Friday's fresh legs
The freshest.
Last weekend we mentioned Donovan Mitchell not having to play the Nets for a third time and meant it, these little things matter.
The rest of the NBA wants to focus on big things, 83 points, tankers who win three of ten contests and bump themselves out of top-five contention, or the way the league's newest streaming partners give ESPN a real run for the NBA's latest starting time (the world's largest online bookstore begins NBA games 15 minutes after scheduled tip, ESPN only had the guts for 14). Or why Shai is so nice, but also so smooth.
We should focus on long things, NBA legs, the ones which sat on NBA chairs in NBA street clothes (expensive, but irreverent) for extended NBA stretches.
We know about the injured, all we talk about is the injured, lets talk the less-injured. The recovered, previously-dismissed, the somewhat-healthy, plus the ones trying to push a product I mean return the Boston Celtics to championship glory.
THE FAMOUS JARED MCCAIN
Only 620 minutes between 3-10-25 and 2-3-26, 280 minutes in five weeks since.
Hasn't skipped a beat off the Thunder bench, works on both ends of a back to back and gives the champs 19 minutes per game of good-ass basketball (11 points on 46/42/91) the champs didn't have before. Low turnover rate, probably because Jared McCain hasn't passed the ball (13 assists in 15 games) since he got here.
I thought he was passing the ball, too, leaks ahead and such, skip passes. But it turns out there are a lot guys on the Thunder to guard, and Jared's open a lot.
Does Oklahoma City employ ethical scorekeepers? Did they grow stingy with assists years ago to spite Josh Giddey's incessant complaints? Alex Caruso is much nicer to the scorekeepers, Caruso doesn't protest when they count Alex's missed layups as field goal attempts, doesn't claim he threw a lob.
