Donovan Mitchell does it again. That’s two 40-burgers on the season for him now, compared to zero for all the rest of the rookies. He has over half of the top 15 rookie scoring performances, if that first stat wasn’t good enough for you. You want more? I can find more. How about this: he’s a beast. Take that for data!
That dunk contest snub must have gotten him all riled up, justifiably. Dennis Smith Jr. is an insane athlete who will be fine in the dunk-off, but Mitchell is on another level. You know what dunk I bet he would’ve done? I bet he would’ve dunked over Karl Malone (on a hoverboard) and seven of his illegitimate children all at the same time. While windmilling it.
And don’t even talk to me about him being in the skills challenge. That thing is lame as heck, everyone knows it, he’s putting on a nice face like he’s fine with it, but you know he’s not. Who the heck watches the skills challenge? No one. Even the people in the arena go to get concessions while it’s going on because it’s so stupid. Anyone can pass a ball through a circle.
This performance alone has about 100 times the entertainment value of whatever he does at All-Star weekend, because in this one, there were actual NBA defenders (SUNS JOKE GOES HERE) trying to stop him from putting up a huge amount of points. They didn’t succeed, but it’s not like he was just getting free layups here. He had to work, and he did, and now he’s scored 40 again.