Day 124 of 170: He’s Not French, He’s a Basketball Player

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Fantasy Basketball
Posted on: February 28th, 2010

A special thanks to Nels for admirably filling in for me yesterday while I sat cold and alone in my house staring a fridge fill of beer.

Line of the Night /Waiver Wire Line of the Night: I was on the Nicolas Batum (1.68) bandwagen (it was assembled in Europe) right from the start when he returned from injury at the end of January. Of course, he did almost nothing in the few weeks since his return and I dropped him in every league. Well, the last laugh is on me as Batum scored a career-high 31 points on 11-16 shooting, with 5 threes, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Most impressive of all, he did it all in only 29 minutes on the court. Batum’s minutes are still a little too inconsistent to warrant a pickup in the average fantasy league, but if you’ve got a spot on your bench, you could do worse than grabbing him up and hoping that Nate McMillan makes him a more regular part of the rotation.

Honorable Mentions: Deron Williams (1.46) scored 35 points with 13 assists in a Jazz beat down of the Rockets; Danny Granger (1.13) scored 30 points, adding 8 boards and 4 steals in a Pacers’ win over the Bulls; Zach Randolph (1.09) rebounded the Knicks to death (yes, it can be done) and finished with 31 points and 25 boards in a Grizzlies win; Rudy Gay (0.98) also took advantage of the Knicks to score 27 points on 10-18 shooting; and finally Al Harrington (0.98) took advantage of the Knicks to get a paycheck last week, but yesterday he actually earned some of those monies with 31 points and 6 threes.

Look Ma: A 19 point, 14 rebound performance for Anthony Tolliver (0.7), who got a rare 42 minutes off the bench in a Warriors’ win over the Pistons, thanks to Andris Biedrins injuring his groin during the game and starter Devean George only getting 10 minutes of run. Grab Tolliver if he’s available in your league, as Biedrins is expected to miss some time with the injury. That means Tolliver is in line for big minutes and big numbers.

The Biggest Loser: Richard Hamilton (-0.54). 16 points and 6 boards is nothing to blow your nose at, but the 6-19 shooting and 4 turnovers is what done Rip in. Hamilton is now shooting about 34% from the field in his last three games.

All Eyez on Me: Today is the day completely fill your life with the NBA:

1:00 PM: Phoenix (37-23) at San Antonio (32-24) – Anyone expect Robin Lopez to be doing what he’s doing this season? Ok, maybe Bright Side of the Sun, who breaks down Lopez and comes to the conclusion that he’s the best center in the league. Ok, just kidding about that last part.

3:30 PM: Denver (39-19) at Los Angeles (44-15) – Kenyon Martin is questionable for this game with a knee contusion. If he can’t go, expect some run from Joey Graham, who finished with a 13 and 7 for the Nuggets on Friday.

7:00 PM: Miami (29-30) at Orlando (39-20) – What’s the story on Dwyane Wade? Wade, who has already missed 4 straight games, is expected to miss this game as well. He is practicing with the team and could be back on Tuesday. Or not. That’s how NBA players roll.

9:00 PM: New Orleans (31-28) at Dallas (38-21) – Good Dime article on Paul and his replacement Darren Collison. Does the great play of Collison mean that Paul isn’t quite as good as we think?

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Tags: Anthony Tolliver, Nicolas Batum, Richard Hamilton