In case anyone was still doubting the legitimacy of Michael Porter Jr. as a starting caliber basketball player, for the third game in a row the sensational rookie impressed in large doses.
Coming off of back-to-back 30 point affairs, MPJ got the starting nod again for the Nuggets and immediately went back to work. Faced against Carmelo Anthony on defense, Porter got hot early from outside and even showed some impressive ballhandling and cutting skills to get some easy lay-ins. He had 12 points in the first quarter alone. Meanwhile, Melo had just seven points the entire game – think about that!
Even switching Gary Trent Jr. onto MPJ in order to slow him down didn’t faze Porter that much. He went quiet for a minute but in the end was able to still score almost at will. Perhaps Michael Malone said it best postgame: “Yeah, they shadowed him, and he had 27 and 12.”
The only real negative is that he couldn’t quite crack the 30 point for a third consecutive game. Oh well.
Check out the highlights below, then watch them again. And again. And again.
