Those who were watching this game were doubtlessly aware of how Serge Ibaka was taking a whole bunch of shots and making them all. He didn’t miss a shot in the first half on 11 tries, if I remember right. Eventually he ended up 15-for-17, which is good, but it’s not perfect. Hard to blame him, he was stuck in between going for a new career-high in points or risking a perfect shooting night. He made the right choice. I’m assuming that Wilt Chamberlain holds the record for most shots made in a game without a miss, and it’s probably ridiculous, so there was no reason to go for it.
I just looked it up, and Wilt had an 18/18 game. Not as ridiculous as I thought! Ibaka could totally have challenged that if he didn’t suck.
His night looked to be over after the third quarter, but the Raptors were forced to put him back in after the Lakers (who are so frickin’ bad holy balls) made a little run to close the huge gap into a less-huge gap. Obviously, I was hoping for 40, because I’m hoping for 40 every time a role-player steps on the court, but I can deal with 34. 34 with only a single three means you took a huge dump on the interior defense of your opponent, which was definitely the case tonight.