NBA: Wagner collapses – Orlando fails at Cavaliers
A severe slump in Franz Wagner’s performance at the wrong time and the bitter end of the play-off adventure: The basketball world champion lost the first round series of the NBA with the Orlando Magic against the Cleveland Cavaliers, in the decisive game seven in a foreign hall on Sunday a 94:106. Wagner, who had been so strong so far, only managed six points, which was his weakest result of the season. In January, he also only scored six points in Sacramento – albeit in just five minutes on the floor.
His brother Moritz Wagner contributed three points on Sunday, for both of them it was their first play-off series in the NBA. For the Cavs, who now face the Boston Celtics, Donovan Mitchell once again stood out with 39 points.
Orlando was clearly inferior from the second half of the game and, unlike most of the time, could not rely on Franz Wagner: only one of his 15 attempts from the field found the basket – a rate of a good six percent at the worst possible time. Magic lost the series 3-4 and have been waiting to advance to the second round of the playoffs since 2010. The fact that the franchise even made it to the seventh game had a lot to do with Wagner, who had an outstanding season.
Throughout the series, both teams always won their home games, with the Cavaliers going into the decisive duel as favorites. Nevertheless, Magic found their way into the game well, led especially by the once again strong Paolo Banchero, who ended up with 38 points. Wagner wasn’t sure to score in this phase, but contributed to Orlando’s strong first half with a few assists. After eight minutes, the guests’ lead was double-digit for the first time (20:10), and later grew to up to 18 points. However, the guests’ rhythm broke towards the end of the second quarter, the Cavs came closer and it became louder and louder in Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Even simple throws were no longer falling for Orlando, at the beginning of the second half the lead continued to shrink, then Mitchell equalized (64:64) – the fans chanted “MVP, MVP”. The Cavaliers star had an unfortunate first half, only hitting three of 13 shots from the field. In this phase, however, almost every attempt was successful, Cleveland took a ten-point lead and kept this lead stable.
Ice hockey: Boston decides series against Toronto in overtime
After a dramatic series, the Boston Bruins are in the second round of the play-offs of the North American professional ice hockey league NHL. The six-time Stanley Cup winner won the decisive seventh game against the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in overtime. The Bruins’ next opponent is the Florida Panthers.
In game seven, the score was 0-0 until midway through the third period when William Nylander overcame Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman to give Toronto, who had their star player Auston Matthews back, the lead. However, Hampus Lindholm responded with the equalizer just 81 seconds later, and in extra time Czech David Pastrnak decided the game after 114 seconds and thus the best-of-seven series.
#sports #compact #Wagner #brothers #Orlando #fail #Cavaliers