NBA: James Harden makes history in a heated NYC duel

In his first New York city duel, James Harden made history for the Brooklyn Nets, which rush from victory to victory. The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t have much trouble with the Golden State Warriors.

James Harden made history again in the New York city duel – but it was shaking in the end. The Hornets win an almost lost game, Giannis dominates with the next triple-double.

Charlotte Hornets (20-18) – Sacramento Kings (15-24) 122:116 (BOXSCORE)

Strong comeback victory for the Hornets, which the game seemed to have slipped away in the meantime. Terry Rozier (26 points, 7/18 FG) and Gordon Hayward (25, 9/16) led their team to their fourth victory in a row, in which the guests also helped a lot.
The Kings have already suffered some annoying defeats this season, but this could at least take a top 3 place. The guests led almost the entire game in Queen City, in the third quarter they were up to 14 points ahead. It wasn’t until 1:33 before the end that the Hornets took the lead for the first time thanks to a crashing Hayward Dunk over De’Aaron Fox including a bonus free throw, after Sacramento once again failed to finish the game cleanly. “I can still jump from time to time,” said 30-year-old Hayward happily afterwards.
In the closing stages, Charlotte showed why it is one of the best crunchtime teams this season: While LaMelo Ball (16, 7/15) mostly watched, the Hornets exerted enormous pressure defensively and had up front in Hayward, Devonte ‘Graham (12, 4/8 threes) and Rozier the right combination of drive and scoring from the perimeter. It was Rozier who hit the three-point lead for 54.3 seconds and then showed nerves of steel at the free-throw line. Overall, the final quarter went to the Hornets at 31:20.
The Kings had previously shown a very strong performance. Fox (29, 11/22, 8 assists) and Buddy Hield (23, 8/14) in particular showed strong performances, while Tyrese Haliburton (4, 2/6) struggled with foul trouble this time and remained very inconspicuous. Richaun Holmes liked it with 17 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks. To make matters worse, Marvin Bagley (12) broke a bone in his left hand. How long the Big Man will be out is not yet known.

Washington Wizards (14-24) – Milwaukee Bucks (25-14) 122:133 (BOXSCORE)

Fourth win in a row for the Bucks, who could rely on a strong offensive in Washington. Giannis Antetokounmpo led his team with an impressive triple-double (31 points, 12/19 FG, 15 rebounds, 10 assists) and was one of seven Bucks with double-digit points. For the Greek it was the third triple-double in a row, something he had never done before. On the other hand, Bradley Beal (37 points, 13/19 FG), who was once again extremely strong, did not make it.
The game seemed to have been decided several times in favor of Milwaukee, around 10:35 minutes before the end when they were leading with 19 points – but the favorite missed closing the bag at this point. Washington fought and a Beal-Jumper even brought the Wizards back to 5 points, but it didn’t get any tighter.
Both teams hit more than 50 percent of their throws over the game, with the Wizards also 42 percent from the triple line. In addition to Beal, Russell Westbrook (23 points, season high 17 assists) and Rui Hachimura (22) showed strong performances, while Moritz Wagner and Isaac Bonga both watched. Nevertheless, it was the fourth bankruptcy in a row for the Wizards.
At the Bucks, among other things, the complete Starting Five scored double digits. Top scorer after Giannis were Khris Middleton with 23 and Brook Lopez with 22 points.

Brooklyn Nets (27-13) – New York Knicks (20-20) 117:112 (BOXSCORE)

The Nets made it much more exciting in the New York duel than it should have been, but in the end the expected fifth victory in a row was still for the team from Brooklyn. James Harden put on his tenth triple-double in the Nets dress and made history with his statline of 21 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists.
A Nets player has never recorded a 15-15-15 game, and for Harden it is already the second of his career. He has also already set the Nets record for triple doubles in a season for Jason Kidd. And yet the Nets could probably only be partially satisfied with this performance.
Because: Brooklyn could actually dominate, led with up to 18 points and was always double-digit ahead. The duel with the odds from the field, for example, was not close at all (57.9 to 40.2 percent), but the Nets could not finally shake off the brave curtsey. This was due, among other things, to the 15 ball losses, of which Harden alone afforded 7. That’s one of the reasons why RJ Barrett was able to bring the Knicks back into play with a 7-0 run in the last quarter. In the final seconds Julius Randle even had the opportunity to equalize the game, but he couldn’t get rid of a throw against Kyrie Irving and lost the ball himself. Randle wanted a foul and then got upset with gestures.
In the end, Brooklyn stayed cool enough in the absence of Kevin Durant, who will miss another week or two. In addition to Harden, this was mainly due to the strong Irving (34 points, 13/18), while Jeff Green scored 20 points. At the Knicks, Randle excelled with 33, 12 rebounds and 6 assists, Barrett got 23 and Immanuel Quickley got 21 points.

Charlotte Hornets (20-18) – Sacramento Kings (15-24) 122:116 (BOXSCORE)

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