BBNBA: Brandon Knight Makes Long-Awaited Return to Court

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(Photo via Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)

Good afternoon, folks. Brandon Knight played in an NBA game for the first time since February 15, 2017. He played less than four minutes. Let’s talk NBA.

RECAP

In Houston, Brandon Knight finally returned to the court after over a year and a half of being sidelined with a devastating ACL injury. He came in for a stint towards the end of the first quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers and it was one of those situations where I had to do a quadruple take just to make sure what I was seeing wasn’t a mirage. But there he was, sporting the red number two for the Rockets. His debut, however, could have gone better. As part of being eased back into basketball after going 18-plus months on the bench, Knight played only the final three or so minutes of the first quarter and that was it. He recorded a rebound and an assist while missing both of his shots – one of which was a catch-and-shoot guarded three-point attempt that missed the entire rim and slapped the side of the backboard. It’s a process, people! Expect Knight to progressively receive more and more minutes as we venture into the new year. It shouldn’t take long for him to replace Michael Carter-Williams’ value of nothingness.
As for the other games on Thursday, it was actually quite a slow evening. Only four games were in action – one of which was Magic-Bulls down in Mexico City – and outside of Knight, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the only other member of the BBNBA who played. SGA was impressive despite his Clippers team being blown out for the second consecutive game (they lost to the Raptors in Toronto by 24 on Tuesday) as he scored 13 points on 6-8 shooting to go along with two rebounds and two assists. I don’t want to say that I’m totally worried about the Clippers current skid, but it’s definitely concerning. They’ve now lost four of their last five games with the one win coming against the Phoenix Suns in overtime. They lost by 10 the Grizzlies and by 23 to the Heat before the game against Phoenix. They currently sit at 17-11 – fourth in the West – but appear to be struggling at the moment.
Devin Booker sat out his sixth straight game due to a hamstring injury and his Suns actually got the win, too. Booker is expected to make his return soon.