Day 81 of 170: Ben Wallace with a Vengeance

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: January 16th, 2010

Line of the Night: Dwyane Wade (0.95) credits his recent good shooting run to his sprained wrist, as it has forced him to improve his shot mechanically by putting more arc in it (according to him at least). Well, if that’s the case he might want to find a way to permanently inure himself. Last night in a 115-106 win over Houston, Wade was 15-24 from the field and 7-7 from the line, scoring 37 points with 8 assists and 3 steals.

Honorable Mentions: Gerald Wallace (0.94) scored 21 points for the Bobcats, but the more impressive numbers were his 4 steals and 5 blocks as Charlotte destroyed the Spurs; Boris Diaw (0.84) has returned from the dead yet again to score 26 points on 10-16 shooting, adding 11 boards; we can pretty much pencil Chris Paul (0.72) in here every time he plays. Last night’s 24 point, 14 assist, 4 steal performance was no exception; I don’t want to jinx it, but Jermaine O’Neal (0.44) is quietly putting up some decent numbers in the month of January. Last night he had 16 points, 13 boards and 4 blocks in 32 minutes on the court; and Ben Wallace (0.32)… see below.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: After 2 straight games of averaging less than 20 minutes off the bench, Brandon Rush (0.55) got 33 solid minutes for the Pacers and responded by going a perfect 5-5 from the field, 3-3 from three and 2-2 from the line. He finished with 15 points, 6 boards and 5 assists in the Pacers’ win over the Nets. Rush got the extra minutes because Luther Head sprained his ankle in the first quarter of the game. Head came back to play in the second quarter, so Rush’s fantasy value is done before it even started.

Martell Webster (0.52) continues to do what he does – which is knock down threes. Last night he was 5-9 for three and scored 24 points for the Blazers. He’s worth an add if you need threes or points for your team.

The Biggest Loser: Vince Carter. The entire Magic team mailed this one in, but the return of Carter for injury was particularly a let down. Carter was 1-7 from the field, scoring 5 points with no rebounds and 2 assists in 22 minutes. I would not say it’s time to drop Carter, but man-oh-man is he on the fast rack to the Tracy McGrady zone.

All Eyez on Me:

New Orleans (20-18) at Indiana (14-25) – Don’t look now, but Indiana is hot right now, winning three games in a row. Who deserves credit for the win streak? Well, Danny Granger of course. But Mike Dunleavy is finally shooting well again while coming off the bench, hitting about 60% of his shots over the last three games.

New York (16-23) at Detroit (13-25) – Ben fucking Wallace is coming off a 13 point, 21 rebound, 5 block assist game (playing 41 minutes) last night against the Hornets. What the hell happened? Well, for starters the game went into overtime. Second, the Pistons are both hurting right now with injuries (Will Bynum sat and Rodney Stuckey should have sat) and Chucky Akins fouled out of the game, forcing the team to play some bigs like Jonas Jerebko out of position. Overall, it was a crazy set of circumstances that probably will never be repeated again for Wallace. But don’t let me deter you from picking him up.

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Tags: Ben Wallace, Brandon Rush, Dwyane Wade, Martell Webster, Vince Carter