The Celtics are strong in Sacramento, the Clippers fold against OKC

It was bad weather in California last night. As the regular season enters its last ten nights, more or less, of madness, and as we play shoulders and elbows everywhere to position ourselves, to extricate ourselves, to scratch a ticket for the play-offs or a folding seat for the play-in, each meeting is now very expensive and the lessons that can be learned from it also seem to be increased tenfold.

Boston therefore says to itself, legitimately, that it struck a blow Tuesday evening in one of the strongholds of the Western Conference, by going to win in a very big way in Sacramento (109-132). The Celtics, however, came out of a tough defeat at the Jazz (117-118), but they bounced back perfectly and concluded their road trip with a fourth success in six away matches.

This victory can obviously give them ideas in anticipation of the play-offs, while the two teams remain high, Boston in 2nd place in the East (50-23) and Sacramento in 3rd in the West (43-29) . In difficulty with his shooting in recent days, and a pitiful 18% from 3 points in his last four games, Jayson Tatum has settled the target with 36 points at 14/25 on shots, well placed by his friend, Derrick White ( 11 assists) and supported by Jaylen Brown (27 pts). “Jayson and Jaylen have done a great job in controlling and being accurate in their decision-making”noted coach Joe Mazzulla, at the exit.

For the Kings, on the other hand, this second loss in a row is unfortunate in the quest for second place in the West. Despite Domantas Sabonis’ triple-double (16 pts, 13 rebounds, 12 assists), Sacramento failed by displaying knots in the defensive rope. “We got our asses kicked, me first”recognized the trainer, Mike Brown.

The Clippers lose the game… and Paul George

For the Clippers too, the evening was gray. While Kawhi Leonard and his friends remained on five successes in six matches, they lost a length against OKC (100-101) and lost at the end of the match Paul George, author of a magnificent 360 dunk, but above all fell heavily to the ground less than five minutes from the end of the match, and who left the field dragging his right leg.

For the Thunder, this success, marked by the seal of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31 pts, 7 rebounds), is the fifth in six games and he posts OKC right in the fight for the play-offs, in 7th place (36 -36), while the battle for the post-season is monumental in the West, with nine teams agglutinated in three victories, from 4th to 12th place!

Among them, the Pelicans are also prancing around. Quiet winner of small Spurs (119-84), glued to 34.5% of address, New Orleans does not abdicate (35-37). Brandon Ingram did the job in three quarters (32 pts, 7 assists) and Lithuanian pivot Jonas Valanciunas weighed in (19 pts at 8/10 on shots, 13 rebounds). “The Western Conference is a super-tight race and it will probably come down to the very last games. It’s up to us to take as much as possible.”summarized the coach of the “Pels”, Willie Green.