Red Claws vs. Springfield ArmorFirst, having looked through the season averages for Fab, I noticed his minutes are pretty low at 28.4 MPG but those are pretty productive minutes. On top of that, his averages include games before he really started stepping it up to another level. Keep that in mind when comparing his averages with other D-Leaguers.
http://www.nba.com/dleague/games/20130124/MNESPG/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp2021200163[be warned: spoilers ensue]
Speaking of limited minutes, plagued with foul trouble, Fab Melo logged 25 minutes, most in the second half (around the 1 hour 29 minute mark on the youtube video)in this game.
But those minutes were, again, very productive. After sitting out most of the first half, 13 points and 9 rebounds was Fab Melo along with 2 blocks.
Melo brought a lot of energy in the 2nd half, looking for the basketball (for the oop and in the post alike) and hounding after the offensive glass on top of his usual solid production.
Melo's match up tonight is one Willie Reed, a 6'9-6'10 big who is apparently a raw athlete (per nbadraft.net). However, Reed is said to be good defensively and, with the poor help defense (in my opinion) by the rest of the Red Claws, a threat off the ball. My impression of the game is Fab Melo won the match up on both ends of the floor again.
He seems to be utilizing his limited offensive arsenal of 2 moves - jump shots and the right hand hook - with even more confidence and effectiveness than last game. He looked for post up opportunities actively.
Once again Fab Melo benefited from playing with recently acquired pass-first 5'9 point guard Andre Barrett, finishing 2 alley-oops. Overall another efficient, controlled, solid offensive game.
Defensively, again, mistakes are minimal and a huge impact was made. His teammates' mistakes are also covered. He not only has 2 blocks in 25 minutes but made a lot of off-stat-sheet impact, block attempts and non-block attempts alike (
such as this).
With 9 rebounds in 25 minutes, this is a very good rebounding performance by Melo. I think most of the defensive rebounds I feel Melo should have gotten he did get and, in addition,
he was also very active on the offensive glass (with almost half his rebounds coming from there) (some online draft scouting reports say he was a good offensive rebounder in college despite being overall a poor rebounder).
Melo also logged 2 assists. It appears they are running things through Fab Melo even more now with some plays having Fab Melo making passes from inside the arc rather than being just a finisher. Melo is a solid passer, especially for his size, and I thought the change definitely helped the Red Claws (by making Melo even less of an offensive liability) and gave Melo even more opportunity to make an impact on the offensive end.
Melo also showed the ability to make plays out of the post.As for the game, the Red Claws unfortunately fell to the Armor thanks to an onslaught by Shengelia, Nets 2nd round pick this year, who finished with 39 points and almost 20 rebounds,
including this dunk on Fab Melo (but with Melo immediately getting back at the Armor with an alley-oop dunk on the other end right after).