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The Lance Stephenson 10-day contract: Days 5 and 6

By Ian Levy

Sep 23, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Lance Stephenson (5) poses for a portrait during media day at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 23, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Lance Stephenson (5) poses for a portrait during media day at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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Lance Stephenson is back in the NBA, proud owner of a 10-day contract from the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, this is a tenuous toehold. In two weeks, he could be on the road to redemption or he could be on a plane to China. Since we don’t know how many more days of NBA Lance Stephenson we have, each must be treated as a precious snowflake. Catch up on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4 here.

Day 5 and 6: And lo, on Day 5 the Minnesota Timberwolves won a basketball game with suffocating defense and offensive precision. Sure, it was against the Chicago Bulls who were playing without Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade. Sure, Michael Carter-Williams took 12 shots. Whatever, a win is a win and if you don’t tell the Strength of Schedule formula that Wade and Butler weren’t playing, then I won’t either.

Lance played just under 15 minutes with a quiet 6-point, 1-assist stat line. But the Timberwolves were +10 when he was on the floor and he was part of an 11-2 Timberwolves run to start the second quarter that really buried Chicago and put the game completely out of reach. Nothing he has done in any of his three games or six days with Minnesota has been particularly noteworthy (to the chagrin of this basketblogger) but I suppose that’s probably a good sign. He hasn’t been much help but he hasn’t done much harm either.

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Stephenson has two more games to play for Minnesota on this 10-day contract — tonight (Day 7) against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and tomorrow (Day 8) against the Denver Nuggets. The last two days of his deal will bleed into the All-Star Break. It seems possible that he could be offered a second 10-day contract coming out of the break, for the Timberwolves to kick the tires a little more. Here’s hoping for an ear-blowing triple-double tonight against Cleveland to spice up this recap series a little.

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