Scored 22 points in a single quarter and 30 points in a single game. The Magic s rising star had the best game of his career?

In the previous NBA regular season, the Boston Celtics defeated the Orlando Magic 138-129 at home. After this game, the Celtics, who had won 4 of the last 5 games, improved their record to 9-8 and continued to rank 10th in the Eastern Conference; while the Magic, who ended their 3-game winning streak, saw their record drop to 10-8 and their ranking dropped to 9th in the Eastern Conference.

Although the Magic lost the game, the performance of the team's substitute forward star Jett Howard was impressive. Howard played for 29 minutes and 5 seconds, shooting 11 of 23, 5 of 13 from beyond the three-point line, and 3 of 3 free throws. He scored a team-high 30 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. He also had 3 fouls and a plus-minus of 0. It is worth mentioning that 30 points is also the highest score in a single game of Howard's NBA career, and this game is also his strongest game in the NBA. Because the suspense of the game was lost early, Howard also got a lot of playing time and performance opportunities. He also got a lot of shooting opportunities, and he finally made full use of his talents in scoring and shooting. Howard scored 22 points in the fourth quarter of the game, fully demonstrating his explosive scoring power. It's a pity that the team's overall performance is relatively average, and the team is missing many important rotation players. Although Howard scored high scores, he was unable to help the team turn the situation around.

Howard was born in September 2003. He is 22 years old, 203cm tall and 98kg in weight. He is a forward player from the University of Michigan selected by the Magic with the 11th overall pick in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft. In the NBA regular season last season, Howard played a total of 60 times, averaging 11.7 minutes per game. He averaged 4.5 points, 1.2 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.2 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game. He also had 0.6 turnovers and 1.1 fouls. He shot 37.4% from the field, 29.6% from the three-point range, and 69.6% from the free throw line. In the playoffs last season, Howard only got one chance to play in G5 in the series against the Boston Celtics. In less than 4 minutes of playing time, he made 2 of 2 shots and 2 of 2 from beyond the three-point line, scoring 6 points and 1 foul. Since the start of this season, Howard has played a total of 13 times in the first 17 games, averaging 10.4 minutes per game, averaging 5.5 points, 1.1 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.2 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game. He also has 0.1 turnovers and 0.8 fouls. His field goal percentage is 44.8%, his three-point shooting percentage is 41%, and his free throw percentage is 100%.

The Magic chose not to exercise the team option in Howard's contract for next season before the start of the regular season, which means that he will become a completely free agent next summer. Howard's performance in the previous two seasons was relatively average, and his overall performance was not satisfactory. Moreover, he did not show enough progress and improvement last season. This should also be an important factor in why he was abandoned by the team. Unexpectedly, in this game, Howard actually played such a phenomenal game despite getting a lot of playing time. We don't know whether his heroic performance in this game will change the trajectory of Howard's career. Will he be reused by the team in the next games?