As a young child, Luis Scola was out to prove that there is more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. Apparently, he found rebounding, because he's ridiculously good at that, too.
Scola finally hit the 40+ minute mark last week - three times, in fact. He amassed a total of 62 rebounds in four games, including 21 against the Timberwolves. He went 13 for 13 from the free throw line, and shot at or above 50% in each contest. Come to think of it, Luis hasn't missed a free throw since February 26th. That's 31 straight makes, people.
While the fifteen turnovers were forgettable, it was a fantastic week for Luis, even if the Rockets went 2-2. He did everything he could to help.
On a side note, while it was nice to see Luis receive so many minutes, I'm praying that Coach Adelman decides to show us some more Jordan Hill. I think the brunt of Rockets' fans dismay with Scola's playing time earlier this season was that he was never on the floor in the fourth quarter when we really could have used him. I don't want to see Luis have to play 40 minutes a night, but I would like to see him during important situations. Given Hill's standout performance against Detroit, even if it's just one game, he proved to Adelman that he's not going to be the same waste of space that Hilton Armstrong is. Ideally, he would spell Scola sparingly during the second and third quarters, and then give way to Luis come crunch time.
We'll see how it plays out, but there's no sense in playing your thirty year-old power forward for nearly an entire game when you have a young talent that could use some developmental minutes sitting on your bench.