Welcome to the NBA Hangover. We jot down NBA stuff mostly from last night that we want to talk about. Check it out.
Markelle Fultz has become a reliable everyday player.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images.)
I’m not going to back away from what I said a couple of days ago when I mentioned that the Orlando Magic are average. I mean, they are 20-21. The Magic’s excellent defense cancels out the porous offense. They don’t have a great record at home but their road record isn’t too bad. Their average point differential is as close to even as you can get. The Magic are the definition of an average team.
With that said, what a win they had against the Los Angeles Lakers on the road.
And… what a game by Markelle Fultz, who continues on his triumphant road back to what was expected of him. He had a triple-double against the powerhouse Lakers, which was the second of his career. By the way, his first was in April of 2018; did you forget that he’s the youngest player ever to get a triple-double?
Fultz has put together a nice year, making some clutch plays along the way and putting together a pretty good highlight reel (sometimes, at the same time, like he did here against defensively-focused LeBron James). Like I said in that article I wrote way back in the first week of the season, I’m sure he had little goals to hit before he could even sniff an all-star game. First and foremost, stay healthy. He’s done that. Play consecutive games in a row. He did that. Prove to be an everyday player. He’s played 40 out of a possible 41 games (coincidentally, the one missed game he had was against the Lakers).
Now he’s getting more PT. He’s played 30 minutes or more for 5 straight games for the first time in his career. Against the Lakers, he played 33 minutes, which is the most minutes in a game he’s ever played in the NBA.
Of course, as he works his way back, he still has some not-so-great games. Before the Lakers game, he scored single digits in 5 of his last 9 games. While he scored a career-best 25 points in a win against Brooklyn, he turned the ball over 4 times. He did the same in a loss against Phoenix and also nearly fouled out. Yeah, there will be growing pains. But this is much better than sitting out with a bad shoulder, right?
But this showcase game against the Lakers is hopefully giving us a sign of great things to come. Fultz has overcome so much to get to this point. Being labeled a “draft bust” was already jarring mentally. Getting sidelined with a funky shoulder injury for an extended time was not only taxing physically but also mentally. For him to be able to conquer those obstacles shows the resolve of Fultz. He never gave up. And now he’s taking back his young NBA career.
Fultz already has one of the best sports comebacks in recent memory. Hopefully, he can top off his first full season with a playoff berth and some great playoff performances.
The Orlando Magic may be average now but there is absolutely nothing average with Markelle Fultz’s career revival.
Bullet Passes
Good for 19-year-old Sekou Doumbouya to lead his Pistons in scoring with 24 points in an upset win against Boston.
You really gotta be careful with the Oklahoma City Thunder. They nearly came back from another huge deficit (which they did on back-to-back games; they trailed by 22 and 26 in those contests). They were down by as many as 30 points (73-43 near halftime) and OKC was able to cut the deficit down to 3 points with 2 minutes left but the comeback fell short.
Their opponents were the Toronto Raptors. They overcame a 30-point deficit themselves this season. And won.
So there’s this thing that J.J. Redick said:
JJ Redick is concerned that some players in today’s game don’t have their priorities in order. pic.twitter.com/570jfN5Csg
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 16, 2020
Is it not possible to be worried about both?
Instagram has provided a platform, for better or worse, for young players (well, young people in general) to show off their looks. It’s an opportunity for them to branch off to avenues other than basketball. One mishap could completely take away basketball from them but maybe a company saw them on Instagram and thought that they could be the perfect spokesperson.
I get the whole wins and losses thing; basketball is their job. But it’s also okay to get all the other opportunities while they can in this short shelf life of a professional athlete.
So there’s this outrage about Kyrie Irving once again. From Tim Bontemps of ESPN:
“I mean, it’s transparent. It’s out there. It’s glaring, in terms of the pieces that we need in order to be at that next level,” Irving said after finishing with 14 points on 6-for-21 shooting in Brooklyn’s 117-106 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Center.
“I’m going to continue to reiterate it. We’re going to do the best with the guys that we have in our locker room now, and we’ll worry about all the other stuff, in terms of moving pieces and everything else, as an organization down the line in the summer.
“It’s just something that we signed up for. We knew what we were coming into at the beginning of this season. Guys were going down left and right for us. (Garrett Temple) is out, (DeAndre Jordan) just got hurt tonight, Wilson (Chandler) is just coming back. We have complementary young guys as well that have done a great job the last three years.
“Collectively, I feel like we have great pieces, but it’s pretty glaring we need one more piece or two more pieces that will complement myself, Kevin Durant, DJ, GT, Spence (Dinwiddie), Caris (LeVert), and we’ll see how that evolves.”
On one hand, sure. The Nets could use more help.
But he probably shouldn’t have said those things. I mean, I get it. He wants the team to improve. But while he did praise his teammates, saying that they need one or two more pieces while singling out himself and some of his teammates is a pretty ballsy thing to do.
Again, I get it. And I’ve defended Kyrie over time. But like many others I know, the way he expresses himself is questionable for my tastes, sometimes.
Earlier this morning (afternoon in the East Coast, a trade happened:
Jeff Teague returns to Atlanta where he could be the back-up to Trae Young. But the Wolves now need a ballhandler other than Shabazz Napier. Treveon Graham gave the Wolves some nice minutes and he should be able to help out the Hawks. Allen Crabbe maybe bolsters the Wolves’ wing corps but he’s also an expiring deal.
The Wolves are likely not done.
The Scoreboard
DET 116 (15-27) @ BOS 103 (27-12)
BRK 106 (18-22) @ PHI 117 (26-16)
SA 100 (17-22) @ MIA 106 (28-12)
WAS 106 (13-27) @ CHI 115 (15-27)
IND 104 (26-15) @ MIN 99 (15-25)
TOR 130 (26-14) @ OKC 121 (23-18)
CHA 86 (15-29) @ DEN 100 (28-12)
POR 117 (18-24) @ HOU 107 (26-14)
DAL 127 (26-15) @ SAC 123 (15-26)
ORL 119 (20-21) @ LAL 118 (33-8)
Watch This Play
“I suppose it’s fine but you just feel like (Aaron Gordon) could do better than how he is right now,” says Rey-Rey. Geez. He showed me.
(VIDEO CREDIT: Chaz Clavant NBA.)
That is such a streetball dunk. Aaron Gordon needs to be back in the dunk contest.
Also, he did more than just that dunk. He put together a not-so-average highlight reel against the Lakers. Woof.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.