Sometimes box scores are false advertising. Take this performance from C.J. Watson. On the surface, 23 and 5 is really good for him. But, upon closer inspection, nine of his points came in the last four minutes of the game, after the Rockets had built an insurmountable advantage. That’s three baskets that were in garbage time.
So, if you take those out, you get a pedestrian 14 and 5 statline, a line that would place Watson at infinitieth place on my list of videos to make. Damjan Rudez scoring seven points would be higher priority. Heck, even C.J. Miles scoring six points with 0-of-8 from three would be more entertaining.
This isn’t the first time Watson has burned me with multiple three-pointers in the last few minutes of the game. It’s like he can only shoot freely when he knows that his shots aren’t going to make a difference either way.
I guess it’s my bad for buying into the NBA’s “every bucket counts” fairytale.