Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
In case you haven’t heard, it looks like Mike D’Antoni is likely going to go with Jeremy Lin as the team’s starting PG against the Utah Jazz tonight. D’Antoni is apparently impressed with the way Lin attacked the basket and ran the Knicks’ offense during Saturday’s game against the Nets (and equally unimpressed with the pathetic job Toney Douglas has done). Can Lin repeat his 25 point and 7 assist performance against the Jazz? I highly doubt it, but Lin is an absolute must grab in any league he’s available in just to see if he can.
Also, because David Sterns requires by penalty of death that it is mentioned in any post about Lin, he graduated from Harvard.
Carry on.
Line of the Night: Eli Manning, 296 passing yards, 1 TD, led the Giants…
oh wait, wrong sport.
Line of the Night: There was no way that the NBA was going to compete head-to-head with the Super Bowl, so yesterday’s slate consisted of only two early games. That means Rudy Gay’s (1.64) relatively modest 21 points and 7 rebounds in a 98-80 lost to the Celtics was the best fantasy line of the day. It’s four straight 20+ point games for Gay after that disastrous 1 point game on Jan 30.
Honorable Mentions: Kevin Garnett (1.63) channeled young KG yesterday and led the Celtics with 24 points (on 9-12 from the field) and 9 rebounds. He also hit a three for his third game in a row and is shooting 100% from behind the arc this season. Who needs Ray Allen when you’ve got KG? Paul Pierce (1.61) also chipped in 21 points (going 10-10 from the line), with 6 rebounds and 6 assists.
In the day’s other game, Mario Chalmers (1.19) actually had the Heat’s best fantasy line with a boxscore filling 11 points, 3 threes, 4 assists, and 2 steals as Miami held off a Raptors’ fourth quarter comeback to win 95-89. Although right behind him on today’s list are LeBron James (1.02) with 30 points and 9 rebounds, and Dwyane Wade (1.00) with 25 points and a couple blocks. For the Raptors, DeMar DeRozan (0.97) bounced back from three horrible shooting games to score 25 points, adding 2 steals.
Anthony Morrow and Paul George have nothing on Nicolas Batum…
Line of the Night: Nicolas Batum (2.94) was a game time decision against Denver with a bruised knee that had already kept him out two games. Well, the knee is apparently fine as Batum hit a franchise record 9 threes on his way to a career-high 33 points and adding 3 steals for good measure. If you had stashed Batum on your bench until you were sure he was back on the court (like me), then it’s time to get Batum back in your lineup without getting too pissed you missed this game from him.
Honorable Mentions: Tony Parker (2.90) loses out on the line of night by the smallest margin thanks to a season-high 42 points, with 9 assists and 2 steals in a win over the Thunder. Enjoy the run if you own Parker, the numbers won’t be so gaudy once Manu returns in a couple weeks.
The Bulls cruised to an easy win over the Bucks thanks to Derrick Rose’s (2.64) 26 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists. Luol Deng (1.26) also came back from a wrist injury which kept him out seven games to score 21 points with 3 threes. Time to get him back in your lineup. Drew Gooden had the Bucks’ best fantasy line with a season-high 24 points, but he only grabbed 3 boards on the night. Wah-waah.
Someone who did grab a bunch of rebounds was Kris Humphries (2.57), who scored 20 points, filing up the box score with 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 4 blocks in a loss to the Knicks. Deron Williams (2.12) chipped in 21 points, 11 assists and 3 steals. Ten guesses on which Knick had the team’s best performance?
From the doghouse to a deluxe apartment in the sky: A game after Trevor Ariza (2.32) played so badly he was biggest loser material, Ariza bounced back against the Pistons to score 26 points on 9-12 shooting, adding 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Got to love Ariza’s consistency. The NBA’s hottest waiver wire pickup, Greivis Vasquez (1.23), added 14 points, 6 boards and 9 assists in another start for the injured Jarrett Jack. Vasquez makes a very good add if he’s available in your league, even after Jack returns to the lineup.
Greg Monroe (1.24) led the Pistons with 24 and 16 for his 13th double-double of the year.
Batum may have stolen the spotlight in the Blazers game, but LaMarcus Aldridge (2.23) put up a strong 29 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while Marcus Camby (1.37) grabbed 20 boards. Camby now has three 20 rebound games and three 5 block games with big patches of nothing in between.
Sacramento and Golden State went into overtime, which of course meant some nice stat lines for Tyreke Evans (2.23) – with 26 points and 9 assists – DeMarcus Cousins (1.51) – with 21 points and 20 boards – and Marcus Thornton (1.40) with 28 points and 4 threes. The shots weren’t falling for either Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry in the game, so Dorell Wright (2.02) actually had the best fantasy line for the Warriors with 24 points and 4 threes.
After a bad run of games, Kyle Lowry (1.85) owners must be happy to see this line: 24 points, 11 assists and a couple steals, even if it did come against the porous Wolves’ defense. Also a good sign: Lowry shot 50% from the field in this game. For Minnesota, Kevin Love (1.24) had 25 and 18, but also turned the ball over 6 times.
Or: Where is John Ringo?
We had a little bit of a conversation going last night on Twitter about which three-point bomber would get the Line of the Night:. Well, despite Anthony Morrow‘s (2.97) 8 threes on 13-20 from the field and 8-8 from the line to end up with 42 points, his lack of peripheral stats means that Erik was right in calling Paul George (4.29) as the winner of the three-point fantasy basketball player rater shootout. George ended up with 30 points (7 threes, 11-19 from the field, 1-1 free throws), 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and the stat that gave him the highest WARP score we’ve seen so far this year: 5 steals. George is the only player to go over 4 on the WARP scale.
Honorable Mentions: Kevin Durant (2.91) probably would have been first on any other night with his 36 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks, but that just looks downright ordinary compared to the two guys above… Joining Durant was teammate James Harden (2.15) who scored 24 points (4 threes, 8-13 from the field, 4-4 from the line), with 2 steals to help OKC beat Memphis in spite of Marc Gasol (1.94)’s best efforts. Gasol’s best efforts look something like: 24 points (9-12 from the field, 6-6 from the line), 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
Despite shooting 3-8 from the floor, Ricky Rubio (2.15) made the Player Rater blush with 10 points (2 threes), 10 assists, and beating out Paul George with his 6 steals.
Paul Pierce (1.85) continues to deliver for fantasy owners, putting up another 30 points (4 threes), 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Behind Kevin Durant, he might be the best Small Ball SF out there.
Anderson Varejao (1.57) continued a run of strong games with 12 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 steals.
And Good On You to the 60% of people who held on to Brandon Knight (1.55) (despite our best efforts to convince everyone to drop him). Knight scored a season-high 26 points (3 threes), along with 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Apparently Yahoo had already thought he would be out of the league already and replaced him with a Piston logo…
Finally, Kevin Love (1.51) may not be able to get a double-double in every game this season (he’s had 2 games of single digit rebounds) but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop putting them up: 20 points (10-10 from the line!), 10 rebounds, and 5 assists.
and not just the players
Line of the Night: It took a little while for Stephen Curry (2.90) to get past the whole Fragile Ankle Syndrome (which could of course reoccur at any time), but he’s finally playing like a second round pick (or first round last night) with 29 points (10-14 from the field, 2 threes), 5 rebounds, 12 assists, and 3 steals. Curry’s teammate Monta Ellis (1.99) had 33 points (3 threes, 13-21 from the field), and 3 steals.
Honorable Mentions: Sleeping Giant #2: The Denver Nuggets. With Danilo Gallinari (1.99) leading the way, the whole season, but also last night with 21 points (5 threes, 7-10 from the field), 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, the Nuggets have the second best record in the West.
Tim Duncan (1.85) is definitely a giant, and from his play earlier this season, it sure seemed like he was sleeping, but last night her woke up to score 19 points (6-8 from the field, 7-7 from the line(!)), to go with 9 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Amare Stoudemire (1.68) scored 34 points, and grabbed 11 rebounds, but fell prey to Derrick Rose (1.66) who was just pretending to sleep against Philadelphia in order to give more false hope to the 76ers. Rose scored 32 points (2 threes) against the Knicks to go with 13 assists (2 turnovers).
Since he’s been called out a couple times in The Biggest Loser, I felt it only right to mention that Raymond Felton (1.41) had 15 points, 10 assists, and 3 steals last night (pun intended).
And somewhere out there, Kendrick Perkins deletes his Twitter account.
Line of the Night: In a year where just about all PGs are struggling (especially with their shots), Brandon Jennings (2.96 WARP) has somehow found a way to improve his FG% from 39% last season to 44% so far this season. Of course, maybe none of that really matters, as Jennings shot just 9-25 from the floor against the Heat, and yet led all fantasy lines last night thanks to 31 points (going 7-14 from three), with 8 assists and 4 steals. Jennings is going to continue to score in bunches in a Bogut-less Bucks’ rotation, just prepare for the inevitable Kyle Lowry-like 25% shooting run that is eventually going to come. I still consider him a sell high candidate.
Honorable Mentions: The Heat lost to Milwaukee, but don’t blame LeBron James (2.21) (ok, blame him a little) who scored a season high 40 points, hitting 4 threes, with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. Dwyane Wade (1.34) chipped in 23, 8 and 6.
Another PG who has been defying the odds (and father time) is Steve Nash (2.81), who scored 30 points on an incredible 13-16 from the field, with 10 assists against the Hornets. And he did all that in only 29 minutes on the court! Nash is now shooting 55% from the floor this season, which is not just tops among PGs, but is actually fifth in the league overall behind 3 centers and LeBron.
The tandem of Chris Paul (2.68) – 34 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists and 3 steals – and Blake Griffin (2.47) – 31 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks – was so huge against the Jazz that the rest of the Clippers’ starting lineup scored a combined 16 points and they still won. Al Jefferson (1.31) was back in the lineup for the Jazz after missing a game with some ankle swelling and had 27 and 12 in this game.
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