Day 14 of 170: I Wish I Was Little Bit Taller

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: November 11th, 2008

Line of the Night: T.J. Ford (1.2) came up 3 rebounds short of a triple-double during Indiana’s 107-99 win over OKC. He had to settle for 24/7/10, which as Danny Granger noted, is “pretty good for a 5-7 guy.” It’s safe to say that people had fairly low expectations of Ford going into the season, and although it remains to be seen if he can stay healthy, his performance has solidly exceeded expectations so far this season.

Honorable Mentions: Did someone say OJ Mayo (1.11)? It’s ridiculous that lines like this – 33 points, 3 threes and 3 steals – isn’t out of line with what he’s already put up this year. Is there still time for me to put down money on him winning rookie of the year? 33 points, 4 threes and 4 steals for Dwyane Wade (1.09), but the turnovers (6) continue to be a problem; 24 and 10 for Yi Jianlian (1.03), which means next game he’ll score like 3 points; and Kevin Durant (1.01) put up a delicious 37 points, 8 boards and 3 blocks.

Every Time Dwight Howard Hits a Free Throw, an Angel Gets Its Wings: Which is unfortunate for all the wingless angels out there. You might be wondering where Dwight Howard (he of 29 points and 19 rebounds last night) finished on the nightly rankings. He ended up 21st overall thanks to a 13-20 free throw performance. If you’re in a H2H league, no sweat, dump FT% for most assuredly winning boards, but that FT% is a roto league killer.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: In one league, I almost plugged in Steve Blake (0.79) for this week of games, but instead went with Chris Quinn (-0.08). For this night at least, Blake lords over the wire. He finished with 20 points and 4 assists in 32 minutes against the Magic. I’ll give him this: he is averaging a lot of minutes.

Was Leandro Barbosa (0.65) already dropped in your league? The minutes still aren’t there for him yet (22 last night) but a couple more 27 point games and maybe he’ll squeeze his way back into the rotation. And Rookie Darrell Arthur (0.49) is still starting for the Grizzles. He had 10/7 with 2 blocks and 2 steals in 24 minutes.

Biggest Loser: A few good men to choose from today, but let’s roll with Rashard Lewis (-0.51), who shot 27% from the floor (0-5 from three) to finish with 6 points.

Dishonorable Mentions: Steve Nash (-0.35) did have a decent 12 and 6, but he shot 27% and provided your fantasy team with 6 turnovers. With Matt Barnes back for Phoenix, the crappy Grant Hill (-0.27) has returned. In 15 minutes last night, he didn’t score any points. And Troy Murphy (-0.43) left the Pacers/OKC game in the second quarter with a stomach flu. Fantasy shows no mercy, though. His 13 minutes, 0 point, 3 board performance counts as a game played nonetheless.

All Eyez on Me: Milwaukee @Cleveland: Is the game we’ve all been waiting for. Mo Williams facing off against his former team! Ok, well, LeBron is always a must watch. And Michael Redd is expected to be out again with a sprained right ankle.

New York @ San Antonio: In bizzaro world, the Knicks are gunning for their 5th win, while a loss would put the Spurs at 1-5. We also get to see what kind of encore performance Jamal Crawford can put on, and what a Tony Parker-less Spurs’ backcourt looks like. The Knicks are scoring the 3rd most points per game, while the Spurs give up the 4th most in the league, so it should be a high powered offensive game for the Knicks.

Atlanta @ Chicago: Atlanta – still undefeated.

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• Day 149 of 170: Battle: Los Angeles (0)
• Day 111 of 170: Would YOU Keep Wesley Matthews? (2)
• To Mock, or Not To Mock: 5 Reasons you should (3)
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Tags: Chris Quinn, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Grant Hill, Leandro Barbosa, OJ Mayo, Steve Blake, Steve Nash, TJ Ford, Troy Murphy, Yi Jianlian