it for myself.”
Page 1: Theis strong in Celtics victory No. 10
Page 2: Golden State reaches a monster quarter
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