This is just the kind of game Marvin Bagley needs as he gets back into form after a month-long injury (clarification: the recovery time for the injury was a month long, not the injury itself, it would stuck to fracture your thumb in a very slow way such that it dragged out over multiple weeks). The Warriors haven’t totally given up yet, but they’re not very capable of putting up a very organized resistance to opposition scoring. Bagley capitalized on this and scored a season-high 17 points (granted, his season at this point is only four games long, but still).
This guy was on the cusp of getting removed from my channel due to being too good last year; only his protected status as a rookie saved him. It got overshadowed with the things that other lottery picks from last year were doing, but he was extremely solid as a rookie. He wasn’t putting up eye-popping numbers, but there’s something to be said for solid solidity executed solidly.
In a way, his injury helped him, because I kind of get the sense that the NBA world in general has forgotten about him. He was the second overall pick, and his selection elicited a lot of mockery directed towards the Kings franchise, but all that is way in the past now. Now he’s just another young big on a team that’s only okay at best, and he’s going to get to continue his development in relative tranquility.
At least, until he faces Luka Doncic again and everyone remembers what a gaffe it was for the Kings to just pass up on a MVP-type player in favor of yet another big with an iffy jumper.