Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
Line of the Night: It’s been a long 5 months for those of you holding onto Elton Brand, but your patience has finally been rewarded as Brand returned against the Mavericks in style last night. The man-beast Brand (5.3) showed almost no ill effects of his surgery. Ok, so technically, he didn’t have the highest game score (see Stoudemire, Amare, and Nash, Steve), but Brand could have played the game with oven mitts on his hands and I still might have given him the LotN. Brand was only out on the court for 29 minutes last night, but that short time he went off for 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks. He also shot a respectable 11-17 from the floor. If you’ve been willing to stick with Brand over the long season, time to get him back in your lineups ASAP.
Honorable Mentions: One could argue that Amare Stoudemire (5.3) had the actual line of the night because his counting stats are just sick. Amare had 41 points, 14 rebounds, and couple steals, while going 17-19 from the line; Steve Nash (5.5) scored 36 while hitting 8 threes and adding 8 assists; Josh Smith (5.2) only missed 2 shots on his way to 26 points, 8 boards, 6 assists, 3 steals, and a block; Jason Kidd (5.0) scored 27 for the Mavs with 4 steals; and Deron Williams (4.6) had 16 assists and 3 steals.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: With Andrei Kirilenko sitting out his second straight game for the Jazz, CJ Miles (4.4) started and never looked back. In fact, he probably never took is eyes off the rim. Miles shot 12-17 from the floor (4-6 from three), scoring a career-high 29 points, adding 4 rebounds and 5 assists.
Let’s spin the Miami Heat Wheel of Which D-Leaguer is Going to Step Up for Them Tonight! And it stops on Joel Anthony (4.1). The “center” got 30 minutes off the bench against the Pacers and finished with 9 boards, 3 steals and 6 blocks. The man can block an occasional shot, but he’s as one dimensional as Keanu Reeves in… everything.
Speaking of the Pacers and Comebacks: Jermaine O’Neal (2.3) returned for Indiana in a slightly less glorious way than Brand. Coming off the bench in the first, he immediately turned the ball over and then committed a foul on defense. O’Neal finished with 9 points with 2 rebounds in 18 minutes. Still, if you’ve been holding out hope for an O’Neal return this season, get the big guy back in your lineups. You’ve got 8 games left.
Biggest Loser: What happened to Jose Calderon (1.2)? From possible all-star to 18 minutes off the bench? I know TJ Ford is back and all, but 18 minutes? And speaking of the Raptors and their disappearing starters, Andrea Bargnani got 8 minutes last night, scoring 0 points with 2 boards.
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