The Cleveland Cavaliers lost a second straight game to the Atlanta Hawks, and the Boston Celtics beat Chicago to stay in contention in the NBA Cup on Friday.
The day after Thanksgiving celebrations, the NBA scheduled games all day, counting toward the regular season and the NBA Cup.
Atlanta, Cleveland's bete noire
Best team at the start of the season, with 15 consecutive victories to start, the Cleveland Cavaliers lost a second consecutive game, once again against Atlanta (117-101), after having already been defeated by the Hawks on Wednesday.
Cleveland thus has 17 victories and 3 defeats and remains at the top of the Eastern Conference ahead of champion Boston, with Atlanta remaining 9th (9-11).
Faced with 29 points from Darius Garland, interior De'Andre Hunter was valuable for the Hawks (23 points), offering them a qualification for the quarter-finals of the NBA Cup.
In the same group, champion Boston beat Chicago (138-129) and can still hope to win a ticket reserved for 2nd in the group.
Jayson Tatum once again had a solid game (35 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists), being assisted by Payton Pritchard, author of 19 of his 29 points at the start of the 4th quarter, while the score was still close.
New York will challenge Orlando
The New York Knicks struggled to beat the Charlotte Hornets (99-98), despite being deprived of LaMelo Ball and 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 Orlando, which has the same record after its success in Brooklyn (123-100).
Yet deprived of its star Paolo Banchero for several weeks, Franz Wagner's Magic (29 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) have won 11 of their last 12 matches.
Wolves go orange
After the rant made on Wednesday by Anthony Edwards, the Minnesota Timberwolves recovered with a snatched success against the Los Angeles Clippers (93-92), despite a once again 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) .
The Lakers in the red
Winners of the first edition of the NBA Cup last year, LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers (12 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists) lost against the Oklahoma City Thunder (101-93) and almost did not no more chance of advancing to the quarter-finals.
With two successes and two losses, the Lakers can no longer finish at the top of their group and only an improbable scenario would offer them qualification on Tuesday as best 2nd in one of the three groups in the West.
“OKC” remains at the top of the Western Conference for the regular season, thanks in particular to its Canadian leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (36 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists).
With AFP
