Day 123 of 170: Yao Ming Who?

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: March 1st, 2008

Line of the Night: Chris Paul (5.3) wins LotN by a Bill Walton-sized analogy. Despite a 5-15 shooting night against his arch PG-nemesis Deron Williams and the Jazz, Paul finished with 24 points (13-14 from the line helped) and had 16 assists, 5 steals and only 1 turnover in a 110 to 98 Hornet win. As Nels has pointed out before, that’s the kind of assist-to-turnover ratio you want to shoot for.

Honorable Mentions: 34 and 10 with 3 blocks for Dirk Nowitzki (4.9); another ho-hum night for LeBron James (4.7) with 30/8/13 (wake me up when he gets another triple double); 38 points off 13 of 22 shooting for Allen Iverson (4.6); Carmelo Anthony (4.6) went for 30/14/6 with a couple blocks; and the Knicks are such a fun punching bag, it easy to forget how good Zach Randolph (4.4) – 29/17/5 – can be when he’s not being emaciated by Isiah Thomas.

Fun Stat of the Day: With their win last night, the Houston Rockets did not lose a basketball game in the month of February. Who is stepping up in the absence of Yao Ming? Tracy McGrady (4.3) hasn’t missed a beat, Shane Battier (3.7) and Dikembe Mutombo (3.1) both blocked 4 shots yesterday, and Luis Scola (3.7) and Rafer Alston (3.7) had all around solid games. Nice job if you were able to grab Scola after Ming went down.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I was in attendance of the Celtics/Bobcats game last night, and while I knew that Jason Richardson (4.2) and Ray Allen (4.1) were having good games, I had absolutely no idea Kendrick Perkins’ (4.6) game was so good (maybe it had a little something to do with the fact I started drinking at 2). Anyway, Perkins finished with 19 points (all seemingly off two-handed monster dunks, which is why he was 8-10 from the floor), 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.

What the hell is up with these crappy seats? Don’t you know I’m kind of a big deal? I’m a blogger.

With Chris Kaman out for the Clippers, Tim Thomas slid over to center, allowing Al Thornton (4.4) to go off for 33 points on 13-22 shooting and grab a career-high 12 rebounds in 35 minutes. Expect Kaman to be out a while with a bad lower back.

The Biggest Loser: If the Bulls’ plan is to stockpile mediocre forwards, then they hit the jackpot with Drew Gooden (1.2). Last night, Gooden had 5 points off 2-7 shooting, 6 boards, 0 assists, 0 steals and 0 blocks in 23 minutes off the bench against the Wizards.

Saved by the Gooden: DeShawn Stevenson (1.3) with 2 points off 1-8 shooting, somehow played even worse than in his last game, which earned him the Biggest Loser. Looks like his 2 assists and 2 rebounds saved him from that same fate today.

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