James Harden presents himself in gala form at the LA Clippers and leads the Brooklyn Nets to another away win. The Phoenix Suns lose their second home game in a row because Ja Morant has the right answer at the last second. The Chicago Bulls win a shootout in Atlanta, the Big Three of the Bulls dominated it.
Charlotte Hornets (18-17) – Houston Rockets (10-24) 123:99 (BOXSCORE)
- The Hornets are still fun, especially after the team is almost complete again after numerous Corona failures. There was an easy win against the Rockets, also because Terry Rozier is slowly recovering and sunk at least four threesomes for the third time in a row.
- In the third quarter alone, the Guard hit four triples for 14 points, over the entire game “Scary Terry” was the outstanding player on the field with 27 points (7/12 threesomes) and 5 assists. But not only Rozier had drunk target water before the game, LaMelo Ball (16, 4/7 triples, 7 assists) was also doing well. After just 36 minutes, the hosts scratched the 100 point mark and were already leading with 26 points.
- Six players scored double digits, including Kelly Oubre Jr. (18) and Mason Plumlee (15, 9 rebounds), who stayed perfectly out of the field on seven attempts and made one of his best games in Hornets Jersey. As a team, the hosts sank 44 percent (18/41) of their attempts from a distance.
- Houston, on the other hand, played at times with five rookies at the same time, but the most striking players were veterans Eric Gordon and Christian Wood (16 each). The latter fell towards the end of the first quarter with a curious actionwhen he threw a failed pass deep into the stands and hit a woman in the head. Daniel Theis was allowed to run for 21 minutes after four DNPs in a row and put on 6 counters (3/8 FG) and 4 rebounds.
- Corona-Protokoll: Miles Bridges, Scottie Lewis, P.J. Washington (alle Hornets) – D.J. Augustin, Garrison Mathews (alle Rockets).
Atlanta Hawks (15-18) – Chicago Bulls (21-10) 118:130 (BOXSCORE)
- The two-headed monster of the Bulls struck again (with support) and ruined the return of Trae Young to the Hawks’ lineup. Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan simply couldn’t be defended by Atlanta and kept taking turns. Even at the break, both stars were each with over 20 points and 5 assists, something that has never been seen in duos in the past 25 years.
- The shot making of the two was at times absurd, DeRozan in particular had a really hot evening. Twelve of his 14 field goals (only 20 attempts) were jump throws, and in the end there were 35 counters and 10 assists. In the fourth quarter, the veteran also kept the Hawks at a distance.
- But not only DeRozan scored hard in the final section, Nikola Vucevic (24, 17 rebounds, 6 assists) turned up with three important triples in the final phase. The third finally broke the morale of the hosts, who had fought their way back to -4. The Montenegrin met with a board and a running clock and couldn’t help but smile. LaVine (30, 11/21, 9 assists) meanwhile shone with some dunks in half time one.
- Ultimately, the Hawks lacked depth, so that even the outstanding performance of Cam Reddish (33, 8/12 threesomes) was not enough. Young started well and made Coby White look bad a few times, but at times he struggled against the aggressive Bulls defense. In just under 40 minutes, however, there were 29 points (8/23) and 9 assists for the point guard. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 20 points.
- Corona-Protokoll: John Collins, Sharife Cooper, Danilo Gallinari, Kevin Huerter, Wes Iwundu, Jalen Johnson, Timothee Luwawu-Cabarrot, Onyeka Okongwu, Lou Williams (alle Hawks) – Lonzo Ball, Tony Bradley, Alfonzo McKinnie (alle Bulls).
Minnesota Timberwolves (16-17) – Boston Celtics (16-18) 108:103 (BOXSCORE)
- Celebration mood in the Target Center, even if the level of the game was rather low for a long time due to the many failures, as expected. The Timberwolves ultimately had the better reservists, who turned the arena into a madhouse at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Jaylen Nowell was primarily responsible for this when he was Celtics forward Jabari Parker packed onto a poster with this furious dunk.
- The Guard was also the hosts’ best scorer with 28 points (10/18 FG, 6/9 threesomes) and led the game-winning 22: 5 run at the beginning of the final section. An 11-point deficit turned into a 7-point lead, which the Wolves never gave up.
- Another major player for the Wolves was Greg Monroe. The ex-Bayern-Center had only signed in Minnesota in the morning and immediately put on 11 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in its first NBA game in almost three years (960 days). “Moose” acted as a backup center for Nathan Knight, who also played big and scored a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
- The guests from Boston, on the other hand, only met 37 percent from the field. Jaylen Brown (26, 8/24, 10 rebounds) was top scorer, but made a weak game because of his 6 ball losses. Payton Pritchard (22, 8/22, 6 assists in 44 minutes) replaced the injured Marcus Smart as playmaker and started well, but in the end the guard ran out of breath.
- The saying of the day also goes to Monroe after he was asked about the performance of his new team-mate Nowell: “I don’t want to lie, he played fantastic, but until today’s game I had no idea who it was.”
- Corona-Protokoll: Anthony Edwards, Taurean Prince, Naz Reid, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, McKinley Wright IV (alle Wolves) – Bruno Fernando, Enes Freedom, Justin Jackson, C.J. Miles, Aaron Nesmith, Josh Richardson, Dennis Schröder, Jayson Tatum (alle Celtics).
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