Kristaps Porzingis reminded us how good he is against the Nuggets

Kristaps Porzingis was crowned the original unicorn by Kevin Durant. He does things on the court that we’ve never seen before.

This season, with Carmelo Anthony in Oklahoma City and Porzingis taking over New York, we’re finally getting to see if he deserves that label. So far? The answer is definitely.

On Monday night against the Nuggets, Porzingis scored a career-high 38 points, snatched seven rebounds, and blocked three shots while facing double and triple teams from the Nuggets. But there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.

I mean, how many players, let alone seven footers, do you know who can pull up from this far out?

Did you see that? He shot that ball from Latvia. That was confidence — no hesitation. Porzingis knew that ball was going in the whole time. That was just three points from a 13-point first quarter from the OG unicorn. With the way he played, you’d forget he was a big man at all.

But then, he’d remind you by making plays like this.

I mean, who does that? Oh, that’s right. OG Unicorn. And he makes it look so effortless.

With other big names coming up in the league like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Nikola Jokic, and Joel Embiid, it’s easy to forget how special Porzingis is. But on nights like this, he reminds you exactly how good he is and that he can stand toe-to-toe with many of those guys.

Don’t look now, but Porzingis has led the Knicks to three straight wins and a way-too-early spot in the eighth seed. He’s scored at least 30 points in five of the six games the Knicks have played. He’s the first player since Michael Jordan to score at least 30 in four of five games in one of his first three NBA seasons.

That’s an MVP-type start to a young season for Porzingis. The team around him isn’t great but if he can carry them to a respectable start, we’re going to have to put his name in the same category that we do with the other unicorns of the league. And it looks like that’s going to happen real soon.