Called into action as the starting small forward in the absence of Chandler Parsons, Al-Farouq Aminu has answered the call in a major way on Sunday.
With his Dallas Mavericks facing elimination against the Houston Rockets, the normally defense-first, defense-second Aminu has scored 16 points with 11 rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting, helping propel the Mavericks to what looks like a likely Game 4 victory.
It's the most points Aminu has scored in a game since Feb. 20, and two of them came in emphatic fashion, with Aminu cramming on MVP-candidate James Harden:
That's a cold piece of posterization by Aminu right there, and it came after a nice initial effort at post defense by Harden. Harden's secondary effort was somewhat less impressive, and Tyson Chandler appeared to prevent Dwight Howard from coming with the help defense.