This is one of Trevor Ariza’s mythical “actual good games”. He has plenty of games that look like good games, but they’re what I like to call “fake good games”. I call them that because he might score some points, but he does so inefficiently while committing turnovers and fouling too much. James Harden has “fake good games” all the time. It’s the perfect thing to whip out when you’re faced with talking about a player whom you have preexisting biases against. Somebody like Trevor Ariza. Or James Harden.
However, I would never stoop so low as to insinuate that this good performance doesn’t count simply because it came against the Phoenix Suns who really really suck right now. That would be like saying a theoretical Ben Simmons 60-point game next season doesn’t really count because it happened while he was playing against a lesser player like LeBron James. If you accumulate stats, they count. That’s why they’re stats. And Trevor Ariza got a lot of them in this game. That’s what I’m trying to say. I think.