Dyson Daniels recorded his first double-double for the Atlanta Hawks in a huge upset road win over the East’s No. 1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers 135-124. Average of 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week plus the best of the NBA Playoffs, including every game of the NBA Conference Finals & NBA Finals LIVE on ESPN, available via Kayo New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1.
Limited time offer. Daniels finished with 12 points and an equal career-high 10 rebounds for the second double-double of his career, including two threes and two steals. It’s yet another personal best for the 21-yeatr old from Bendigo, having hit career highs in points (28), steals (seven), blocks (four) and 3-pointers (four).
Meanwhile Trae Young, the league leader in assists, dished out a career-high 22 assists — two shy of a Hawks franchise record — to go with 22 points as Atlanta improved to 8-11 just a fortnight after downing the East’s No. 2 seeded Boston Celtics. It marked just Cleveland’s second loss of the season, the other coming against Boston, and the 17-2 Cavs’ first defeat at home.
Daniels also did a solid job on defence, in particular limiting Darius Garland to 19 points, while Donovan Mitchell top-scored with 30. It came after a slow start for the Hawks, with Daniels scoring their first points with a 3-pointer after a 10-0 Cavs run. Cleveland raced out to an early 27-8 lead and looked ominous before the Atlanta bench helped get the visitors back in the game, closing the first term on a 27-8 run.
The Cavs again threatened to push out its lead late in the second term — going up 50-42 midway through the period — before Atlanta again fought back, even momentarily taking the lead. The game went down to the wire of the fourth term, with Daniels’ crafty spinning floater in the lane extending the Hawks lead to 121-114 with 3:38 left in the fourth. That was followed by a big and-one play from DeAndre Hunter, who had eight points of his team-high 26 points in the fourth quarter.
Cleveland kept fighting down the stretch including Ty Jerome’s triple getting the hosts within four points, but Young responded with a huge dagger triple followed by an assist to Onyeka Okongwgu under the hoop to seal the win or Atlanta. It snapped a three-game losing streak for the Hawks, who are now healthy after the likes of Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a key chunk of the first quarter of the season. GIDDEY CATCHES FIRE AFTER SLOW START.
.. BUT BULLS CAN’T RECOVER Josh Giddey put a scoreless first half behind him to score 10 points in the third quarter but it was far from enough as the Orlando Magic breezed to a 133-119 win over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.
Lonzo Ball was back in the line-up after missing nearly a month with a right wrist sprain, with the Bulls guard coming off the bench. Chicago once again went with an incredibly small starting line-up, playing Giddey alongside Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. The Magic jumped out to an early 5-0 game on the back of a strong start from an aggressive and attacking Franz Wagner.
Dosunmu answered the Wagner flurry with a 3-pointer but Jalen Suggs came right back with a triple of his own for the Magic, who went ahead 15-7 before Bulls coach Billy Donovan called his first timeout. Ball and Matas Buzelis entered the game after the timeout, with Giddey and White heading to the bench, and the rookie made an immediate impact – first cutting to the rim for an emphatic dunk before then splashing a 3-pointer. Buzelis was an early bright spot, at least on offence, in an otherwise one-sided first quarter from the Magic, who led 38-25 after shooting 6-for-11 (62.
5 per cent) from deep. Orlando’s 38 points were a season-high for a first quarter, with Wagner (11 points) and Suggs (nine) leading the way while Giddey (zero points, two turnovers, one block, one rebound) had a rough start. The Magic maintained the intensity to only increase their lead by halftime, going up 73-54 as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope enjoyed his best game since making the move to Orlando.
The former Nugget and championship-winning guard had a team-high nine points in the second quarter while Giddey remained scoreless by the half. That changed late in the third quarter though as Giddey started to catch fire. The Magic had already pulled so far ahead by that point that it didn’t really matter, but Giddey was finding multiple ways to score.
First, he drained a corner 3-pointer before later driving to the rim for the finish and soon after forcing a steal before finding Dosunmu for the fastbreak bucket. Giddey linked with Dosunmu again later in the quarter and finished the period with 10 points, four assists, one steal and one turnover. The Magic finished on top 133-119, with Suggs (31 points) their leading scorer while Caldwell-Pope (24) had his most productive game of the year.
Talen Horton-Tucker (20 points), meanwhile, provided spark late for Chicago while Giddey finished with 13 points, five assists and two rebounds in the loss. Speaking before Thursday’s game, Bulls coach Donovan spoke about the early teething problems with Giddey and how the young point guard had grown more comfortable in Chicago’s system. “He’s done a really good job of offensively helping us putting pressure at the basket but also when he’s got there he’s been able to find people and generate offence for other guys,” Donovan said.
“His adjustment period has been good and he’s smart. He’s been figuring things out as we’ve gone and I think he’ll only get better at that.” SIMMONS STARES DOWN SUNS SUPERSTAR AFTER EARLY STATEMENT Elsewhere, Ben Simmons is on track to pass his season-high mark of 10 points after scoring eight in the first five minutes against the Phoenix Suns.
Simmons, who was given the early defensive assignment of Kevin Durant, also stared down the Suns superstar at one point early in the quarter after aggressively driving right at him for the finish. It was exactly the kind of start Nets coach Jordi Fernandez would have loved to see from Simmons, having challenged him to shoot 10 shots per game earlier in the month. “I want him to shoot more.
My goal for him is 10 (shots per game),” Fernandez said at the time. “He’s gotta find a way to get there. He hasn’t gotten there, but I know he can.
.. Those attempts need to go up.
.. He’s more than capable.
” The Suns led Thursday’s game 37-34 after the first quarter against a Nets team that has quickly proven themselves to be far from easy beats despite entering the season with one of the lowest projected win totals. Brooklyn was severely undermanned for the trip to Phoenix, without Nic Claxton, Bojan Bogdanović, Day’Ron Sharpe, Jaylen Martin, Noah Clowney and leading scorer Cam Thomas, who is out three to four weeks with a hamstring strain. ALL RESULTS HEAT 98 HORNETS 94 HAWKS 135 CAVALIERS 124 TRAIL BLAZERS 114 PACERS 121 BULLS 119 MAGIC 133 ROCKETS 122 76ERS 115 (OT) CLIPPERS 121 WIZARDS 96 KNICKS 114 MAVERICKS 129 PISTONS - GRIZZLIES KINGS - TIMBERWOLVES RAPTORS - PELICANS LAKERS - SPURS NETS - SUNS NUGGETS - JAZZ THUNDER - WARRIORS.
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Aussie gem hits another career high in shock upset; Simmons’ early statement: NBA Wrap
Dyson Daniels recorded his first double-double for the Atlanta Hawks in a huge 135-124 road upset over the East’s No. 1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.