BBNBA: Towns, Fox, Herro, Maxey, and Booker emerge from All Star break on fire

The second half of the NBA season is upon us. The trade deadline has passed. The All-Star Game has come and gone. All that remains is some gamesmanship between teams at the top balancing the art of resting their stars while jockeying for playoff position and teams at the bottom finding the right mix of getting run for younger players and tanking for a better pick in the draft. There are also teams in the middle just treading water, but that is the purgatory where no one wants to dwell. Don’t tell any of this to the stars of the BBNBA, as they have all emerged from a few days’ rest filling up the basket.

Five different former Kentucky players scored 25 points or more in the last three days. One of those players did it twice and none of them were MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Let’s recap.

Karl-Anthony Towns puts up massive numbers

Fresh off his first-ever All-Star Game start, Karl-Anthony Towns returned to the Knicks with All-Star energy. On Thursday, KAT led New York to an overtime win against the Chicago Bulls with 32 points (20 of which came in the third quarter alone) and 18 rebounds.

Towns followed up that performance the very next night with 23 points and seven boards against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but catching the best team in the Eastern Conference on the second night of a back-to-back proved to be a bad recipe for success as the Cavs blew out the Knicks on Friday.

It was still a strong performance from KAT, however, who is probably spending his downtime brushing up on his collective bargaining agreement knowledge, having just been elected Vice President of the National Basketball Players Association executive committee.

Tyler Herro leads Heat to win over Immanuel Quickley and the Raptors

Tyler Herro joined Karl-Anthony Towns in California for the All-Star activities last weekend and then came out of his short break on fire. Basically, Herro won the NBA 3-point contest and then kept on shooting.

On Friday, Herro had 28 points and a team-high seven assists as the Heat skated by the Toronto Raptors. Herro shot 4-9 from deep in the game, likely mentally polishing his 3-point contest trophy with every make.

Although it came in a loss, Immanuel Quickley dropped 23, the second-most points he has scored all injury-plagued season. Let’s hope this is a good sign he is finally fully healthy.

De’Aaron Fox, sans Wemby, puts the Spurs on his shoulders

I’m not a San Antonio Spurs fan, but my heart broke a bit when the news got out that Victor Wembamyama would miss the rest of the season due to a blood clot. The once-in-a-lifetime talent is cartoonishly good at basketball, so to see him forced out with a non-basketball injury is awful.

Now it will be up to the newest Spur, De’Aaron Fox, the biggest BBNBA name to move teams his season, to carry the scoring load, something he did admirably on Thursday against the Suns. Swipa stuffed the stat sheet, going off for 26 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and two blocks in a win over the Phoenix Suns. He followed that up on Friday with an even better scoring clip, dropping 27 points against the Pistons.

It is hard to say how Fox will coexist with Chris Paul, but then again, Paul’s teammates have been saying that for 20 years.

The Suns are a mess, but Devin Booker is awesome

Devin Booker didn’t have the best scoring outing in Thursday’s aforementioned game against the Spurs, but he made up for it on Saturday night. The man with the best signature shoe in the league dropped a game-high 29 points against the Bulls, helping Phoenix to a win.

The Suns traded for 5th year Nick Richards at the deadline but the big man can only do so much, although he did have 15 points and 10 rebounds against Chicago. The Suns appear rudderless, hovering in the netherworld of mediocrity despite having one of the highest payrolls in the league.

All Book can do is keep scoring and putting out new colorways. Oh, and if you’re reading, Nike. Please release the Kentucky Book 1s to the public. Thanks.

Tyrese Maxey just keeps scoring

The Phoenix Suns might be a mess, but they are nothing compared to the Philadelphia 76ers. For a team that was supposed to compete for a top spot in the East (instead, Karl-Anthony Towns has the Knicks in that spot), the Sixers find themselves 20-36, good for 12th place in the standings.

But if you think this abysmal record deters Tyrese Maxey, think again. Maxey had 31 points and five assists in Philly’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. With a subpar Joel Embiid, Maxey is having to bear the brunt of the scoring load and that is tough.

It’s a good thing the Eagles won the Super Bowl or else there would be more of an uproar from Philadelphia sports fans about the state of their program, no matter how much they like Maxey.