Jakob Pöltl celebrated his 600th appearance in the National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season with a win on Tuesday (local time). The 30-year-old center made his comeback after an injury break in the Toronto Raptors’ 128:100 defeat of the Milwaukee Bucks. At the anniversary, he recorded eight points and nine rebounds in 20:01 minutes on the floor. Pöltl had recently missed three games due to back problems.
This is also why coach Darko Rajakovic announced limited playing time for the Viennese in the press conference before the duel with the Bucks. After the encounter he let it be known that he was “fine so far” as far as his back was concerned.
“It’s a cool thing that I played 600 games in the NBA,” Pöltl commented on his anniversary in an interview with the APA. “Hopefully there will be a few more.” In any case, the missions achieved so far are “a decent number”. The same applies to his tenth year in the world’s strongest basketball league, the center added.
Pöltl played 274 of the 600 NBA encounters for the Raptors. He has 326 in the San Antonio Spurs uniform. The Viennese has so far averaged 8.9 points, seven rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
With a dominant performance of 128:100, the Canadians celebrated their third win in a row and their fourth in their eighth game of the season. They also took revenge for the 116:122 against the Bucks a week and a half ago. The Raptors converted 17 shots from distance. Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett were the top scorers with 23 points each. At Milwaukee, top star Giannis Antetokounmpo had 22 points.
From Friday and until Saturday next week (November 15th), the Canadians will compete abroad five times. “That’s part of it, we will accept the challenge,” emphasized Pöltl. It starts with the Atlanta Hawks, against whom Toronto won 138:118 at the start of the season. The Georgia franchise defeated the Orlando Magic 127:112 and also has a 4:4 record.
In the top game of the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls overcame a 24-point deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers and left the field as 113:111 winners. This makes them the sole leader in the NBA East.
