In comparison to triple-doubles, which happen all the time now and barely mean anything, the 20-20 game is a somewhat rarer sight. There have been sixteen triple-doubles this year, actually not as many as I expected (I guess I temporarily forgot that Chucksell Statpadbrook doesn’t get as many opportunities to chuck OR statpad this year), but there have only been six 20-20 games. One of those was Anthony Davis’ 40-20, and the other four were acquired by Andre Drummond, of course, because that guy is an unstoppable rebound machine.
Add Derrick Favors to that elite club. 20 points, 20 rebounds, and I don’t think he was statpadding to get there. The Pelicans needed all those points and most of those rebounds to hold off the Clippers. Surprisingly, this is the first time he’s ever grabbed 20 boards; he’s not quite the rebounder that maybe he should be, likely because Rudy Gobert was stealing a lot of his boards for a lot of his prime years.
I still don’t like seeing Favors in a non-Jazz uniform. He was with Utah for almost a whole decade, not really the face of the franchise, but the guy you could always expect to see if you turned on a Jazz game. Solid, consistent. He might be just about the least exciting bigman in the league, but he was dependable. The Jazz are missing him, it feels like, and I don’t think the Pelicans appreciate him enough. At least not yet. Maybe they will now, for a few weeks until Zion Williamson comes back and steals their hearts away again.