Final statline for Cheick Diallo against Puke Faulton, NoDefense “LeBron James” Suckballs and the whole Lackers team: 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks on Braindead Ingrandma in only 18 minutes of action.
He also did a Mutombo fingerwag, which he’s allowed to do since he’s African (no cultural appropriation here), but it doesn’t get to go in the statline because fingerwags are not a boxscore stat. They should be, but they aren’t.
This is on the heels of a 16/18 performance just last game. Remember when Jahlil Okafor was improbably producing in the absence of Anthony Davis and everyone was having a really fun time? Now it’s Diallo’s turn. Next up to have a resurgence is Alexis Ajinca, who I assume is still on the Pelicans because it seemed like he was on the Pelicans forever. If he’s not (I just checked and the results will make you sad), they need to re-sign him.
While the Pelicans are dealing with the paperwork to bring back Ajinca, we can enjoy Diallo playing some inspired basketball. He’s got an attitude that the Pelicans are lacking a little bit, a little bit of feistiness that likely stems from being held down by incosistent minutes for so long. If you thought I was going to go in the “Danny Ferry oddly racist” direction, sorry folks. Diallo’s feistiness has nothing to do with his continent of origin.