Chase Tyler uses Magic's Maurice Jones to send a message to the rest of Raleigh

Chase Tyler could do no wrong on Wednesday. That is, unless you consider four missed shots some wrong.

Tyler etched his way into the Raleigh record books by scoring 52 points in a 103-71 win for Tobacco Road over Magic. He shot 20-24 from the field and 8-12 from deep; he was a perfect 12-12 from inside the arc. To put that into more context, he averaged 2.17 points per shot attempt (shocked face emoji)

in 26 career games, Tyler has averaged 28.0 points per game, so high-volume scoring is nothing new to him. There was a different edge to Tyler on Wednesday though, which Raleigh League Coordinator, Thomas Hunt, describes.

“He was fouled on a play early in the second half. Chase and Maurice Jones started exchanging words, and from that point on, he took his game to another level,” Hunt said.

Sometimes trash talk can be used to get in an opponent’s head and throw them off. That had the opposite effect for Jones, who played the role of Spike Lee to Tyler’s Reggie Miller.

For Tyler, once that exchange took place, he wanted to prove himself through his game, which seemed to work pretty well.

“(I) just wanted to send a message through acting not talking,” Tyler said. “I wanted to send a message to all the teams that we are going to win the championship this season, and no matter who you put in front of my team and me we plan on destroying anybody in our way.”

I’d say scoring a league-record 52 points on 83% shooting in a 32-point victory is a strong message to the rest of the league.