Abdel “Mr. Fourth Quarter” Nader channeled the spirit of other clutch final-quarter performers like Isaiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, and Robert Horry to score 15 points in the last 12 minutes of tonight’s game against the Knicks. Those 15 points weren’t strictly necessary to win the game, but they did help the Thunder get a comfortable margin of victory.
Am I wrong in thinking that Nader has turned the proverbial corner in his career? I think I am, because he’s had a whole lot of goose-eggs and single-digits games in between his scattered decent ones, but maybe he has. The Thunder commentator thinks he has (though he didn’t phrase it exactly that way), and he would know, because he watches all the Thunder games with a critical eye. He knows who’s doing good and who isn’t, and Nader is kinda doing good lately. Sometimes.
The question remains: would Celtics fans take him back in exchange for Terry Rozier? They didn’t like Nader much last season, but I think their dislike for Rozier exceeds even that.