Day 13 of 170: Jamal Crawford Cares Not For Your Double-Doubles

Categorized as: Author: Nels, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: November 10th, 2008

Line of the Night: Jamal Crawford (1.13) seems to be gaining an understanding of the D’Antoni style of play. It looks like he’s going to be one of the guys tossing in multiple threes per game while shooting a career number for FG%. Last night, for example, he had 5 three-pointers en route to 32 points, while shooting almost 59%. He only had 1 rebound and 4 assists, but added 2 steals and made 7/9 free throws, which is about his season average for percentage, but a high number of free throws for him.

Honorable Mentions: Chauncey Billups (1.02) tops 1.00 by doubling up with 16 and 10 adding 6 rebounds, 2 threes, 3 steals, and even a block. His FG% was a tragic 15% (he made 2 of 13 shots), but he made up for it by hitting 10/11 free throws. That’s what we draft Chauncey for anyway.

Pau Gasol (0.99) didn’t quite make the 1.00 mark, but had a strong night with 20/15/3 on 7/10 and 6/6 with 3 blocks.

Ronnie Brewer (0.96) once again proves that you don’t have to do much in fantasy if you play defense. He had 12/4/7 with 2 threes, which is a decent line, but it becomes 4th place for LotN when you add in the 7 steals. I’m sure a few somebodies are happy they targeted Brewer.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I’m not sure if he’ll actually be available in most leagues, but he’s next on the list after Brewer: Andrea Bargnani (0.93) is finally almost sort of maybe putting together the kind of season we all (okay, maybe not all) thought he could a while back. He had 18/5/1 with 3 threes, a steal, and 3 blocks while turning the ball over only once.

Jordan Farmer (0.72) is probably available in more leagues than Bargnani, and had 16/3/6 (6/9 and 1/2) off the bench. He also made 3 threes and got 2 steals. Worth a look for an addition to your Small Ball Team.

The Biggest Loser: This will be a co-award tonight, as Jason Maxiell (-0.78) and JR Smith (-0.74) were both supposed to be Winners of the Iverson/Billups trade and both turned in crap performances last night. Check Maxiell’s 2 and 2 with a block, going 0/5 from the field and 2/4 from the line. Smith, meanwhile, only played 14 minutes, ending up with 4/1/1 (1/4, 2/4) with 3 turnovers. Dahntay Jones got just under 23 minutes, and was subtly efficient going 5/7 for 11 points with a steal and a block. I’d be careful with anyone on Denver who’s not in the Big 4 (Billups, Carmelo, Nene, Linas Kleiza) right now. The competition for that one remaining spot and the junk minutes is Intense.

All Eyez On Me:

Fantasy-wise, let’s check out Oklahoma City v. Indiana to see what kind of line Jeff Green puts up. How close is he to “fantasy consistent”? And of course, everyone loves Danny Granger.

I’m also interested in Miami v New Jersey because Miami is looking to be the team with the Fantasy Lineup of the Year 2008-09. Even though Shawn Marion is only averaging 10 points, he is still getting 1.7 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. I know, not first round value like Wade is providing, but then, I drafted Wade and not Marion in the Readers League (okay, yes, Marion was off the board, as was Elton Brand, or things might have been completely different). It’ll probably still be one more season before we can start calling Michael Beasley “Beastly”. And on the Nets side of the ball, will Yi Jianlian ever become fantasy-worthy? 11 rebounds says Yes, 1 of 10 from the field says No.

Other Stuff Like This:

• Day 120 of 170: Nate Robinson is Everywhere (7)
• Day 67 of 124: Happy Leap Day (39)
• Day 32 of 124: Where Tyrus Thomas Beckons You with his Sweet Siren Call (59)
• Fantasy Basketball Preview: Toronto Raptors (4)
• Day 126 of 170: Kobe Bryant is a good fantasy basketball team player (2)
• Former All-Star Shawn Marion traded for Former All-Star Jermaine O'Neal (1)
• Day 35 of 170: The Don Nelson Motivational Tour: Tickets Still Available (2)

Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Chauncey Billups, Jamal Crawford, Jason Maxiell, Linas Kleiza, Ronnie Brewer, Shawn Marion