Stanley Johnson resurrected himself from the dead (actually the very end of the Raptors bench – but being dead is basically the same thing) in the game before this with a “game-winner” against the Philly Cheesesteaks. I put “game-winner” in quotes because there were still five seconds left in the game at the time he hit the “game-winner”. So it was more of a “clutch late-game shot”. That phrase is a bit unwieldy so I invented a new term for a clutch late-game shot: “blibbum”. Stanley Johnson had a blibbum that game, not a game-winner.
Johnson also finished that game with only five points. So it wasn’t the most authoritative of resurrections, but it was a resurrection nonetheless. A certain central figure to a certain worldwide religion is nodding his head in approval right now.
The miraculous resurrection continues with Johnson’s unexpected 23-point explosion against the Nuggets today. I’m legitimately wondering if this is Johnson’s best game ever. It’s definitely his best game in a long time. He’s been a poor shooter for his entire career so every time he has a good shooting game it feels like the laws of probability are getting violated in obscene ways.
I just looked it up. Johnson’s career high is 26. This is his second-highest-scoring game ever. And it came for a team that he barely played for. He scored 37 points for them all season! I can’t wait for Raptors fans to come in here and say things to the effect of “All this kid needs is minutes” and “let’s goooo SJ [muscle emoji]” and “playoffs secret weapon, masai is undefeated” and “kawhi and d-wade combined but better”.