With the Utah Jazz missing defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert due to a tweaked ankle, it was up to power forward Derrick Favors to step up as the starting center against the Miami Heat on Thursday.
And boy, did he step up.
Favors had a monster performance going up against Hassan Whiteside with 25 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, three steals and a whopping seven blocks. The Jazz ultimately lost 92-91, but Favors’ performance helped the Jazz stay competitive throughout the contest while limiting Whiteside to just nine points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field – an impressive feat given that Whiteside’s field goal percentage was 64.3% coming into the game.
This didn’t stop ESPN from putting up an interesting headline about a highlight dunk from Whiteside on one particular play:
Hassan Whiteside takes advantage of Rudy Gobert’s absence tonight with this posterization in the paint. https://t.co/DVTBFVamNG
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) November 13, 2015
Favors saw the headline and reacted accordingly:
@ESPNNBA lmao
— Derrick Favors (@dfavors14) November 13, 2015
Jim Park is a blogger and Tweet of the Night author of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.