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I love Karl Malone, he's a huge reason why I'm a Utah Jazz fan today. He destroyed everyone he played against, and numerically, he did not leave many doubters. Some claim he was mainly a scorer, and that his biggest numerical victory was in points. No. It was against age. He has no rival in terms of consistency and capability. (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar struggled to score 11 points in his twilight)
The San Antonio Spurs recently let a lot of their guys have the night off, their eldest being 36 year old Tim Duncan. The Los Angeles Lakers have their own scoring stud in Kobe Bryant. He is closing in on the 30k points plateau. Because both are in the news I decided to look at Karl's last ten 40 point games. So this is him "over the hill".
If he's over the hill, sadly, Al Jefferson is a speed bump.
Averages of 43.6 ppg (58.3 fg%),, 10.6 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.7 spg, and 1.4 bpg don't happen by accident -- especially not when you are "over the hill." Oh yeah, they were all wins too -- his last 50 point game even coming in the playoffs.