Give Me The Rock
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Well, for those who wait for the daily GMTR rundown like Pavlov’s dog after a bell rings, I apologize. Patrick is without internet, and I had a family birthday party to attend, the preparation for which prevented me from being able to post the fantasy summary this morning. As a result, BasketballMonster has moved on without me, showing only the rankings for players who have played in games today.
So, today we will be using ESPN’s daily leader board which has a formula at the bottom that seems to vaguely resemble John Hollinger’s Back of the Napkin Game Score calculation. I can’t be sure that these stats are absolute fantasy rating numbers, but from a quick overview, they seem to be close enough for a Sunday evening.
Line of the Night: Dirk Nowitzki (69.0) secures what I believe is at least his 2nd LotN by scoring 46 points including 10/10 from the charity stripe.
Honorable Mentions: LeBron James (62.1) just did what he does, scoring 33 to go with 6 rebounds, 9 assists, and 4 steals. He was 11/12 from the line, and is at 80% on the season, which is well above his career average of 73%. If he can maintain that 80% for the entire season, he might get back in front of Kobe and Amare in next season’s mock drafts.
It was a good day for Free Throws as Vince Carter (59.5) made 14 of 14 en route to 39 points. Zach Randolph (51.7) had 30 and 13 including 2 three-pointers and 3 steals to lead the Clippers over the Rockets. Carmelo Anthony (51.7) had 27/9/6 with 3 threes. Al Harrington (51.1) is probably going to end up as the unintentional sleeper of the decade this season. Last night he had 33/6/4 with 5 threes. Could you ask for a better small ball Center?
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Checking in at #22 overall (out of a possible 196) with a score of 37.1 is Rob Kurz. He evidently plays for the Golden State Warriors. Yeah. Really. He played 33 minutes last night, ending up with 20 points and 7 rebounds. He made 3 threes, and shot just poorly enough to pass Patrick’s FG% test (he shot 63%). He is currently owned in 2% of Yahoo leagues. And I am man enough to admit I had not heard of him before right now. The only thing I can offer in the way of fantasy analysis is that the Warriors were playing without Ronny Turiaf nor Brandan Wright. Kurz had a +/- of -19, but then when you’re down by 14 after the 1st and 2nd quarters, and then 26 after the 3rd quarter, it’s hard not to have a pretty ugly plus/minus (witness Jamal Crawford and Stephen Jackson’s -25 and -26 respectively). According to ESPN, Kurz was the starting SF. I guess we’ll just have to see where this goes when Wright and Turiaf recover from the flu they probably gave each other.
The Biggest Loser: Brad Miller scored a 7.2 on the ESPN scale, but then, he only played in 15 minutes of a blowout loss to the Knicks. For someone who’s owned in 87% of Yahoo leagues, though, 4 points and 3 rebounds on 33% shooting is not cutting the mustard (or whatever other antiquated phrase you want to throw in there).
All Eyez On Me: Well, since 2 of the 4 games today are already over, I can say I’m definitely surprised that Memphis was able to pull off a 16 point victory over Miami. Other than that, I’ll just let tomorrow’s post speak for me.
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Tags: Al Harrington, Brad Miller, Dirk Nowitzki, Golden State Warriors, LeBron James, Vince Carter, Zach Randolph
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