Serge Ibaka has spent a majority of his time off the court feeding his teammates in his cooking show ‘How Hungry Are You?’, but it’s the Raptors who are feeding the ball to him so far this season. The 11-year veteran has been an integral part to the Raptors franchise-best 9-1 start, having a career year so far.
He scored a career-high 34-points, adding 10 rebounds and 2 steals to help lead the Raps to a 121-107 win over LeBron James’ Lakers on Sunday. Twenty of his points came in the 1st quarter when he went a perfect 11 of 11 from the field. Kyle Lowry explained Ibaka’s performance last night, quite simply telling the media, ‘He made a lot of shots’.
Kyle Lowry’s analysis of Serge Ibaka’s career performance: “He made a lot of shots.”
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) November 5, 2018
While that is definitely the case, Ibaka has been having a career year all around statistically. He’s had 3 games where he has scored over 20 points, shooting an astounding 56% from the field. He’s also cleaning up on the glass, averaging just over 7 rebounds a game. His 18.1 points per game are currently a career-high average and his rebounds per game average of 7.6 have not been this high since his prime days with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Efficiency wise, two of Toronto’s best lineups come when Ibaka is playing center, boasting plus/minus’ of 13 and 8 respectively. A lot of that has to do with newly minted head coach Nick Nurse’ decision to start Ibaka at center and bring Jonas Valanciunas off the bench. Nurse has staggered both Ibaka and Valanciunas minutes to perfection, resulting in both boasting career year so far into the 2018-19 season.
Ibaka started his career in OKC playing the power forward position alongside Kendrick Perkins but over the past 10 years, he’s molded himself into the prototype center in today’s NBA. He spaces the floor with his ability to hit shots up to three-point range. He’s not at the level of a prolific shot blocker and defender like he was five plus years ago but averaging 1 steal and 1.4 blocks throughout 10 games and he’s done so while only playing 27 minutes per game.
Ibaka’s play has been a pleasant surprise after rumors circulated over the summer that the team was looking to trade him in order to get rid of his massive $42 million contract over the next two seasons. So far, he’s given Toronto all the more reasons to eat their words. The Raptors will take on the Utah Jazz on Monday and Ibaka will try to add to his sizzling start.
