He says it himself: his stints in the G-League have given him confidence. Ousmane Dieng proved it on the floor last night, participating strongly in the Thunder’s victory against Utah (120-134). The 20-year-old French winger, drafted in 11th position in 2022, signed his best performance in the NBA of the season, accumulating in 26 minutes of play, 18 points (with a nice 6/7 shooting), 3 rebounds and 3 passes, being the second most used player of the match with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (30 pts and 7 assists). Dieng was very close to his NBA points record (22, in April 2023 against Memphis).
In the remote duel of the night between Frenchmen, if the 76ers of Joel Embiid (34 points and 11 rebounds) destroyed the Wizards at home (101-146), Nicolas Batum (4 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist in 20 minutes ) was less skillful than Bilal Coulibaly, who signed one of the best statistics sheets of his rookie season (13 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in 30 minutes) despite Washington’s 5th consecutive defeat.
In one of the main shocks of the night, Minnesota lost to New Orleans (107-121), eliminated in the semi-final of the NBA Cup by the Lakers. With 8 points and 8 rebounds (in 25 minutes), Rudy Gobert remained below his season average, far from the 17 points of the trio Karl-Anthony Towns, Mike Conley and Naz Reid. The Pelicans of Zion Williamson (36 points and 5 rebounds) thus stopped the series of 6 victories of the Timberwolves, deprived of Anthony Edwards and leaders in the West.
While Detroit, beaten by Indiana (131-123), continues its series of defeats, the 20th in a row, Killian Hayes was also discreet (6 points, 7 assists, 1 rebound in 23 minutes). Omnipresent in the NBA Cup final, Tyrese Haliburton carried the Pacers with a double-double (14 points and 16 assists).
During the victory for Julius Randle’s Knicks (34 points and 8 rebounds), against Toronto (130-136), Evan Fournier unsurprisingly remained on the bench. Like Théo Malédon with Charlotte, who lost on the wire against Miami (116-114).
2023-12-12 05:54:04
#night #Blues #Dieng #shines #Coulibaly #solid #Gobert #Batum #discreet
