On Friday night in Atlanta, Nicolas Claxton didn’t see any run in the first half. When he checked in with five minutes to go in the third quarter, he immediately switched onto Trae Young, stared down his flurry of crossovers and head-fakes, and didn’t budge. If not for James Harden’s narcoleptic tendencies off the ball, the possession would have gone nowhere:
Claxton would not sit for another second. Talk about déjá vú. Just three days earlier, after just a three-minute stint in the first half, he checked in midway through the third and again, did not sit the rest of the way.