Jabari Parker seems like he might be playing a bit better lately, but he still doesn’t quite pass the “eye test”; he often has sloppy turnovers and he often takes bad shots that he shouldn’t be taking (see: popping for a twenty-foot jumper with the defender in his face). It’s funny to note that the part of the eye test that he fails with his inefficient offense is exactly the part of the eye test that he would pass if he played fifteen years ago. In some ways, Jabarles Parkley is just a player born in the wrong era. Sort of like how I was born in the wrong era to enjoy 80’s consumer culture in America.
Just like his last game against Milwaukee, I would classify this game as a definite REVENGE GAME. 24 is Jabari’s second-highest scoring performance this season and five is his second-highest assist output. By those measures, this is the second-best game of Jabari’s season, and it came against the team that discarded him like a tatty pair of sneakers. And the crazy thing is, Jabari almost lead his team to victory here. That’s how much REVENGE he was playing with.