Malik “Malik in the Palace” Beasley just totally outplayed James Harden in front of thousands of delirious Nuggets fans and even more people sitting at home watching ESPN wondering who the heck he was. The final point total for Harden: 30 points, a ton of flops, and an L. For Beasley: 35 points, no flops that I could find, and a W. Harden did actually have a decent game shooting the three by his standards, and he didn’t just iso and chuck as much as he has been, but would it have mattered if he did? The Nuggets dumped on them. Hard. With Beasley leading the way.
I’m trying to figure out if he was maybe mad that he got snubbed for some All-Star weekend event and that’s why he decided to show everyone on national TV that he was a total beast? Was he really looking forward to the skills competition? I could even see him in the dunk contest or three-point shootout. Or both. Why not both? The NBA needs to reward its young talent like Beasley with appearances in meaningless frivolities.
Before this demolition of the Rockets, his career-high was 23. A 12 point jump in that category is pretty rare for a third-year player; just another piece of evidence that this is one of the sickest highlight vids of the season. The VHS tape of this one will be duplicated, one copy going in the normal spot in the DTB Archivium, and the other going into my special “Hall of Fame”, which is a shelf covered in Christmas lights and aluminum foil. It looks really slick, honestly, an enduring monument to the very best the role-players of the NBA have to offer. I’ll put this one right next to the “Alec Peters 36 Points” and “Hasheem Thabeet 13 Points/10 Rebounds First Career Double-Double” VHS’s.