Will former Duke basketball one-and-done Gary Trent Jr. ever cool down?
With his fifth straight 30-burger outing, Duke basketball alum and current Toronto Raptors full-time starter Gary Trent Jr. has joined an extremely exclusive club.
According to a tweet from StatMuse following Trent’s latest sizzling performance, only three others in NBA history have recorded 30 or more points plus at least five made threes in five consecutive games. They are all perennial All-Stars: Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Damian Lillard.
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Trent etched his name on that list with 33 points on 11-for-20 shooting, including a 6-for-10 clip beyond the arc, in Tuesday night’s 110-106 win over the visiting Miami Heat (32-20).
Although the rest of Trent’s stat line was relatively bare — two rebounds, one assist, one steal — note that the 6-foot-5, 210-pound shooting guard committed only one turnover in his 41 minutes of action.
A Duke basketball product on fire like no other
At least in terms of his past five shooting displays, no one in the league is hotter or more consistent these days than Gary Trent Jr., a 2018 second-round draft pick who is now in his second season with the Raptors. The 23-year-old has scored between 31 and 33 points throughout the stretch while shooting a combined 31-for-60 from downtown.
Yes, 31-for-60. Indeed, that is a scorching 51.7 percent, a ridiculous mark for such a high-volume sniper.
He’s averaging a career-high 18.2 points this season.
Gary Trent Jr. and the Raptors (26-23), now riding a three-game win streak, face the Eastern Conference-leading Chicago Bulls (32-18) in Toronto at 7:30 p.m. ET Thursday.
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