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Los Angeles (AFP) – The leaders of each of the NBA conferences fell on Saturday: in the East, the Brooklyn Nets, first, lost to Orlando (100-93), while in the West, the Golden State Warriors, second, and the Utah Jazz (3rd) were defeated respectively by Toronto (119-100) and Washington (109-103).
In Toronto, it was Fred VanVleet (27 points, 12 assists) and Scottie Barnes (21 pts) who were responsible for taming the Warriors, deprived in particular of their finest triggers, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, who had not made the trip to Canada.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr had in fact chosen to send them home after the victory against Boston on Friday (111-107), rather than risk them catching the Covid-19 and possibly having to be quarantined in Canada.
Andre Iguodala (right knee), Otto Porter Jr. (left foot) and Andrew Wiggins (left knee) also returned to California.
The Raptors, whose first game since Tuesday, their meeting with the Chicago Bulls having been postponed due to measures related to the coronavirus pandemic, were cooler, although they too were deprived of key players, Pascal Siakam and Dalano Banton narrowly missing the meeting after entering Covid protocol one hour before kick-off.
“A lot of testing is going on right now,” said Toronto coach Nick Nurse.
Suddenly, with the Warriors, it is the Congolese rookie Jonathan Kuminga, of which it was the first game in the NBA, who was able to pull out of the game (26 pts).
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“I think we played a lot better in the second half, we competed better,” said Steve Kerr after the game. “In the first half, we were flat and didn’t have a lot of juice or confidence.”
the Clippers defeated too
In Boston, the Celtics dominated the New York Knicks (114-107), thanks to Josh Richardson, who scored his season record (27 pts), and Jayson Tatum (25).
Kemba Walker, who played in Boston the past two seasons, started for the Knicks and scored 29 points, his best of the season.
He had been put on the bench after starting New York’s first 18 games and had not played in the last 10.
“He played well. That’s what he was supposed to do,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Walker. “He’s a pro, with character.”
There too, a half-dozen players were missing from each of the two franchises, due to anti-Covid measures.
The Detroit Pistons chained for their part Saturday night their 14th defeat in a row, beaten by the Houston Rockets (116-107), led by a good Christian Wood (21 pts, 8 rebounds), who was playing against his old franchise.
“I was worried because it was our sixth game in nine days,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “Our major five really got us off to a good start. Josh (Christopher) set the tone and Christian stepped in.”
Good last in the East, the Pistons, clumsy (20 loss of balls, 10/36 three points), have lost a total of 24 games since the start of the season, for only 4 wins.
Conversely, Oklahoma, last in the West, managed to beat on the wire (104-103) the Los Angeles Clippers, yet fifth.
© 2021 AFP
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