It’s a real shame that this game was nationally broadcast and we didn’t get to hear the reactions of the home Jazz commentators. I understand that this game had playoff seeding implications, and that TNT schedules are probably decided two decades in advance, but the Jazz rolled out such a scrubtastic lineup that only their own commentators would be able to do it justice. I’m no fan of Matt Harpring but at least he knows who the players on his team are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and when they’re far exceeding their previous career high in points, he would have some embarrassingly effusive praise to be doled onto them from behind the mic.
The national guys barely even acknowledged Grayson Allen any time he scored, and I don’t think they even realized that he scored forty. Do they not understand the significance of this fact? He dropped a forty-burger. A forty. Burger. Forty points. They should have been losing their minds in the same way that my mind was lost when I refreshed the box-score for the game and Allen’s point total ticked up from 36 to 40. A point total in the thirties was reasonable, maybe even expected given Allen’s scoring mentality, but in the forties? No way. That’s a different beast, and Allen tackled that beast, snapped its neck, ripped off its legs like it was a whole rotisserie chicken, and started gnawing on the bloody flesh while growling at anything else that came near his meal.
Quin Snyder will ultimately have to make a decision: does Allen’s ability to score (but not do much else) belong in the Jazz’s playoff rotation? Snyder is smarter than me when it comes to knowing what traits of basketball players are needed the most in the Jazz system, so I’ll leave it up to him, but I’ll leave him with this one final tidbit: Grayson Allen scored forty. Forty goddamn points. What the hell. You’re telling me you don’t want to win a game seven with somebody dropping forty?