Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 10:30 am  |  55 responses

Tyreke Evans’ Shameless Pursuit of a Milestone

Anyone who watched the Kings/Rockets game last night understood immediately that it was all about 20-5-5 for ‘Reke, as far as Sacramento was concerned anyway. Following the game, the Houston Chronicle was less than amused: “They should be ashamed. Instead, they celebrated. That was a farce, an insult to the game. The Kings loved it. Tyreke Evans is a wonderful talent. He has my rookie of the year vote. The statistical achievement he secured on Monday is remarkable and will not be his last. The Kings, however, made the game about a statistic. Evans needed 24 points to guarantee that he would finish the season as just the fourth rookie — joining Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James — to average 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. When he got to 22 points, everything was about that goal. He kept driving to impossible shots, missing one after another. With Kings fans on their feet and the volume on the beat cranked up, he ended the first half missing three straight as the Rockets cut the lead to five. With the crowd again choosing the Kings offense, he missed five more and charged into Trevor Ariza as the Rockets took the lead. He finally made two free throws to get his 24 points and received a standing ovation, followed by another when the announcement, that was by then unnecessary was made. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the long ovation. The two free throws were his only points in the second half. The Rockets, meanwhile, pushed their lead to 10 with three minutes left. The Kings had gone from a 14-point lead to a 10-point loss. It was their 10th loss in 11 games. And they celebrated it happily. ‘I didn’t even know what was going on,’ Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. ‘Finally, they put the 20, 5, 5 up there (on the scoreboard.) I’m more than happy to let him take that. We’ll take the win and go home.”‘

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  • mems

    @Rob. yea the rockets are so mad that they’ll only be a championship contender next year while the queens will go back to the lottery. cheers!

  • AiRsMiTh

    Steph Curry doesn’t put records ahead winning games. No tanking, Warriors went out trying to win as many games as possible and got a few despite having only 5-7 players playing throughout the course of their remaining games. Curry does not only put up the stats that he does, but he makes his teammates (many of whom were called up from the D-League this year) better and is THE reason the Warriors have been able to win these last few games. The Queens don’t care about trying to win games. They could save some face, but they’d rather watch Tyreke play 1-on-5. If Tyreke just kept playing his game, he would have almost certainly EARNED those 2 points, but instead he just cares about chucking up horrible shots; and his team just sits back and watches carelessly, and even praise him for finishing the way he did. What a great organization. What’s the point of playing the game if you’re not going to try and win, they may as well have forfeited.

  • Jon

    If you follow Tyreke Evans for the entire season, you’ll know that he is actually the last player that would play for stats.

    A very clear example was at the rookie vs soph all star game. When everyone else including Curry, Jenning and Blair were firing up shots everytime they touched the ball, Tyreke was still passing. Even when Jennings and curry started to catch up to Tyreke in pts and possibily take his MVP award chances away, he continued to feed Blair because he wanted Blair to get 20/20. Tyreke goes on to share the MVP with Blair which he didn’t have to. This shows what type of player he is.

    For the last feel games in the Kings home stand, the Kings marketed to their fans to come witness Tyreke get the 20-5-5. Tyreke had said in interviews during that week that he knows everyone wants him to get it. Its kind of like a 20 yr old rookie doing what his bosses wants and to please the fans. But Tyreke through out the season was not a shelfish player.

  • Jon

    LOL @ airsmith

    When curry plays the lakers, they check him with the aging D-fish or Jordan Farmar. The opposing team’s D does not plan around stopping curry. The warriors won their last game because Roy was injured and they rested Camby and Aldrige. Also the Blazers had nothing else to play for as oppose to a week ago when they played the Kings, they were still fighting for playoff position.

    When Tyreke plays the lakers, they check him with Ron Artest & Kobe. You know who else Tyreke goes up against every game? Mike Brown put Lebron on Tyreke in the second half of their game and I quote “Tyreke was scoring at will. We had to put Lebron on him… we have to give him that respect.”

    But who are we kidding. All of the warriors fans out there saying curry is better…. but if you guys had a choice… would you really pick curry over Tyreke? HAHAHAHA

  • AirsMiTh

    @ Jon, Portland swept Sacramento this year. Tyreke had one decent game against them. And would you care to explain who the teams planned on stopping when they played the Warriors then? Would it be Reggie Williams, or the unstoppable Corey Maggette, or how about Devean George? Monta has been injured during the majority of Curry’s insurgence, but that wouldn’t make any sense for teams to try and stop Curry, you’re right. The Warriors beat Roy company convincingly earlier in the season although Curry did not play a significant role in that game, however, Curry still managed 42 in the final game while the Warriors were getting dominated down low and on the glass. I doubt even if Camby and Aldridge were playing, it would have made such a huge difference aside from Aldridge’s offense considering George and Curry accounted for half of the team’s rebounds. I’ll admit that Tyreke can pretty much get to the rack at will, but he does not have a reliable jumpshot and whose to say he will develop one. Therefore as of now, Curry is the more well-rounded and intelligent player. Hence I would pick him to be on my time, because he is more suitable to have a team built around. Perhaps a Kings fan?

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