Bazley causing buzz with bubble breakout

Chris Paul sat on the Thunder bench late in Monday's game talking with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

No surprise; the point guards have become almost joined at the hip this season.

But sitting behind them, his eyes locked on Paul, was Darius Bazley. The Thunder rookie doesn't play the point, doesn't run the show when he's on the court, but he knows a great player when he sees one. And he's been trying to follow Paul's lead. It's showing, too. On an afternoon the Thunder was overmatched from the start — five rotational players, including three starters, were scratched for various reasons — there wasn't much fun versus the Suns. Phoenix 128, OKC 101. But if you're looking for bright spots, none was more brilliant than Bazley. He recorded his first career double double, scoring 22 points, grabbing

10 rebounds and becoming the first Thunder rookie with a double double since Domantas Sabonis in January 2017.

What's more, it was Bazley's second 20-point game in as many days. When Sunday dawned, Bazley had never scored 20 points in an NBA game. By the time the sun set Monday, he had done it twice.

“He's so talented,” Paul said. “For him to be a rookie, there's a lot being thrown at him. … To see his growth from when we first started off the season, he's been really, really impressive.”

Frankly, Bazley's growth just during the time the Thunder has been in the bubble has been really, really impressive. Through six seeding games, he is averaging 12.3 points and 5.5 rebounds a game. Before the coronavirus put the season on hold, he was averaging only 4.7 points and 3.7 rebounds.

Those are huge jumps. With the exception of T.J. Warren, Bazley might well be the bubble's biggest breakout.

Warren, of course, is quite the exception. The Pacers forward went to Disney World and found the magic in the kingdom. He was good before, but now, he's peak Michael Jordan, averaging 34.8 points in Indiana's first five seeding games and shooting 60.5%.

Type T.J. Warren and bubble into Google, and the website's predictive search provides the word “god.” T.J. Warren, bubble god. Sounds about right. Darius Bazley hasn't reached deity status, but his strides have been significant.

He was hitting 37.4% of his shots before the NBA hit the pause button. Not bad for a rookie.

But since the restart, he is shooting 42.6%. What's more, he's shooting 42.9% from behind the 3-point line, a huge improvement from the 30.0% he hit in 53 games before the shutdown.

“He shot the ball better,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said, “because he's taking better shots.”

No more camping out behind the 3-point line. No more shooting every time the ball hits his hands.

In the third quarter, for example, Bazley found himself guarded by Devin Booker, the Suns ubertalented guard. But as good as Booker is, he gives up three inches to Bazley.

So, Bazley posted him up, drew a foul and went to the free-throw line.

That wasn't the sort of thing we saw from him before the shutdown.

Bazley's shot selection isn't perfect, mind you; he had a catch-and-shoot jumper from the top of the arc in the first half with his toe on the 3-point line. That's the worst, the almost-butnot-quite 3-pointer. He's got to have the awareness to get himself fully behind the line if he's going to shoot from that far. Still, that can be fixed. The big stuff — where he shoots and how he shoots — seem locked in.

“That comes with practice. That comes with repetition,” Paul said. “I think it shows the amount of work he put in during the shutdown. To see the commitment that he's put into that department and just the confidence … earlier in the season, we used to get on Baze a lot of times for passing up shots. Now, Baze is hitting stepbacks, crossovers.

“It's going to be cool to see him continue to grow.” Indeed.

Truth be told, the Thunder may well have found a gem at Disney. Maybe Bazley will become Batman to Gilgious-Alexander's Superman. Perhaps they will be the next one-two punch for this franchise.

Bazley, though, doesn't want to think too far ahead.

“The game is starting to slow down a little bit for me,” he said. “It all just comes down to making the right plays, making the right reads. What's the defense giving me? Do I have a shot? Do I have a drive? Or do I just pass?”

He is getting more answers right these days.

The yellow shirt he wore after the game Monday seemed a sign of his bust out in the bubble. The purple lettering stretched across the front of it read: NO PROBLEMO.