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Line of the Night: Stephen Jackson (1.06). With Gerald Wallace sitting out of the Bobcats/Lakers match-up with a hamstring injury, Capt. Jack almost led Charlotte to a win over destiny’s team with a 30 point, 7 rebound performance. His fantasy line was certainly helped by the fact that he was 10-16 from the field and 8-8 from the line in this one. Wallace is expected back for the Bobcats next game, but that doesn’t make Jackson any less of a stud going forward. And I mean that purely in a basketball sense.
Honorable Mentions: A lot of great fantasy performances last night, so I will attempt to be brief. Tyreke Evans (1.03) finished with a 32/7/8 against the new look run-and-gun Spurs (Kevin Martin (-0.30) and his crappy shooting night were not as lucky); Andrei Kirilenko (1.02) had a 22, 6, and 8 against the Blazers and appears to be benefiting from Boozer’s absence almost as much as Paul Millsap; Joe Johnson (0.95) scored 34 on 11-21 shooting as the Hawks downed the Clippers; Mehmet Okur (0.95) showed some signs of life with 28 points on 11-13 shooting with 8 rebounds, and appears to be benefiting from Boozer’s absence almost as much as Paul Millsap (wait a second…); and Dwyane Wade (0.93) generally had his way with the Celtics to finish with 30 points and 13 assists. Unfortunately for Wade and the Heat, the Celtics generally had their way with the Heat as well and won the game 107-102.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Marcus Thornton (0.85) is still only owned in 42% of leagues, so I guess he has to qualify here. Thornton is averaging 19.7 points per game since taking over the starting job from Devin Brown, so, yeah, you’re gonna wanna pick him up if he happens to be available, mmmmkay.
George Hill (0.70) continues to start for the injured Tony Parker and gave his best Parker impersonation in last night’s game with 23 points and 9 assists while going 9-9 from the line. Parker could be back as soon as the Spurs next game, but Hill will likely continue to start at SG like he was before Parker got injured.
The not so ageless but rejuvenated Nazr Mohammed (0.26) got 40 minutes against the Lakers and made the most of it with 23 points and 17 boards. The Bobcats center has been starting for the team since the end of December, but has been getting more like 20 minutes a game on average. The increase in minutes for Mohammed can likely be attributed to Gerald Wallace sitting out of this game and the fact that the Bobcats could not go small in this game against two guys like Bynum and Gasol. Mohammed is only worth a look in super deep leagues.
The Biggest Loser: Tough call. Maybe Lamar Odom (0.58) – not for his performance – but for stepping on Kobe Bryant’s (-0.33) foot in the second quarter last night’s game. Kobe left the game, but came back for parts of it and finished with 5 points on 2-12 shooting. Expect Kobe to play through this injury like the others, but you have to be worried how it will affect his game going forward.
Chris Duhon (-0.50) started at point for the Knicks, but played only 16 minutes and scored 2 points with 2 assists while shooting 1-6 from the field; Rasheed Wallace (-0.46) finished with 7 points on 3-10 shooting for the Celtics; and Taj Gibson (-0.55) only got 16 minutes for the Bulls, scoring no points with 1 rebound. Blame it on the plantar fasciitis, but it’s not exactly the way I’d recommend trying to keep your starting job.
All Eyez on Me: Two NBA games tonight, Miami (24-25) at Cleveland (39-11) and San Antonio (28-19) at Portland (29-22). Here are my personal fantasy recommendations for today: if you’re in a daily league play everyone and if you’re in a weekly league, there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it. But as a stats geek, I’d recommend Blazers Edge’s analysis of the curious case of Martell Webster. The Blazers and there injuries make them one of the more interesting (or confusing) fantasy teams in the NBA, so it’s fun (again, stats geek) to try and take a peek behind the curtain to understand what they are doing and why.
The GMTR FreeRoll: Congratulations to (ugh…) Nels, who won this week’s GMTR fantasy game at 365 Fantasy Sports. As you can see, his strategic use of Hawks, Jazz and DeJuan Blair overcame the power of Danilo Gallinari. Remember to play with us every week on Wednesdays and you can personally dethrone the great and all powerful Nels.
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Tags: Andrei Kirilenko, George Hill, Kobe Bryant, Marcus Thornton, Mehmet Okur, Nazr Mohammed, Stephen Jackson
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February 4th, 2010 at 8:41 am
I'm glad we decided to wait to post a picture of the FreeRoll results until you and I were #1 and #2. 'Addicted' is still up there, though. Tough guy.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I wonder if people will question us when the picture is missing next week after we come in last and second last and get thumped by Addicted?
February 5th, 2010 at 7:17 am
31 points from dejaun blair. VALUE PICK!