Day 171 of 170: The End of the Road. Really.

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball, NBA Basketball, NBA Playoffs
Posted on: April 16th, 2009

Welcome to day 171 of 170 of the regular season! Either 1) I can’t count correctly or 2) Nels or I skipped a day somewhere in this long and winding road known as the NBA regular season. Regardless, we love you guys so much that we’re giving you 0.58823% more rundown than one would expect from the “Day of 170” shtick. You can’t put a price on more rundown.

Line of the Night: It’s fitting that the regular season should end on a Danny Granger LotN (1.58) performance, seeing that he’s one of GMTR’s most improved players (Indiana – sadly – not one of our most improved teams). Granger grabbed the last night of the regular season by the horns, smacked it a few times across the face and scored 35 points with 9 boards, going 10-16 from the floor and 5-7 from three. He also had 3 steals and 3 blocks. Granger = first round pick next season. Mark it down in your Shawn Marion circa Phoenix Suns Trapper Keeper.

Honorable Mentions: Too little, too late for Caron Butler (1.43) owners. Butler scored 39 points and added 7 boards and 4 threes in a loss to Boston. Thanks for another year of less than 70 games played Caron; Speaking of too little, too late – Shawn Marion (1.17) scored a season high 34 points (on 15-18 shooting) for Toronto as they beat the Bulls 109-98 (more on that below); and another one of GMTR’s most improved players, Kevin Durant (1.00), had 26 and 9 with 4 steals as OKC destroyed the Clippers 126-85.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Who-hoo! No more free agents, no more waiver-wire, no more of Don Nelson’s dirty looks. Fittingly, if we were to hand out a WWLotN, it’d have to go to Anthony Morrow (0.98) who exploded for 33 and 12 in a Warriors loss to the Suns. The undrafted rookie swingman is actually a nice little sleeper next year (points + rebounds + threes), provided he can squeeze out a role in Don Nelson’s “system.” And speaking of Nelson, a big thank you to him and his crazy bag of craziness, as Nelson and the Warriors were clearly the engine that made this daily waiver wire discussion run.

The Biggest Loser: The Chicago Bulls. A Bulls win or a Sixers loss would have given Chicago the 6th seed in the East, where they would have faced off against the possibly Hedo Turkoglu-less Orlando Magic. Neither of those things happened, so the Bulls fell to the 7th spot and instead have to head to Boston to face the Celtics. KG might not be 100%, but it’s still a much tougher matchup for the Bulls.

All Eyez on Me: Divert your eyes, there’s nothing more to see here. The regular season is mercifully over. I won’t have to wake up at 5am anymore to write these posts… thank god.

To wrap things up, the Bulls couldn’t finish strong and the Sixers took advantage. The dependable Spurs clinched the 3rd seed in the West with a win over the Hornets (of course they did), while the Rockets fell to 5th with a loss to the Mavs. Thanks to that win, the Mavs earned the 6 spot, while Portland’s win over Denver pushed gave them the 4th seed and the all important first round home series. The loss didn’t matter to Denver, the second seed, because they had already clinched the season series over Portland. Got all that?

You can view the first round playoff schedule at NBA.com. Or if you prefer NBA Playoff preview in video format, Youtube to the rescue. Sportige looks at who has the most to prove in this playoffs and Cuzoogle is giving away free stuff if you leave a comment on their site about who is going to make the NBA finals.

Trivia Question of the Day: Who is the only Phoenix Sun to play in all 82 games this season? The answer is: Grant “Ironman” Hill.

Just because the regular season is over, doesn’t mean GMTR is going away. We still have some recapping to do of the fantasy year that was and we’ll check in throughout the playoffs and offseason.

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Other Stuff Like This:

• Day 29 of 170: The Golden Scrolls – Morrowind (6)
• Day 117 of 124: Danny Granger Lines It Up (9)
• Day 99 of 124: It’s Time To Win. Make It Count! (19)
• Day 96 of 124: Russell Westbrook Will Have Derek Fisher’s Revenge On Los Angeles (29)
• Day 95 of 124: Where Deron Williams Doesn’t Feel the Love (16)
• Day 41 of 124: Anthony Morose (12)
• First Month Report Card: Top Small Forwards in Fantasy Basketball (2)

Tags: Anthony Morrow, Chicago Bulls, Danny Granger