Line of the Night: Amar’e Stoudemire (1.42) led the way for the Suns in a 127-101 beat down over the Clippers. He finished the game 12-16 from the floor for 30 points, adding 14 rebounds and 3 blocks. Methinks there might be some kind of monetary incentive for Amar’e to play balls to the wall the rest of the season…
Honorable Mentions: The always underappreciated David Lee (1.38) pulled down one of the biggest almost triple doubles of the year with 21 points, 18 rebounds and 8 assists. Who was he passing to? Everyone… as every Knicks starter scored at least 15 points.
Lebron James (1.21) had a 26 point, 7 rebound, 14 assist night in a win over the Nets; a night after returning from injury and going 2-6 from the floor, Paul Pierce (1.18) dropped 27 points on the Bobcats in 26 minutes on the court; David West (1.04) only scored 15 points in a New Orleans loss, but was 7-12 from the floor and blocked 5 shots; Darren Collison (0.84) had another great performance last night with 17 points, 14 assists and 5 steals; and Tracy McGrady (0.99) – who started at PG for the Knicks – channeled his inner Magic Johnson to score 21 points with 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Owned in 16% of leagues, JJ Hickson (0.86) busted out for a 20 and 13 in 26 minutes for the Cavs. This was the second straight solid start for the young big guy, who is playing at center because Shaq and his fat ass will miss the rest of the regular season. Expect Hickson to remain the Cavs starter until Zydrunas Ilgauskas returns to the Cavs after he’s eligible to resign with a team in a couple of weeks.
Ersan Ilyasova (0.76) continues to get good run off the bench for the Bucks. Last night he scored 19 points with 10 rebounds and 6 assists against the Wizards.
The Biggest Loser: It was a Suns blowout in Los Angeles, but Robin Lopez (-0.73) didn’t have much to do with it as the big man finished with 5 points on 2-6 shooting and 4 rebounds. It’s the second straight game that Lopez has gotten under 20 minutes on the court and the third straight game that he scored in single digits. Meanwhile, like salt in an open wound, Channing Frye (0.97) was 7-10 from three and scored 23 points off the bench. I wouldn’t panic if you own Lopez, but…
Seriously, don’t panic.
The Weekly GMTR FreeRoll (where second place is the first loser): A big-ass GMTR congratulations to ampnesss, who rode to victory on the back of Dwight Howard in this week’s GMTR fantasy game on 365 Fantasy Sports. A lot of people this week went the Blatche/Kevin Martin/Collison/Jamison route because they were all ridiculously cheap buys for some reason. But ampnesss had the last laugh by not only successfully zigging with Aaron Brooks, but also selecting the correct former Wizard-now-Mav in Caron Butler. Butler had a solid 14/5/4 game compared to Haywood’s 8 and 7.

All Eyez on Me: Three games tonight:
Memphis (31-30) at Chicago (31-29) – Joakim Noah is expected to miss the next three weeks after returning from his plantar fasciitis injury too early. Does that make him droppable now? Well, three weeks puts his return at the first or second week of fantasy playoff time. Of course, that’s if he comes back at all after the Bulls drop out of the playoff race. Bazinga! But yeah, unless you’ve got a huge bench, I’d feel comfortable dropping Noah.
Los Angeles (46-15) at Miami (30-31) – It’s not time to panic, but… Kobe’s shot chart does not have a lot of red in it lately.
Utah (38-22) at Phoenix (39-24) – Look for a bounce back game for Lopez and continued domination by Carlos Boozer. The last time these teams met, backup Suns’ guard Goran Dragic scored 32 points off the bench while hitting 6-7 threes. Let me make another bold prediction by saying he will not do that again.
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Tags: Amar’e Stoudemire, JJ Hickson, Joakim Noah, Robin Lopez