Cooper’s Hooper of the Night: This goes to the MVP of that night’s slate.

Anthony Edwards

If you mainly consume basketball through social media, I could understand you thinking that maybe Edwards has had a down year.  He hasn’t had as many highlight dunks as usual, although he’s had a few. The main reason for this is that Edwards has taken a massive leap as a 3-point shooter, shooting a career high in attempts (9.8) and efficiency (42%). This was on full display last night, as he shot 6-9 from 3. He shot the same percentage overall in this game as he did from 3, shooting 12-18 from the field on his way to 36 points. Yet, that wasn’t even the most impressive thing from Edwards last night. For me, I was more impressed by him getting 11 assists, a new season high for the young phenom. All night, Edwards was using his explosiveness as a downhill attacker to set up his teammates. Rudy Gobert even got some assists from Edwards, not smoking layups like he is known to do. Anthony Edwards was starting to draw Michael Jordan comparisons last year due to his athletic ability and his mid-range jump shot. While it is unfair to put those expectations on such a young player, I did understand where it came from. It also helped that Ant seemed to be very relaxed and charming in post-game interviews, giving us great sound bites throughout his career so far. He was already a great player last season, but if he wanted to become a top 5 in the league type of guy, he was going to need to improve as a 3-point shooter and grow more as a distributor. Last night, we saw that growth on full display, as those 2 elements made him truly unstoppable. If he can consistently make plays for his teammates, there simply would be no stopping the Ant-Man. His best all-around game of the season, as he dissected the Jazz all night long on the way to a 138-113 win for Minnesota.

The “Holy Shit” Play of the Night: Best play of the night.

Paolo is one of the more aggressive players in getting to the basket. The former number 1 overall pick is 6 ’10’’, 250 pounds, so not exactly the type of player you want to meet at the rim. Well, unless you are Toumani Camara, then that is exactly what you want to do. Once you get that block, you probably feel good enough to do it again. Which he did. Camara played great all night, and I’ll talk about him more here in a bit, but for now, watch these amazing blocks.

“Teach Your Kids to Play Like This Guy” Player of the Night: Player who may not have a ton of points, but impacts winning.

Jarred Vanderbilt

The Lakers absolutely demolished the Wizards last night, which on its surface is not impressive. However, the Lakers were without Anthony Davis, Gabe Vincent, and Dorian-Finney Smith, AKA 3 of their best 4 defenders. That didn’t seem to affect the Lakers at all, as they held the Wizards to 96 points on just 32% shooting and 18 turnovers.  Jarred Vanderbilt got 4 steals yesterday, often blowing up the Wizards offense before they even had a chance to get set up. He is so active on that end, guarding players 1-5 on the ball and being active in passing lanes when he is off-ball. He is a player that opposing teams have to gameplan around, finding a way to get their best player the ball away from Vanderbilt. On offense, you would never confuse him for a bucket getter. In fact, the Lakers try to get him as few shot attempts as possible without disrupting the flow of the offense. In the NBA, it’s very hard to play when you can’t shoot, but Vanderbilt finds other ways to help the Lakers on that end. He sets good screens and rolls hard to the rim, which draws gravity from the defense and makes it easier for 3-point shooters to get open. He also is very aggressive as an offensive rebounder, getting 4 last night including a putback dunk. Take away that dunk, and Vanderbilt only shot the ball twice in 16 minutes. He gets my “Teach Your Kids to Play Like This Guy” Player of the Night because he is aware of his abilities on offense being limited and does everything else, he can to have an impact on the game. It is incredibly rare to grow up and be the number 1 scoring option on an NBA team, so it is better to teach your kid to be the ultimate role player like Vanderbilt is. The Lakers are very excited to have him back after a year missed with injury, and I’m sure Vanderbilt is very excited to be back playing winning basketball.

Numbers Sometimes Lie Player of the Night (could be good or bad): Player whose stat line least matches their actual impact.

Toumani Camara

Camara has some Jarred Vanderbilt qualities in him, but I think will be a way better offensive player in the next year or 2. His stat line was very vanilla last night: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists. If you watched this game, you would realize how essential he was to Portland winning. The Magic offense has been bad as of late, but that has typically been to their role players playing poorly. Last night, it was Banchero and Wagner struggling that mainly contributed to the poor performance, as Camara had them in hell all night long. Camara took on the challenge of guarding the Magic’s 2 best players, suffocating them and making them work for every shot attempt. Camara plays with no fear, as you could tell from his block on Banchero he had. Despite only taking 4 shot attempts, he played a team high 35 minutes in this one, leading the Trail Blazers to a 119-90 win over the Magic. His on-ball defense is already this good in his 2nd year, so if he can improve his offensive ability just slightly, we might be looking at the next Shawn Marion. Great win for Portland, who’s roster is slowly starting to make more sense for the future. Don’t be surprised if next year the Trail Blazers compete for a play-in spot next season, and Camara’s two-way ability will be a big reason why.

Clutch Player of the Night: Player who performed their best in the biggest moments.

Jaren Jackson Jr.

Jaren Jackson Jr was named an All-Star last night, and based on his play against the Rockets, he was pretty fired up by that. The Grizzlies were without Ja Morant yet again in this one, which leads me to my hot take: JJJ is the best player on the Memphis Grizzlies. He is one of the league’s best bigs on defense, and in the past couple of years he has really improved as an isolation scorer. He seems to be the Grizzlies’ go to player late in a lot of these games now, including last night. He shot 3-3 in the 4th quarter, while also making all 3 of his free throws he took. He only played 6 minutes in the 4th, but the Grizzlies outscored the Rockets by 11 in those minutes. The Rockets shot only 28% in the 4th, including only 1 made basket once Jackson subbed in the game. The Grizzlies got a much-needed win against the Rockets, as both teams are battling for the 2nd seed in the West. JJJ is one of the most underrated players in the league today, but if he continues to perform this well late come playoff time, that is sure to change.

The Well-Oiled Machine Team of the Night: Team that played the best from start to finish.

Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers are quietly 6-4 in their last 10 games! I’m as shocked as you are, but they really have been looking good lately. Scoot Hnederson is having the best 10 game stretch of his career, finally figuring out his 3-point shot and showing the potential that got him drafted 3rd overall. I’m very happy for him, because most people in NBA Media were writing him off as a total bust, and I hadn’t gotten there yet with him. I held my Scoot stock and got rewarded. As I mentioned previously, Toumani Camara played outstanding defense on Orlando’s stars. Shaedon Sharpe and DeAndre Ayton both piled on 23 and 22 points respectively. Portland really put this game away in the 3rd quarter when they went on a 13-0 run to go up 87-62. They played very physical defense during this stretch, only allowing 1 shot attempt during this two and a half minute stretch. It was an all-around dominant performance from Portland in this one, and I would be super excited for the years to come if I was a Portland fan.

The Tom Petty “Won’t Back Down” Team of the Night: Team that fought hard in 2nd half to make game close or straight up win.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies entered the 2nd half down by 10, which usually means a loss against a team as good as Houston. When you factor in that star point guard Ja Morant was out, it certainly seemed unlikely that Memphis was going to win this one. The reason why Memphis is one of my favorite teams is that in moments like this, the bench players have consistently stepped up. Kennard played a season high 33 minutes, shooting 9-15 from the field on his way to 22 points. Santi Aldama and Brandon Clarke continue to be the best bench frontcourt in the league, combining for 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Jake LaRavia even came in and made a bank shot 3 buzzer-beater to end the 3rd quarter. All these guys stepped up with their leader out and played a huge part in the come from behind win. The Grizzlies co-stars also stepped up, which is a huge reason why they need to be taken seriously as a title threat. We already went over Jaren Jackson Jr’s game, but Desmond Bane also stepped up in a massive way. He usually plays shooting guard but had to play point guard with Ja out, yet the offense didn’t skip a beat.  Bane put up 24-12-6 in one of the best all-around games I have seen him play. Against another elite team, to play this well in an elevated role, was really good stuff. The Grizzlies now sit just 0.5 games back of Houston for the 2 seed after securing a clutch 120-119 win over the Rockets.

The “There’s Always Next Game” Team of the Night: Team that came out with no juice.

Washington Wizards

I remembered when the Wizards started 2-2 and I thought they could make a run at the play-in. Wow, that feels so long ago.  Since then, the Wizards have gone on 2 different 15 game losing streaks, including the 16 one that they are on right now. Obviously I didn’t expect the Wizards to beat the Lakers, but I thought they could make it close. With Davis, Vincent, and Finney-Smith out, they should have theoretically been able to score enough to keep the pressure on the Lakers offense. This game was over by halftime, with the Lakers up 78-45 and wiping the floor with the Wizards on both ends. In the 2nd quarter, they got outscored by 20, shooting only 20% from the field in comparison to 59% from the Lakers. The Wizards were completely discombobulated all game long, and I think that can all be summarized by this recent Kyle Kuzma quote. 

“I think today I just decided to be myself and not really just try to fit into everything that we’re doing here, and just really played in the moment,” Kuzma said. The reporter then asked him to clarify what he meant by that, essentially giving him a chance to revise his words to sound more professional, to which Kuzma responded, “ I mean just not trying to fit into what we’re trying to do here. Just being more assertive, demanding the ball, not just going out there and trying to let people develop. Just playing my game.” You could not have crafted up a worse quote about your role as veteran on a young team. Things aren’t looking too good in Washington at the moment, and unless they land Cooper Flagg in the draft, it may be a while before they do.