Myles Turner grabbed his career high in rebounds on Sunday. Let’s look back at his career night for the Indiana Pacers.
Career-highs are not celebrated enough. Doing one particular skill the best you have ever done it in your entire life deserves revisiting. When Victor Oladipo dropped 47 last year in an Indiana Pacers win against the Nuggets, he was named the mayor of Indianapolis soon after and won Conference Player of the week. Career-highs are a big deal and Myles Turner‘s huge rebounding game should be revisited.
Only 27 players in the NBA have pulled down 17 rebounds in a game this season, and that list features many big names. Now, Turner is a part of that. He became the 9th Pacer to accomplish the feat since the turn of the century, showcasing how rare it is for a guy to dominate this much on the glass.
How did Turner do it? A sweet combination of fundamentals and excellent defense.
Part of getting rebounds is an opportunity. Tuner had lots of em’, as the Wizards shot just 36.8 percent from the field. But Myles still had to leap up and physically get them, and boy did he:
Like the above clip would indicate, the offensive glass proved kind to Turner. He grabbed 7 of his 17 on that end of the floor, which is also a career high. He is starting to figure out all of the angles and positioning required to get offensive rebounds, and it is paying dividends.
Half of Turner’s 32 putback points this season have come in the month of December. He’s finally adding value on the easiest type of second-chance points thanks to his improvement on the offensive glass:
On the defensive end of the floor, Turner was just getting his butt into guys and clearing out space to get the boards. Often times, he misses rebounds as he flies up to block shots. In this game, he was giving up some of his defensive prowess to get some rebounds. With the Wizards missing tons of shots anyway, that worked out excellently.
Watch here as he keeps himself in perfect position in front of Thomas Bryant to snag the defensive rebound:
Turner was mashing the box outs, he and Thad Young were crushing bodies in that regard all night. At the same time, he was getting some of his rebounds by forcing the misses on his own. In typical Turner fashion, he wouldn’t let the Wizards hit anything around him, and he cleaned up the mess.
Here is one example of that. Turner hangs out under the screen and springs out on to Bradley Beal. He stays with him until the shot goes up, and he contests it enough to force the miss and grab it himself:
All in all, Turner was able to have a career night thanks to great defense, great box outs, and stellar positioning. He showed off how solid he can be on the glass when his defensive impact isn’t as needed. He also dominated the offensive glass and punished the Wizards for giving low effort. But a little luck in the form of the bounces helped him…
All in all, it was an excellent night from Turner. Here are all 17 of his rebounds in one video:
It is encouraging seeing Myles Turner have these types of games. The Indiana Pacers have to be pleased that during Turner’s incredible stretch of play, he has found a way to be better on the glass. Obviously, he won’t set a career-high every night, but hopefully, he can keep having stellar games in the rebound department.