With Zion Williamson out, this may have been the least-watched broadcast in history of NBA on TNT. Unless there are still a bunch of Lonzo Ball fanatics out there (which there might be, though I will say I haven’t seen any BBB stuff for a while [or ever]), the target audience for this game was… people who legitimately like basketball? That might seem like a big audience, but it really isn’t. There aren’t tons of people who can just sit down and derive enjoyment from whatever random NBA game they decide to watch.
Anyway, all those people who decided not to tune in to this one really missed out, because Jahlil Okafor (who is basically Williamson except a few years older and with post moves instead of free-throw-line windmill dunks) SHOWED OUT. He’s a name that casuals should still recognize and remember from his days at Duke, and in this game he showed that he hasn’t lost any of his pizazz from those days.
It’s a good thing the season is just about over for Alex Len, because I don’t know if I’d want to play any more basketball for a while after what Okafor did to him in the second quarter. BRUTAL. BRUTAL SPIN MOVES.
I could ask, at this point, why Okafor doesn’t get more minutes when it’s obvious that he’s still a walking bucket, but I know my answer already. Defense. Just saying, Williamson needs to take a look at what happened to Okafor’s promising career and take notes on it. All the offense in the world can’t help you when you have no ability to defend at an NBA level. If he wants to look at the other team, I think I saw Jabari Parker over there too.