Another game, another bucketfest (short for “bucket festival” in case you typed that into Google Translate and it got all confused) for Willy Hernangomez. He went 6-for-6 two games ago, followed that performance up with a sick DNP-CD performance off the bench, and now has scored 14 on 7-for-8 from the field.
This is, as far as I can tell, only the second time all year where he has gotten non-garbage-time minutes. The first was a short stint against the Timberwolves in the second game of the season, where he did nothing so forcefully that the coaches decided to never play him real minutes again. Until now. It really paid off for the Hornets, who, with Hernangomez’ help, almost won against a team with a similar record but is probably way better.
Injuries suck, but they’re great for guys like Hernangomez who remain firmly nailed to the bench until the people ahead of them find themselves unable to play. Bismack Biyombo has been hogging a lot of minutes by being a surprisingly good scorer (negating Hernangomez’s previously significant advantage in that area while also actually defending (something Hernangomez can’t really do), but he’s temporarily out of service. Perhaps Hernangomez can play his way into some real rotation minutes, but I doubt it. I’m just happy I got a couple vids out of him before he disappears into the realm of DNP-CD once again.