You know things are getting weird in the NBA when Brandon Jennings — yes, Brandon Jennings — is notching 20-20 games. In this instance, Jennings racked up 21 dimes to go with 24 points in a 128-118 win over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night. For the moment, it appears Jennings has finally found the light after years of inefficient chucking on mediocre-to-bad Eastern Conference teams. To be fair, he’s still on a bad Eastern Conference team, but that team is a helluva lot better than they were in mid-December — a time we like to call the “Josh Smith Era”. Since jettisoning J-Smoove in December, the Pistons are 12-3, with two of those losses coming to the juggernaut Atlanta Hawks.
A big reason for the Pistons’ turnaround (aside from the Smith’s departure) is Jennings’ about-face. In that 15-game stretch, Jennings is averaging 20 points, 7.2 assists and 1.9 turnovers. He’s also shooting above 40% from three-point range (40.4%), something he’s never done in his entire career. Sure, it’s a relatively small sample size, but maybe it’s a sign he’s finally turned the corner with the right coach (Stan Van Gundy) and the right system (two talented bigs — neither of which are named Josh Smith). Or, maybe he just saw what Stan Van is willing to do to a YOLO chucker, and that whipped him into shape. Whatever the reason, the once 5-23 Pistons are now one game out of the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, which is sounds insane until you remember the Eastern Conference sucks.
Anyway, here are some other stats related to Jennings’ performance, courtesy of Ball Don’t Lie. Let’s just say Jennings is in some good company:
- Jennings is the first NBA player to post a 20-plus-point, 20-plus-assist game since Steve Nash did it on Nov. 9, 2009.
- Jennings the third Pistons player to put up a 20-20 game. Isiah Thomas and Kevin Porter are the other two, and Jennings is the first to do it in more than 30 years.
- Jennings is just the fifth player since the 1985-86 season to have a 50- point game and a 20-assist game in his career. The other four are Andre Miller, Deron Williams, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Stephon Marbury.
[BDL]
