Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans seems to be slowly regaining the form that earned him Rookie of the Year accolades. After a rough injury-filled start in December, his stats are back up to the 20-5-6 level in January that he averaged through all of 2009-10.
Although he didn't have a great statistical game against the Los Angeles Lakers (13 points on 13 shots, five rebounds, five assists, two steals, three turnovers), he did take a backseat to other Kings players when it was clear that his game wasn't completely there in an improbable road victory. And he did have one signature moment.
The Kings opened the second half and burst to a double digit lead over the Lakers, as they wouldn't trail for the entire 24 minutes. One of the big highlights came from Evans running a little Showtime fastbreak (HT Akis for finding this).
Evans Crosses Fisher and Goes Behind-the-Back to Dalembert (via kingsflix)
Evans wasn't moving particularly fast (so calling it a fastbreak is a bit of a stretch) and the Lakers had gotten back in transition, but he dribble drove past Derek Fisher pretty easily, forcing Kobe Bryant (shading to the left of Fisher) to come in and draw the charge and prevent an easy layup. This left Samuel Dalembert open on the left side, and as Evans moved right into Bryant's path, before making contact, he threw a behind-the-back pass right to Sammy D to extend the lead to double digits.
Not bad for a man vying for a spot in the Skills Challenge.