The Brooklyn Nets made positive headlines, the Sacramento Kings are showing a completely different face than last season. The NBA on Friday morning.
Matchwinner in Portland: Brooklyns Triple-Double-Mann Royce O’Neale.
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Kevin Durant likes to emphasize that he feels too much like a solo entertainer with the Brooklyn Nets – including the desire to change. After all: The team from the Big Apple, which has almost consistently made negative headlines in the current season, made people sit up and take notice on Friday night. With a hard-fought last-second win at the previously surprising Portland Trail Blazers (now at 10-5).
And KD wasn’t the match winner at all. Well, the star forward went ahead as usual when it came to collecting baskets and ended up with 35 points. But there were others. For example, the often ridiculed Ben Simmons, who stopped all six attempts from the field and contributed 15 points coming from the bench. Or Yuta Watanabe with 20 points, also one of the reserves. And Royce O’Neale! The forward tapped the ball into the trap 0.7 seconds before the siren to make it 109:107 for the Nets, thereby creating a “carnivalesque” triple-double with eleven points, eleven rebounds and eleven assists.
Simmons shines front and back
So Durant had plenty of praise for his team this time, saying of Simmons, who is recovering from back surgery, “He was incredible today, managing offense and defense well and bringing us back into the game.” Key word defense: The Nets, who are now at 7: 9, kept the Trail Blazers around Damian Lillard (25 points, eleven assists) out of the field with a 38 percent hit rate, after the half-time break it was only 29. Not many have that yet teams made this season.
Clippers and Kings also win
Two California franchises were also among the winners. The Los Angeles Clippers around Reggie Jackson (23 points) lived up to their role as favorites against the Detroit Pistons (3:13, lost all eight away games) and increased their wins to 9:7.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Kings are playing very differently than last season. With a 130:112 against the San Antonio Spurs, De’Aaron Fox (28 points), Malik Monk (26) & Co. managed another resounding victory and already their eighth win of the season with six defeats. Head Coach Mike Brown’s team, who are first in the West in this category with an average of 120.3 points, now has a winning streak of five. Sacramento, a steady basement child in the West in recent years, has had six wins in a row, most recently in 2004/05. Next opponent: the away winless Pistons…
“They were just the better basketball team,” recognized Spurs coaching legend Gregg Popovich.
