The Cleveland Cavaliers lost a second straight game to the Atlanta Hawks, and the Boston Celtics beat Chicago to stay in the NBA Cup race this Friday.
The day after Thanksgiving celebrations, the NBA scheduled games all day, counting toward the regular season and the NBA Cup.
Best team at the start of the season, with 15 consecutive victories to start, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost a second consecutive match, once again against Atlanta (117-101), after having already been defeated by the Hawks Wednesday.
Cleveland thus has 17 victories and 3 defeats and remains at the top of the Eastern Conference ahead of the champion Boston, Atlanta remaining 9e (9-11).
Faced with the 29 points of Darius Garlandthe interior De'Andre Hunter was valuable for Hawks (23 points), offering them qualification for the quarter-finals of the NBA Cup.
In the same group, the champion Boston beat her Chicago (138-129) and can still hope to win a ticket reserved for 2nd in the group.
Jayson Tatum once again managed a full game (35 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists), being assisted by Payton Pritchardauthor of 19 of his 29 points at the start of the 4th quarter, while the score was still close.
THE New York Knicks struggled to beat the Charlotte Hornets (99-98), yet deprived of LaMelo Ball and of Miles Bridges.
Jalen Brunson (31 points) allowed the Knicks to achieve a third success in as many games in their NBA Cup group. New York will thus play a final decisive meeting on Tuesday against Orlandowhich has the same record after its success at Brooklyn (123-100).
Yet deprived of its star Paolo Banchero for several weeks, the Magic by Franz Wagner (29 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) has won 11 of its last 12 games.
Wolves go orange
After the rant pushed Wednesday by Anthony Edwards, les Minnesota Timberwolves recovered with great success against the Los Angeles Clippers (93-92), despite another messy end to the match.
“I played very badly tonight but we defended! Everyone played hard tonight, that's what we need“, appreciated Edwards (21 points on 7 of 21 shooting, 4 rebounds).
