Day 67 of 170: Just Another Day in Paradise

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: January 3rd, 2009

Line of the Night: Kevin Durant (1.26) did everything he could to put OKC over the top of Denver, which included 33 points (9-9 from the line), 9 boards, 5 assists, 4 threes. But it just wasn’t quite enough as Carmelo Anthony hit the game winning three with 0.1 seconds left to give the Nuggets the 122-120 victory.

Honorable Mentions: Dirk Nowitzki (1.26) went for 31 points and added 4 steals; a 40 spot will typically get you into the LotN discussion and yes, Kobe Bryant (1.18) is in the discussion; a not all that impressive (by his standards anyway) triple-double for Lebron James (1.15). He had 16/10/11, but shot only 3-8 from the floor; David Lee (0.98) continues to kick ass and take names with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 5 steals.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: We know that Trevor Ariza (0.76) can ball, it’s that the minutes haven’t been there for him. Well, yesterday against the Jazz he got a season high 32 minutes and finished with 12 points, 9 boards and season-high 5 steals. He’ll now likely drop back into the 20-25 minute a game range, making him a pretty marginal fantasy play and leaving us with a reminder of what he could do.

And props to Charlie Villanueva (0.56), who scored 27 points in 29 minutes on the court. Why, that’s almost a point a minute!

The Biggest Loser: Looks like it’s between Josh Howard (-0.49) and OJ Mayo (-0.46). Neither were horrific (as I like my biggest loser to be) as Howard had 10 and 7, but shot 3-13 from the field and Mayo had 12 points with not much else. Lets quickly move on…

All Eyez on Me: A couple of good games tonight in Houston (21-13) at Atlanta (21-11) and New Orleans (20-9) at Denver (22-12). Let me throw out a link to an article that Kevin Pelton wrote for Basketball Prospectus recently examining why the hell the Hawks were so good this year after basically not doing anything this off season other than losing Josh Childress. It’s a great read and the answer my friends (spoiler alert) is that their taking and making a hell of a lot more threes this season. Huzzah! That’s why Mike Bibby is a good fantasy player again.

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Tags: Josh Childress, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Trevor Ariza