...Amare Stoudemire had a double double tonight? Not just any normal double double, though. He only had 6 boards and one assist to speak of. No, not those. We all know one statistic where he made it in - points, which was expected from him, as he dropped 20 in a losing effort to the Jazz tonight. So what was the other? Blocks. This sophomore blocked 10 shots tonight against the Jazz in his second game back from his reaggravation of his ankle. I don't know about you, but I see that as damn amazing. This is definitely going to be a career high for him for quite a while, I'd think. Only two other people I can think of had 10 blocks in a game - Shawn Kemp and Dikembe Mutombo. All this from a second year player. I can say future all star - can you? [ box score ]
And I failed to mention the four steals he had, too. Obviously, he's not going to play THAT well defensively every night, but it is a glimpse into the future of what he's capable of.
What's most amazing is that the majority of them were when Andrei Kirilenko was shooting. Andrei doesn't get blocked much at all, and Amare did it with ease. That equalled the season high in blocks, set by Deke and Calvin Booth. Booth did it in 17 minutes though, Deke did it in 42. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/stats/seasonbests?cat=blocks
yah, too bad he couldnt have pulled down 4 more boards, but i think 10 blocks makes up for anything he did wrong in that game. A very unusual double double to say the least.