Day 23: The Beginning of a new era in Houston.
HOU 109 v. 105 SAS
Derozans(13 PTS) shot at the buzzer was halfway in when it decided na and rolled out. At the end of the Harden era the youngsters on the Rockets played with grit and heart. As Christian Wood(27 PTS 15 REB)described it “They played with the Mamba mentality”. After losing your all NBA star player in Harden and John Wall sitting out this game this victory meant a lot to rockets fans as it showed that their team would fight no matter what. Sterling Brown showed great promise 23 PTS with with 7 REB and 3 AST.
The Spurs have a good young squad. All of their starters scored in double figures lead by Keldon Johnson(29 PTS). Lonnie Walker(16 PTS) and Dejounte Murray(10 PTS) are still developing and are going to be a scary backcourt someday in the future.
DEN 114 v. 104 GSW
At the one point in the game when Curry(35 PTS) was hitting shots from all over the floor it seemed the Nuggets were gonna choke their lead. But the Joker and Murray(17 PTS) made sure that this wouldn’t happen as they ran the Murray Jokic(23 PTS 14 REB 10 AST) pick and roll to attack the rookie Wiseman(18 PTS) in the post. After this win for the Nuggets they now have the same record as the Warriors.
TOR 111 v. 108 CHA
I still can’t understand why Chris Boucher(25 PTS) is not starting at center. He has been regularly putting up solid numbers and playing majority of the minutes. He scored 7 of the Raptors 12 PTS in the 4th quarter and helped the Raptors keep the lead and secure their 3rd win of the season. Lowry finally played more of a facilitator role with 16 PTS 12 AST and 6 REB.
With Hayward being out due to injury other players got more touches as the Hornets almost completed the comeback in the 4th quarter behind Terry Rozier(22 PTS) and PJ Washington(20 PTS).
PHI 125 v. 108 MIA
I’m sure Jimmy Butler was somewhere watching his short handed team get taunted by Embiid(9 PTS) whose team was almost at full strength and will come for his head as revenge next game.
Since the last game these 2 teams played 2 days ago Philly added Tobias Harris(31 PTS) and Shake Milton(18 PTS) who combined for 49 PTS while Heat played with the same underhanded team without their all stars. 7 players on the Heat scored in double figures lead by Duncan Robinson(22 PTS) in this tough loss.
IND 111 v. 87 POR
The Trailblazers for some reason did not want to win this game. They had 18 Turnovers as ball security was the last thing on their mind. Even though they held the Pacers to only 9 threes Sabonis(23 PTS) killed them in the paint. Brogdon also put up 25 PTS to give the Pacers their 8th win.
Nurkic did go out of the game with a fractured wrist, so the Blazers need to figure out their center situation and I hope it’s not Kanter cause the centers on the other team are gonna be eating if Kanter is guarding them.
