King Philip graduate and former HockomockSports.com Player of the Year Jake Layman made the most of his first NBA minutes on Tuesday night.
After the Golden State Warriors turned a close affair into a big lead behind a strong third quarter from Steph Curry (28 points), the Portland Trail Blazers went to its bench in the fourth quarter. In the final quarter, Layman made his NBA debut replacing Al-Farouq Aminu. He finished with 17 points in eight minutes.
“It was exciting to be out there for the first time,” Layman told the media after the game. “It wasn’t fun being down 30 but you know it was exciting to be out there and be aggressive really.”
With his first ever professional shot, Layman drained a three off an assist from Meyers Leonard.
“I was glad,” Portland head coach Terry Stotts said when asked about Layman’s performance. “Obviously he came in and made shots and got to get a good run. Even though we were down 30, it was a good opportunity for all of those guys, all five of them, to get a good run rather than just two or three minutes. [I’m] glad for him that he got a little rhythm in his shot.”
From there, Layman caught fire. He hauled in a rebound off a James McAdoo free throw miss on one end and drained another three on the other end. He added a layup with 5:21 to play, missed his first NBA shot with 3:24 to play and followed that with his third three pointer.
Inside the final three minutes, Layman converted two more three pointers.
“Yeah I was just being aggressive,” Layman said. “I got hot but I was just being aggressive.
“In the position that I’m in, no matter when you go in there you got to play hard. That’s what was going through my mind.”
Layman also had a rebound, a steal and an assist in his debut. According to the Trail Blazers PR department, Layman is just the second NBA player to ever make five 3-pointers in their NBA debut (Donyell Marshall, 1994).
Whether the performance was enough to earn more minutes going forward is still to be determined, one media member asked if Layman would be in Portland’s starting lineup for Wednesday night’s game at the Phoenix Suns.
“I don’t talk about my starting lineups,” Stotts said with a smile. “Everybody knows that.”
Kevin Durant thinks Jake Layman should play more #RipCity #CSNBlazers https://t.co/drZjJ7lQ0d
— CSN Northwest (@CSNNW) November 2, 2016
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