Khem “The AlKhemist” Birch ended last season with a unprecedented streak of 6 consecutive double-digit scoring games. “Unprecedented” in that he had never come close to doing such a thing before, not in that no one ever in the history of the NBA had done such a thing. On the contrary, I can think of at least three players CURRENTLY in the NBA who have had 6 straight games scoring in double figures. But for Birch, that was an incredible stretch.
But his highest game out of those 6 was a mere 13 points, in the season finale. Which means, yes, you guessed right, that this ties a career high for Birch. If you thought that what we saw at the end of last year was a sign of things to come, you must not have been following the NBA for long, because everyone knows that during the last few games for tanking teams, some really wonky statlines start popping up. We’re getting to that point of the season now, and I’m getting really excited.
But yeah, Birch quickly went back to his usual low-scoring, low-usage self once the Magic decided to try, once again, to make a doomed 8th seed push. He got a bunch of DNPs to start things off, but now is getting fairly consistent minutes, like 15 a game, and barely scoring at all. This is his first double-digit scoring game of the season, and it’s a doozy. Did you see that Eurostep? Canada is culturally a part of Europe in my opinion, so it’s not cultural appropriation or anything that he did it.