It’s too bad that Justin “The Most Worthy Heir To The ‘James’ Throne Since Mike James Just Randomly Disappeared From The NBA After Randomly Appearing” James’ most impressive play this game was an attempted posterization of DeAndre Jordan that only resulted in two missed free throws. In a major departure from established protocol, I actually did show it (and a replay), because it was sick, even if it didn’t lead to any points. I felt that the true story of James’ performance tonight wouldn’t be complete without it.
That’s not to say he didn’t have some nice buckets. He did. I like the dudes who get really high on their jumpshots, and he’s one of them. It’s just that his dunk attempt would’ve been top 10 on the year for sure had it gone down, and is probably still top 100 even though it didn’t.
This is James’ first taste of real extended NBA minutes; he had played 15 minutes total over 4 games prior to this. There’s probably some reason that Luke Walton decided it would be cool to play him 32 minutes tonight, and now that I’m looking at the Kings’ injuries, I think I figured it out. Cory Joseph wasn’t at full strength, De’Aaron Fox is dead (I think), Yogi Ferrell is way too short, and who else is going to play PG for them? Kyle Guy? Injuries suck, but the silver lining with them is that exciting second-round picks can get tons of barely-earned playing time because of them.