All eyes were on Portland on Thursday night as LeBron James made his official regular season debut as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. Viewers were treated to a quite nice individual LeBron performance that was totally ruined by an even nicer Trail Blazers debut for Nik Stauskas. (It was also ruined by the Lakers’ turnover problems, total lack of outside shooting and deficient defense.)
8 things to know about Nik Stauskas’ debut with the Blazers
Sauce Castillo had himself a night in the Pacific Northwest.
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LeBron joined the Lakers on a maximum contract this summer to great fanfare and much analysis. Stauskas joined the Blazers on a minimum deal, and honestly I forgot he’d done so until he checked into the game on Thursday.
But the NBA is a mysterious world filled strange occurrences and brief flashes of brilliance. Since we gave you a rundown of LeBron’s big debut, I feel it appropriate to do the same for Sauce Castillo. So here are eight things to know about Nik Stauskas’ debut for the Blazers.
1. Stauskas made almost as many threes as the entire Lakers roster
L.A. went 7-30 from long-range for the game. Stauskas went 5-8.
2. In the first half, Stauskas beat the Lakers 4-0 in three pointers made.
L.A. was 0-12 from deep in the first half. That’s where Stauskas did most of his damage, going 4-6 with 16 points.
3. In his first five minutes on the floor as a Blazer, Stauskas scored 16 of Portland’s 18 points.
4. Over that span, the Blazers went from down one to up six.
5. Stauskas’ 24 points tied his career high.
He previously scored 24 with the Sixers back on March 4, 2017. Nik had started that game. Philadelphia lost by 30 to fall to 23-39 on the season. Data via basketball-reference.com.
6. This was Stauskas’ 93rd game playing more than 25 minutes. His teams are 21-72 in those games.
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It turns out playing for the moribund Kings, Still Processing Sixers, and cratered Nets is bad for one’s win-loss record.
7. Stauskas had a huge debut with the Nets, too.
John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Nik was shipped to Brooklyn in the Jahlil Okafor-Trevor Booker deal last December. After two games in street clothes and two DNP-CDs, Stauskas made his debut with the Nets on December 15. He had 22 points on 6-9 shooting (5-7 on threes) in 28 minutes. The Nets lost by 33.
8. The Sacramento Kings, who drafted Stauskas in 2014 after the franchise owner made the decision on video in a war room filled with amateur analysts chosen via a bizarre internet crowdsourcing experiment, still owe their unprotected 2019 first-round pick to either the Sixers or Celtics because of a 2015 trade sending Stauskas, Jason Thompson, and Carl Landry to Philadelphia for cap space.
Never forget.
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