Unlike many previous instances where a player goes absolutely nuts scoring-wise in the first half of a game, your old pal DTB did not even get hyped a little bit for the prospect of Iman Shumpert scoring forty. That’s because I knew he wasn’t going to do it. There have been many occasions where I hype myself to dangerous levels and then crash when the player in question fails to meet my expectations. This was not one of those occasions. I was completely sedate and relaxed even while Shumpert was in the throes of a score-gasm that had everybody clutching their heads in astonishment. My BHL (blood-hype level), which I check often, was at normal levels the entire time.
Twenty-three in the first half is great, but a guy like Shumpert, who has few outstanding scoring performances in his career and is a career sub-40% shooter, is unlikely to keep up that kind of hot shooting for an entire game. There would be no reason to think that he would go on to score fifty or even forty for the whole game. I did think maybe he would reach thirty, but he didn’t score any points in the second half and ended the game with a good, but not great, point total.
Also, I apologize that I accidentally used the Thunder feed to create this video. Their incredulous disbelief at Shumpert’s mysterious transformation into Klay Thompson is entertaining, but I feel like I missed out on Doug Christie saying some really dumb, hilarious stuff.
Also also, I apologize for not being able to use the nickname “Iman Dumpert” at any point in this description. Usually he plays like a dump, but for the first half of this game, he was about as anti-dump as it’s possible to get.