This week, Franz Wagner made his NBA comeback from the injured list, leading the Michigan delegation. Regrettably, Caris LeVert, who also suffered a knock, took his position on the disabled list. In other areas, it’s possible that the newcomers are gradually gaining confidence.
Wagner, thankfully, made his injury comeback against the Heat on Sunday. He scored 19 points on 6 of 13 shots in 28 minutes, adding five assists as well. With their win against Miami, the Magic are thrilled to have their second-leading scorer back in the lineup.
The only game Hardaway Jr. and the Mavericks have played this past week was on Friday against Golden State, which was postponed due to the unexpected passing of Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic. Hardaway had a difficult time getting going in Dallas’ lone game of the night, a 127-110 loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. Using 5-of-17 and 0-for-7 three-point shooting, he scored 12 points. Dallas is sixth in the Western Conference right now.
Robinson’s Heat had a difficult week, finishing 0–3. In his games against the Hawks (14 points and two rebounds) and Raptors (14 points and three rebounds), he had strong performances. He didn’t fare well in Orlando, though, scoring only six points, four of which came from the charity stripe. He strained his ankle at Friday’s shootaround, but he was still able to play.
With performances of 24 and 16 points against the Knicks and Spurs, respectively, Poole got the week off to a great start. Sadly, after he only managed four points in 28 minutes against the Nuggets on Sunday, everything fell apart. This ended a seven-game run of double-digit scoring. The Wizards are still grateful that the Detroit Pistons are in the NBA because, with a 7-35 record, nobody is noticing how awful they have been playing.
On Wednesday night, LeVert’s Cavaliers utterly destroyed the Milwaukee Bucks, winning 135-95. Despite playing 22 minutes, he only managed four points, four assists, and three rebounds, making him largely ineffectual. He sadly suffered a wrist injury and was unable to play in Cleveland’s next game.
As we noted the previous week, Moe doesn’t seem to be in the lineup anymore. When he’s on the ground, though, he’s still making the most of his minutes. Despite playing only six minutes on Friday, he scored two rebounds and added four points. Then, on Sunday, he played almost twice as many minutes—11 total—and finished with eight points and four rebounds. There’s a way to get back into the rotation even though it wasn’t really spectacular.
It seems sense that Houstan’s playing time was reduced as Orlando became healthier. He played 21 minutes or more in the previous seven games, but this week he only played 15 minutes or less in three of them. In Atlanta on Wednesday, he managed just one three-pointer out of seven. Then, on Friday against Philadelphia and on Sunday against Miami, he failed to score any points.
This week, there was a sighting of Jett Howard in Orlando! He had two three-minute appearances in matches. On Friday night, he made a huge three-pointer and finished with five points, his second-highest scoring game of the year. He had one point, pulled down a rebound, and blocked his first NBA shot on Sunday.
Before being called up to the NBA on Saturday, Bufkin was still playing well in the G League this week. Though he hasn’t shown up since being summoned back, that could change at any moment. Pay attention.
