The canary, who had six minutes in the loss of the Grizzlies against the Blazers, is the eighteenth Spanish to make his debut in the American league
Santi Aldama can already say that he is an NBA player. He’s been a part of the Grizzlies since they drafted him in the summer, but until yesterday he hadn’t made his debut. It was in Portland, against the Trailblazers, when his coach, Taylor Jenkins, understood that the canary had to jump onto the court. With the game lost, it is true. In what the Yankees call ‘garbage minutes’ and that the young promise turned into a remarkable debut and a clear message to the bench. “I’m not afraid, I want to play more.”
In the six minutes available to him, the one who is already the eighteenth Spanish to debut in the best league on the planet, shot another six times to the basket. Without complex. He hit half of them and went into the shower with seven striking points, of all styles, and two offensive rebounds.
Entering the field when your team loses by more than 20 (106-81) is not usually easy. Less if one takes into account that those of Chauncy Billups won at halftime. But an opportunity is an opportunity and Aldama chose to seize it.
He was accompanied by a bit of luck in his first official basket. He started on his back, posting from far away to win the center and get a kind of half hook, not too orthodox. He entered after hitting the board and also claimed the defender’s foul. The nerves faded.
A triple in two attempts
The next one was not well understood in the pick and roll, but it loaded the offensive rebound and made what was an alley-opp that came very late to finish in mate after offensive rebound. He still had time to catch another rebound in the rival zone and make a triple of the two he threw.
The match was called for a spectacular head-to-head between Ja Morant and Damian Lillard. However, the deflected point of view of the great Oregon point guard (6 of 22 in field goals) ended up offering another type of duel. One that broke in the third quarter, with Nurkic and McCollum as stilettos. In front, Morant was too lonely. Memphis were wrong, obsessed with avoiding Lillard’s far 3s. The one from Los Angeles read well the two against one that they did to him and began to attend their interiors, which they scored at will.
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