Evan Turner: Actual NBA Player?

For the first time in about a month and half, Evan Turner looked more like an NBA player and less like a confused extraterrestrial wandering the court. It's about damn time.

Turner scored a career high 23 points on 9 for 12 shooting in the Sixers 123-110 victory over the Suns last night. Sure, the Suns are about as interested in playing defense as BlueStarShockTrooper is in personal hygiene, but this deserves a moment of mild celebration. Let's hope this is the start of something positive for Turner to build on going into the new year. As our own Eric pointed out a couple days ago, aggressiveness and confidence are two of the biggest holes in ET's game right now. Last night, our favorite muppet put both on display.

Lay your peepers on some interesting stats below. Derek Bodner gets all the credit for these. He had them on his Twitter last night. They also appear in his post on Liberty Ballers, which you should check out.

• Jodie Meeks is shooting 27.7% over the last 10 games. 
• Evan Turner's stats when Iguodala plays: 4.9ppg on 36% shooting
• Evan Turner's stats when Iguodala is Out: 13.1ppg on 48.5% shooting
• Jrue's stats when Iguodala plays: 13ppg, 5.8 assists, 41.6 FG %
• Jrue's stats when Iguodala is Out: 17.4ppg, 8.4 assists, 49.2 FG %

So a gentleman's golf clap to you, Evan Turner. This was your night. Now let’s just hope the Sixers figure out a way to extract AI9 from this team.

[Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images]