Isaiah Thomas saved the Cleveland Cavaliers from embarrassment. His team threw away a huge advantage against the Magic, but IT remained nervous. Derrick Rose returned after a long break. Thanks to Joel Embiid, the Sixers took revenge against Celtics, who had to give up their superstar. The Blazers clinched an important victory thanks to a strong closing section.
After losing a high lead at last week’s London Games and losing to Celtics, the Sixers now wanted to take revenge in their opponent’s TG Garden and at the same time bring their balance back over. 500. In order to achieve this goal, they relied on their defensive capabilities – and this bore fruit, especially in the first half.
Philly only allowed 32 Celtics points in the first 24 minutes. However, the goblins noticed that they had to do without Kyrie Irving, who put up with pain on his shoulder. Without Uncle Drew there was a lack of creativity and playmaking, 15 ball losses were already in the books for the break tea. Good for Boston: Despite their meager points score, they were still in the game, as there wasn’t much of a match on the other side (39 points at halftime).
However, the latter changed in the third quarter. Joel Embiid, in association with T. J. McConnell (15 points) – the interaction of the two could be seen – the Celtics Defense. Through several runs the Sixers were in front with 18 points. But this was already known from London, where they had lost a similar advantage.
That night, however, they saved the victory over time. In the Crunchtime the Celtics smelled a little bit of a match, as they managed to get the guests out of the picture with a full-field press. However, they should not be reduced to more than 7 points. Embiid was the man of the game with 26 points, 16 rebounds and 6 assists, Dario Saric played 16 points. On the other hand, Marcus Morris and Al Horford both scored 14 points, while Daniel Theis (2 points, 2 rebounds) remained inconspicuous.
What’s wrong with the Cavs? In spite of the compulsorily beating the bottom of the standings, there are still big question marks about the status of this team. Because: Even though during the course of the game everything seemed to suggest that it would be a relaxed evening, there was an unnecessary tremor in the end.
What had happened? Even in the first half, the Cavs managed to take a 23-point lead. The ball ran smoothly and quickly through its own ranks, the bank around Dwyane Wade held up what a strong LeBron had predicted until then, and the defense against decimated Magic was not really required.
But after the change of sides, Tyronn Lue’s team collapsed completely. Especially defensive was the focus lost, the way for the enemy into the zone unbelievably open. And since only half-hearted isolation was played at the front, the Magic actually compensated for it. Shelvin Mack (!) took the first Orlando lead after an offensive rebound (!) 31 seconds before the end, after LeBron on the other side had accepted a ball loss.
Afterwards Kevin Loves Dunk attempt was blocked, but the ball stayed with the Cavs. Isaiah Thomas penetrated to the basket against Aaron Gordon and pulled the foul. Mack had reached out of the Helpside unnecessarily into Thomas’ arms. This hit both free throws for 104:103. Frank Vogel didn’t take a timeout for the last Possession, where Elfrid didn’t want to fall for Payton’s layout. After the fight for the rebound the ball flew into the out and since it was not possible to determine whether Bismack Biyombo or Thomas was last at the spalding, there was a bouncing ball at the middle circle with still 0.2 seconds on the clock. Of course, nothing came out of that – the cavs got away with it this time.
Pleasing from Cleveland’s point of view: Derrick Rose made his comeback after surviving ankle injury. Most recently, he had been on 7. I was standing on the court on November 9th. In 13 minutes he scored 9 points and 3 rebounds. Thomas was the top scorer of the Cavs with 21 points (6/15 FG), James came in 16th. On the other side Payton scored 19 points, Gordon and Evan Fournier 17 points each.
Before the game the starters of the All-Star Games were announced and a man was not there yet again, although according to his own statements he would have deserved it: Damian Lillard. He admitted to being frustrated with it, but fortunately he had a welcome distraction with the Pacers game.
Guests from the Eastern Conference proved to be a stubborn opponent as both sides wiped each other out over long stretches of the game and wanted to use a strong defense to achieve success. The intensity was enormously high and the match was evenly balanced: already at halftime (52:47) there were 11 lead changes. Jusuf Nurkic, who roamed the board tirelessly, already had a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds) on his account.
After changing sides, it looked like the momentum pendulum was swinging towards the Pacers. This was mainly due to Darren Collison, who compensated for Victor Oladipo’s poor performance during this phase and, with 3 threesomes, ensured that his team made up for the situation. In the fourth quarter, however, it was no longer fun: Lillard took on responsibility with his drives and boosted the Blazers offensive for the decisive run. Once again the defence of his team was remarkable, which kept the opponent out of the field in the last 12 minutes of the game at 12 points and 19 percent.
Dame finished the evening with 26 points and 8 assists, Nurkic came to 19 points and 17 rebounds, C. J. McCollum contributed 16 points. On the other side, Collison and Oladipo each set 23 points.
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