Day 61 of 170: Pat Riley Schedules Emergency Surgery in 3, 2, 1

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: December 30th, 2007

Quote of the Night: “One positive point about tonight’s game is that this is the last game of 2007.”
-Pat Riley

Line of the Night: Jason Richardson (5.4). I mildly hate Jason Richardson for no reason other than the fact that he always ends up on my fantasy teams and I’m always disappointed with his game. I’m not sure what I’m expecting from him, but he leaves me feeling empty. It’s probably the same feeling the Bobcats have after signing him to be their leading scoring threat and then watching him average 18 points a game this season. It’s not a disaster, but it leaves a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Anyway, last night Richardson did right by scoring 34, adding 4 threes and 8 rebounds. He was also 8 for 8 from the line. The point totals from his last four games are 30, 27, 25, and 34. If he can keep it up for a few more years, I may consider taking him off my list of hate.

Honorable Mentions: Second day in a row on this list for my favorite Turkish player, Hidayet Turkoglu (5.0), who scored 28 and hit 4 threes; Mo Williams (4.6) was 8-12 from the field and finished with a line of 24/5/6; Michael Redd (4.4) scored 35 and was 10 of 12 from the line; David West (4.3) had a 27/15 line; Chris Paul (4.3) only went for 20 and 9 assists, but compensated for it with 7 steals.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: The numbers tell us it was Erick Dampier (3.9) with his first double-double of the year (12 points and 10 rebounds) in 33 minutes of action against the Hawks. On the plus side, he’s averaged about 30 minutes a game over the past week. On the minus, he’s Erick freaking Dampier and his 12 points came on 6 for 6 shooting (which is great if he can make every shot he takes every game). Don’t fall for the seductive lure follows Erick Dampier whenever he goes. Leave him out there.

The Miami Heat/New York Knicks Take It With a Grain of Salt Line of the Night: Hey it’s Roger Mason (3.9). I believe we met a couple days ago. Antonio Daniels is not back yet (although according to my sources, he participated in the teams shoot arounds this week and will likely return when the Wizards play on Wednesday). Daniels absence left Mason to play 35 minutes as the Wizards blew out the Heat (96-74). Mason finished with a respectable 12 points, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Another benefactor of the Miami game was Andray Blatche – last seen disappearing into the mist after a promising stretch of games – with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks in 24 minutes off the Wizards bench.

Goat of the Night: Larry Hughes (1.3). Remember when Larry Hughes was good and then the Cleveland Caviliers signed him to a big 5 year contract because they thought he was going to be the Scottie Pippen or something to Lebron James’ Michael Jordan? Huh? Do you remember? Yeah, that didn’t work out so good for the Cavs.

Dishonorable Mentions: Jeff Foster (1.5). Was I hallucinating, or did Foster have a brief run of fantasy usefulness earlier in the season? Then he and Troy Murphy had a battle attrition to see who could win the starting job by doing the least amount of work. Troy Murphy is tough to beat in that game. As a result, Foster has been relegated to light bench duty. His latest line included a 0 point and 5 rebound performance in 11 minutes.

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