In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the NBA had a full slate of afternoon games yesterday. Henry Abbott live blogged his experience watching the games on 79 million channels, while I was stuck at work formatting TPS reports. One guess: Which one of us has the better life?

Quote of the Night: “I feel great empathy for our guys.”
-Heat coach Pat Riley, while thinking up an excuse he can use ditch the team

Line of the Night: The Heat lost their 14th straight last night, this one to the LeBron James and the Cavettes 97 to 90. But who cares about wins and losses? This is fantasy. In this world, Dwyane Wade (5.7) is the real winner. Wade scored 42 points while adding 6 boards, 3 steals, and a block. Somehow, he also dished out 7 assists, which is amazing when you consider that Shaq was the second leading scorer on the Heat with 10 points. In the second half, the Heat not named Dwyane Wade shot a combined 3-21 from the floor and scored a whopping six points.

Honorable Mentions: Caron Butler (5.3) scored 25 with 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals; Josh Howard (4.9) led Dallas with 32 points off 11-16 shooting; Marcus Camby (4.8) went for 18/12 with 3 steals and 3 blocks; and 30 points and 17 rebounds for Yao Ming (4.7), or as NBA.com likes to list his name, Ming Yao.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: That’s two WWLotN’s in three days for Ryan Gomes (5.0). Do we have to take him seriously now? Let’s look at the numbers: a career-high 35 points, 11-15 from the field, 11-12 from the line, 11 boards, and a couple threes in 41 minutes of action. That’s a pretty serious line. Gomes is seeing more time on the court as Corey Brewer’s role decreasing (due to a lack of something the scouts like to call “NBA skills”, or possibly “skillz”). Obviously, Gomes’ shooting is going to come back down to Earth, but with the increased playing time and role on the team, he could be the real deal after all.

And no WWLotN would be complete without a mention of Kendrick Perkins’ (4.4) name. The Beast scored a career high 24, adding 8 rebounds and a couple steals. We’ll ignore the fact that this line came against the Knicks and just say that the Crack Staff at Perk is a Beast are all smiles today.

PG Play to the xTReMe: Marko Jaric (4.2) has now put together 2(!) good games in a row. His latest included the almost triple-double line of 16/8/10. Also, Leonard totally ignored my advice to play Derek Fisher (4.0) yesterday and he paid a steep, steep price. Fisher scored 28 points off 10-16 shooting adding 6 threes.

The Lakers and Their Damn Feet Keep Getting in the Way: Carmelo Anthony left yesterday’s Nuggets/Lakers game in the second quarter after landing on Kobe Bryant’s right foot after a shot. After the game, George Karl said it was “a substantial sprain,” and “…if Melo comes back quick, we’re hopeful for this weekend, I don’t think he’ll play Wednesday, but hopefully we’ll get him for the weekend on Friday or Saturday.” Time to get Melo out of your lineup until the weekend and possibly a lot longer.

The Biggest Loser: Luis Scola (1.1) finished with 0 points on the night in 26 minutes after missing all 6 shots he took. Scola has now shot a combined 5-25 in his last three games.

Results May Vary: I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to rotate Jason Terry (1.4) into my lineup for a couple weeks in one league. Every time I stick him in, he puts up one of these games: 2-7 shooting, 4 points, 1 board, and 1 assist (yes, I had him on my bench for his 25 point game on the 14th). And Jared Jeffries (1.3) got 25 minutes of playing time for the Knicks after Quentin Richardson got ejected. The ending – 0 points on 0-5 shooting, 0 rebounds, 2 turnovers – was predictable.