The Denver Nuggets knew they were going to need more from Michael Porter Jr. for the rest of the season, and so far, the 23-year-old second year player has delivered.
Amid injuries to Jamal Murray, Monte Morris, and Will Barton within the last two weeks, the Nuggets have been forced to reorient their offense in creative ways. With a starting backcourt of Facundo Campazzo and PJ Dozier, the Nuggets know they need to make life easy for those two on the scoring front.
Enter Michael Porter Jr., coming off a career high seven made threes against the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. They needed a similar performance against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night and got just that, with Porter making eight threes en route to a new career high of 39 points. He added to it with six rebounds, two assists, and three blocks to make sure that he wasn’t simply one dimensional.
That dimension though…it’s clear that we are experiencing something special here with Porter. At 23 years old, he just made 15 threes in the span of about 26 hours. There are very few players his 6’10” height that consider attempting that many three-pointers across two games, let alone make them. His jump shooting is already approaching absurd levels, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t continue.
Check out the highlights from an impressive shooting night from MPJ, a sign of many more things to come as the regular season winds down.
