Little used during the Pistons’ last outing due to calf pain, Killian Hayes was much better last night. On the floor of Phoenix, leader of the Western Conference, the barely 21-year-old tricolor leader almost scored the first triple-double of his young career as he accumulated 17 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists (but also 3 steals ). Despite the clumsiness of the Suns, the Pistons ended up losing (108-102) and remain dead last in the East, but Hayes, the most used player on his team (38 minutes), proves that he has a nice card to play this season in Detroit.
Maledon wins his duel against Gobert
Rudy Gobert, already impressive 24 hours earlier (21 points and 16 rebounds against Indiana), managed another big double-double against the Hornets (17 points and 17 rebounds, plus 2 blocks and 2 steals). But the collective record is not very good since the Wolves, who remained on five wins in a row, ended up losing (110-108) against Charlotte, poorly ranked in the East.
Théo Maledon contributed to this result for the Hornets since the French leader, signed last month on a “two-way contract” managed a nice game off the bench: used for 26 minutes, his most important playing time this season, the French leader had 14 points (4/7), 7 rebounds, 3 assists and an interception. A very good omen for the back, who is taking advantage of LaMelo Ball’s injury to show his qualities.
With the Clippers, Nicolas Batum played 24 minutes off the bench without scoring a single point against the Nuggets. The Frenchman missed his three long distance shots (0/3) but took 3 rebounds, managed 2 blocks, and above all displayed the best “+/-” (differential between points scored and points conceded when the player was on the field ) of his team (+14), which lost (114-104).
Evan Fournier, out of the Knicks rotation, still hasn’t played a single minute in New York’s loss to Portland (132-129 ap).
