Reggie “Ock and Bull Torture” Bullock seems to be the Khris Middleton replacement that the Pistons have been searching for these past few years. Trading that dude away was a mistake, no doubt about it, but they took their time and when they found Bullock lying facedown in the trash heap of discarded NBA players, they snatched him up, revived him with some healing potions, brushed him off a bit, and turned him into an elite three-point shooter.
Or, they signed him to a cheap deal with the idea that maybe he would be good and Bullock, through his own efforts only, remolded himself into the player he always knew he could be and the Pistons just got lucky with how well he turned out.
This game furthers my theory that when Bullock is on the court and playing well, the Pistons become a much better team. Like, way better. I don’t know what on-off stats mean or even how to interpret them, but I bet those stats paint him in a positive light. Along with a bunch of other stats that purport to tell us who the good players are and who the bad players are.
Detroit needed all 31 of the points he scored in regulation to eventually beat the Timberwolves in OT. The two free-throws he got in the overtime period were just the lame cherry on top of the mindblowing sundae. The 33 points he ended up with far surpass anything he had done previously; he had just set a new career-high of 24 just last game, which I thought was pretty rad. But this is so much radder, and it has me thinking… 50?