The long suffering of Kevin Durant is over and the superstar of the Brooklyn Nets shows an attractive performance on his comeback. The top scorer of the evening, however, is a second-year professional from the Lakers, who brings the LA Clippers to white heat.
Atlanta hints at its new offensive potential, a sophomore shines at the Pistons and Kevin Durant is finally back.
Atlanta Hawks (1-1) – Orlando Magic (1-1) 116:107
- Points: Trae Young (21) – Markelle Fultz (21)
- Rebounds: Clint Capela (12) – Nikola Vucevic (15)
- Assists: Trae Young (7) – Michael Carter-Williams (5)
With Rajon Rondo, Onyeka Okongwu, Kris Dunn and Tony Snell, the Hawks were missing four newcomers, but they still indicated some of their newly gained offensive power against Orlando. The Atlanta team, led by Trae Young and Bodgan Bogdanovic, sank 17 threes, who each scored four of them. The Serb came off the bench in this game and, like Danilo Gallinari (17), was able to convince with 18 points.
Not everything went smoothly, among other things, the Hawks achieved 18 turnovers. Nevertheless, their potential flashed through, after the first quarter they had a 10-point lead that they no longer gave up in the course of the race. With up to 17 counters they were meanwhile in front.
In addition to the strong performance of Markelle Fultz, Orlando was also able to look forward to another good performance from rookie Cole Anthony, who came off the bench with 16 points (at 6/10 FG). As a team, the Magic only hit 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from the triple line.
Brooklyn Nets (1-0) – Washington Wizards (0-1) 119:114
- Points: Kyrie Irving (18) –Rui Hachimura (18)
- Rebounds: DeAndre Jordan (7) – Moritz Wagner (7)
- Assists: Spencer Dinwiddie (7) – Raul Neto (6)
Kevin Durant had to wait 552 days for this day – the superstar missed that much time after his Achilles tendon rupture from the 2019 finals. He looked all too rusty on his comeback, which was also the debut for his new team from Brooklyn, but not: The first three Throws all sat, in the end he had 15 points (5/12 FG), 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
“I was scared, nervous. I imagined this moment for so long. It felt great to be there again,” said the 31-year-old afterwards. The new head coach Steve Nash had previously given KD 24 minutes of playing time, only Spencer Dinwiddie was on the court one minute longer for the victorious Nets. The Nets still ran without Caris LeVert, Kyrie Irving was the most productive player with 18 points in 17 minutes .
Brooklyn dominated in the first half, in the second the Wizards came back, who had started completely without Russell Westbrook, Bradley Beal and Davis Bertans (all spared). Rookie Deni Avdija was particularly popular with 15 points (6/6 FG), Moritz Wagner was also very productive with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals from the bench. Isaac Bonga came in on 22 minutes and scored 4 points (2/6 FG).
Detroit Pistons (1-1) – New York Knicks (1-1) 99:91
- Points: Sekou Doumbouya (23) – R.J. Barrett (25)
- Rebounds: Blake Griffin (6) – Nerlens Noel (10)
- Assists: Derrick Rose (8) – Julius Randle (5)
The game between Detroit and New York degenerated into a duel between the second-year professionals. On the one hand, Sekou Doumbouya led the Pistons to a dominant start into the game (+11 after the first quarter), on the other hand, RJ Barrett (25 points, 10/17 FG) resisted with all his might.
The new lottery picks Obi Toppin (4 points, 1/9 FG) and Kilian Hayes (6 points, 4 assists, 2/11 FG), however, spent rather used days. These performances were not an isolated case: Both teams only scored around 40 percent from the field, the Knicks even stayed just below and also only hit 8/33 from the triple line. That was too much in the way of a comeback attempt in the last quarter.
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