Portland Trail Blazers center Enes Kanter went Roast Beef mode in their 118-103 victory over the Detroit Pistons. The 6-foot-10 big man flexed his muscles to haul in 30 rebounds on Saturday night. Kanter's monster game compelled Jusuf Nurkic to get his creative juices flowing by coining the perfect nickname for his teammate: The Turkish Tank.
That's actually a really great nickname for the Turkish big man and it fits him perfectly. Nurkic himself has a great nickname, being the Bosnian Beast. As for Kanter, he definitely is a tank on the court, with the way he bullies opponents on the block with his 6-foot-10, 250-pound build.
With Nurkic sitting out the contest due to it being the first game of a back-to-back, it became an all-you-can eat night for The Turkish Tank. And gobble up those rebounds for the Blazers he did.
Out of Kanter's 30 boards, 12 of them came in the offensive end. Not only did Kanter do his damage on the glass, he also complemented the scoring tandem of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum by dropping 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting of his own. Lillard and McCollum led the way for the Blazers with 27 and 26 points, respectively.
Kanter's epic night placed him in the Blazers history books, as laid out by ESPN Stats & Info. He also became the 4th player since the year 2000 to notch at least 20 points and 30 rebounds in the same game.
Kanter's previous career high in rebounds came in Nov. 25, 2018 when he grabbed 26 rebounds as a member of the New York Knicks. Entering Saturday, Kanter is averaging 11.9 points and 11.6 rebounds in 51 games, including 33 starts this season. Those numbers will likely receive a slight uptick as a result of his epic night.