It was the team’s highest scoring game of the season so far, with 60 of the season’s 82 games completed.
Haddadi played for 21 minutes and scored 10 points, hitting on five of his 11 shots.
That is one third of all the playing time Haddadi has had so far this year, just 66 mins. And it is more than half of all the points he has scored this season: 17.
Haddadi has only appeared in 15 of the Grizzlies’ 60 games so far this season.
“I was so happy they gave me some minutes,” Haddadi said after the game. “I want to use them the best way I can to help my team win. I’m so happy. I wish to play better each game.”
In the 14 games before Saturday’s in which Haddadi appeared, he averaged a mere three minutes per game.
Coach Lionel Hollins said—as he has before—that Haddadi would get more playing time. But he politely indicated that Haddadi, the only Iranian player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), must perform better.
“Hamed did a nice job,” Hollins said of Saturday’s game. “He is going to get the minutes. He has got to play. He is the only seven-footer we have on the roster. He has got to be more focused at practice every day and aware of what we’re doing. He has got to come up to speed and I think he will do fine.”
Memphis now has a 33-27 win-loss record for this season and ranks fourth of the five teams in the Southwest Conference, one of six NBA conference.
