2: Mason Plumlee
Date: May 1st, 2016 vs. Golden State Warriors
Result: Lost 118-106
Box Score: 1 point, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks on 0-of-7 FG
Because Mason Plumlee wasn’t superior to the sum of Portland’s parts, his contributions to the Blazers’ Cinderella run in 2015-16 somewhat get overlooked. For reference, remember that some predicted this team to be the worst team in the Western Conference, after losing LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Robin Lopez.
But, the group rallied around one another, and with a couple of better-executed possessions, possibly could’ve knocked off the defending-champion Golden State Warriors, who’d been without league Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry.
In Game One of that series, Plumlee went for just a single point, along with 12 rebounds and 6 assists.
Let’s get our ESPN on for a second: according to Basketball-Reference, no player in NBA history has ever grabbed at least 10 rebounds and dished out five assists in scoring just one point.
If you lower the qualifications to just five rebounds, the floodgates open, with 11 other players joining Plumlee.
Plumlee was third, and sometimes fourth in pecking order, as it related to scoring on this team. With two score-first guards in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, it almost became second-nature for him to put up statlines of this well, stature (no pun intended).
Just a few nights before, Plumlee put up these two statlines during the Blazers-Clippers series.
- 6 points, 21 rebounds, 9 assists and 1 steal on 2-of-5 FG in Game Three
- 2 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 blocks on 1-of-6 FG in Game Four
Some day, there’s going to be a fan that’s both mesmerized by Plumlee’s stat-sheet stuffing, and mistaken by Lillard and McCollum’s “low” shooting percentages. He’s going to argue that Plumlee had a case as the most impactful player on this team.
You know it’s coming. The same thing was done in the cause of Mutombo and Iverson, and even Gasol and Kobe. And while that’d be quite foolish, it’s shouldn’t take away how rare these stat lines are, especially for a postseason game.