NBA: Drama!

The Milwaukee Bucks exceptionally manage to win against the Cleveland Cavaliers despite a playful lead in the last quarter – Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James have a great private duel. The Philadelphia 76s embarrass themselves against the Sacramento Kings, the Washington Wizards defy DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis.

After the promising start to the season, we can probably speak of a crisis in the Sixers – against Sacramento they had their third defeat in a row and are currently out of the playoff picture. Without Joel Embiid, who missed four of the last six games due to a back injury, the Sixers showed a largely unconcentrated game and fell victim to Sacramentos’ experience, especially in the last quarter, which was dominated by guests at 30:17.

Zach Randolph was the top scorer of the game with 27 points (12/19 FG) and made his much younger opponents look very old,”Zach made it possible for us to start and carried us over long distances”, coach Dave Joerger praised,”He was really great.

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Randolph certainly didn’t do everything alone. Especially in the last quarter, Buddy Hield (24 points) and Frank Mason (16) from the bank were also really important, and 40-year-old Vince Carter also delivered some important plays. Thus, the Kings were able to remove a victory from the city of brotherly love, which they would hardly have expected themselves.

The turnovers (19 in total) were the downfall of the Sixers. Ben Simmons (13 points, 5/6 FG, 12 rebounds and 9 assists) scratched the triple double again, but lacked support. Sixers topscorer was Robert Covington with 17 points, but the shooter only scored 5 of his 19 throws.

Don’t be fooled by the result – this game was clearer and, above all, decided much earlier. In the first half, the Pelicans were still able to catch up on a big lead from the Wizards, but were unable to do so in the third quarter. After New Orleans equalized to 61:61, Washington turned up completely again and marched away with a 24:5 run – from which the guests did not recover any more.

“They just wanted more than we did,”DeMarcus Cousins (26 points, 13 rebounds) complained afterwards,”We simply didn’t make it there as a team. You could understand Boogie’s anger: Apart from him and Anthony Davis (37 points, 9 rebounds) no Pelicans player was really dangerous, especially the bank had almost no support at all.

That was not enough against even wizards on this day, although Otto Porter had to pause. The hero of the third quarter was Bradley Beal, who scored 14 of his 26 points in this section, but not only the shooting guard was in a good mood. A monster performance was also shown by Mike Scott, who came from the bank in 23 minutes to a hefty 24 points (11/15 FG).

John Wall (18 points, 10 assists) and Marcin Gortat (10 points, 14 rebounds) got double doubles. For the capitals, this marked the third victory of the last four games.

What a game in Milwaukee – and what an important victory for the Bucks! Previously, they had repeatedly gambled away guided tours in the fourth quarter of this season, but now the hot-tempered Cavs (previously 18 wins from 19 games!) were guests and also stormed back again after a backlog. But this time the bucks stayed pretty cool and were able to bag the win in the end “We staggered, but we didn’t fall over,”said Coach Jason Kidd.”Giannis did some great plays and we stayed together.”

The mentioned Antetokounmpo went ahead with 27 points (14 rebounds and 8 assists) and sometimes played a highly spectacular duel with LeBron James (39 points, 7 assists, 7 turnovers), but this time the Greek Freak kept the upper hand. In the deciding play of the game Giannis won the duel for a loose-ball against LeBron, set the ball and was fouled by Kyle Korver – his free-throw to 117:113 at 5 seconds on the clock marked the decision. LeBron scored another threesome, but after a Khris Middleton free-throw, the King’s last attempt with the Buzzer missed his target.

“That was a big step for our team. It shows that we are growing up,”Antetokounmpo said happily afterwards,”Normally we still give away games in such situations,” important factors besides the Greek himself were Eric Bledsoe (26 points), Middleton (18, plus 10 assists), Malcolm Brogdon (16) and John Henson (15).

Beside LeBron, Kevin Love (21 points, 10 rebounds), Dwyane Wade (14) and Jeff Green (13) also won the cavs. But in the end, a massive 24:3 run in the last quarter was not enough for them.