Donovan Mitchell showed no rust on his return, adding to a struggling Brooklyn Nets their seventh straight loss. The Cleveland Cavaliers win a crazy game in Charlotte despite a curious refereeing and Gregg Popovich hits a milestone that could last forever.
Charlotte Hornets (28-25) – Cleveland Cavaliers (32-21) 101:102 (BOXSCORE)
- The Charlotte Hornets have shown once again why their games are a must for any NBA fan, and the Cavs have followed suit. While the half-court offense of both teams was tough for a long time, there were highlight plays and drama en masse, unfortunately the referees were too often the focus in the final phase of the thriller.
- Appropriately, the game was decided at the free-throw line after Kevin Love was fouled after an offensive rebound and the referees counted this as a throwing foul, which seemed borderline but justifiable. However, the clear wrong decision came during the previous possession, when Gordon Hayward was clearly held in a good position on the offensive board by Isaac Okoro, the whistle didn’t come.
- The Hornets had previously made a spectacular comeback including three straight trebles, which was started by one of the most curious decisions of the season with just five minutes to go while they were -10 down. Clearly after an ordinary foul whistle, Terry Rozier launched into an inconsequential three-pointer, when Ed Davis touched his arm from the bench, typical mind game in the league. However, the referees ruled this as illegal interference by a bench player and counted the throw as successful for three points, the fourth point came from a free throw after the involved technical foul on Davis. The decision of the referees not only caused disbelief among the Cavaliers.
- Cleveland was still leading by 17 points in the fourth quarter before the Hornets suddenly woke up after a long dormant offensive performance. With 36:26 in the final section, Charlotte scored more points than in quarters 2 and 3 combined (34 points). Without Darius Garland, the Cavs’ offense was mainly Jarrett Allen, who with a career high of 11 offensive rebounds (22 total) also creates his own throws again and again, which led to another career high of 29 points (12/20 FG ).
- The center was mainly supported by Love, who made 6/14 triples coming off the bench en route to 25 points and 9 rebounds. Evan Mobley (8, 8 rebounds) often seemed hesitant in his shot selection (4/13 FG). At the other end, Terry Rozier was the top scorer with 24 points in almost 40 minutes, but the guard needed 21 shots (4/14 3P) and was the unlucky figure of the last minute. First he missed the dagger with the Hornets’ last shot, then he fouled Love after his offensive rebound. LaMelo Ball (15, 5/14 FG) went on the bench with 5 fouls 9 minutes from time and didn’t come back into play.
Indiana Pacers (19-35) – Chicago Bulls (33-19) 115:122 (BOXSCORE)
- After the first quarter (40:33 for Chicago), the next Pacers shootout seemed to be imminent with 130 points for each team, but the two teams didn’t stay that hot after all. Nevertheless, Nikola Vucevic (36 points, 16/21 FG, 17 rebounds) and Caris LeVert (42, 19/26 FG, 8 assists) fought a great duel that was ultimately decided by better support from the Bulls.
- Chicago had the better number 2 in the game with DeMar DeRozan (31, 11/26 FG), and Javonte Green (16, 7/10 FG), sixth man Matt Thomas (10) and Ayo Dosunmu (15) also cracked double digits . Dosunmu hit 6/9 from the field and set a new high of his young career with 14 assists. He gained confidence in the final minute and made the decision with a crashing dunk to make it 120:115.
- The Bulls hit just 6/26 triples (23.1 percent) but scored 70 points in the opposing zone (54 for Pacers) for a 54.4 percent shot percentage from the field. Indiana had more success from Downtown (12/27, 44.4 percent), but without Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, Myles Turner and other rotation players, the Pacers again went empty-handed. The Bulls quickly led by +11 in the first quarter and seemed to be in control throughout the game, but never quite shook Indiana.
- Torrey Craig was the Pacers’ tallest starter at 2.01 meters, while Terry Taylor was listed as the starting center at 1.96 meters and was an absolute bright spot there. He grabbed 8 of his 14 rebounds on the offensive board, dished out 5 assists and collected 21 points with 9/17 FG. Duane Washington Jr. added 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists coming off the bench, while Lance Stephenson was a total failure with 5 points (1/7 FG) and 3 turnovers in just 11 minutes.
Detroit Pistons (12-40) – Boston Celtics (29-25) 93:102 (BOXSCORE)
- The Celtics clinched a more confident victory than the result suggests, Boston’s second guard only quickly melted the team’s great lead towards the end. Before that, however, Jayson Tatum’s 19 points in the third quarter allowed him and Jaylen Brown (13, 5/15 FG) to relax early on the bench.
- Overall, Tatum only had 24 points with 9/21 FG and 9 rebounds, the Celtics were more convincing with their defense than their offense. Without Cade Cunningham, the Pistons often seemed unimaginative against the Celtics, who responded to all Detroit actions with a switch, as Saddiq Bey (21, 4/7 3P) revealed in the post-game interview.
- Hamidou Diallo (21, 8/17 FG) clawed 6 of his 14 rebounds on the opposing board and, together with Isaiah Stewart (6 points, 8 of 17 rebounds offensively), ensured that the Pistons had 22 more throws than the Celtics (104 to 82). However, Detroit scored worse from the field (32.7 percent) than from Downtown (10/26, 38.5 percent).
- Jerami Grant (10, 3/12 FG) and Killian Hayes (11 points and 5 assists off the bench) still managed double digits. On the other side, Robert Williams (11, 11 rebounds, 5 blocks) as well as Josh Richardson (12) and Dennis Schröder (10, 5/11 FG, 5 assists) did the same from the bench. Al Horford (4, 10 rebounds) left the game in the third quarter with a sore foot but could have come back on the floor if needed, according to the Injury Report.
