New York, April 13 – (Adnkronos) – Brooklyn beats Cleveland 115-108 at home and maintains seventh place in the Eastern Conference, earning a ticket to the playoffs where he will face the Boston Celtics in one of the most interesting series of all the first round. Thanks to an almost perfect first quarter by the hosts: 40-20 after the first 12 minutes with 71% shooting, also touching +22 in the third quarter and holding firm in the final with the return to -6 of the Cavaliers.
Among the ranks of the hosts Kyrie Irving is simply unstoppable for three quarters of the game, scoring the first 12 shots attempted in his game before failing the last three to finish with a still excellent 12/15 from the field of which 3/6 from the long distance, scoring 34 points in just under 42 minutes against his former team. To make coach Nash smile, however, are also the 12 assists distributed by his star, which are paired with the 11 of Kevin Durant who finished with 25 points and 9/16 shooting with 2 steals and 3 blocks. Bruce Brown (18 + 9 + 8) and Andre Drummond (16 + 8) also did well.
Cleveland was stunned by a first quarter in which nothing entered (7/20 shooting, 1/8 of which from three), paying for the inexperience of a very young group. Coach JB Bickerstaff’s boys did not give up, however, returning to the game in the second half, despite failing several occasions to reopen the games definitively after returning to -6. The credit is almost all of Darius Garland, excellent with his 34 points and 13/24 shooting, inspiring the double digits of Evan Mobley (19), Kevin Love (14 + 13), Lauri Markkanen (13) and Caris LeVert ( 12).
