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Line of the Night: I’m beginning to think that Basketball Monster is just crushing on Stephen Curry (1.22). Carmelo Anthony (1.08) may have thrown down 45 points on the Rockets, but it’s actually Curry with 29 points, 5 boards, 9 assists and 5 threes who had a better overall fantasy line. Curry currently sits on #16 on the GMTR player rater. Compare that to some of the other rookies – Tyreke Evans is at 50, Brandon Jennings 88, and of course Hasheem Thabeet is at 292 – and at least the fantasy ROY appears to be an obvious choice.
Honorable Mentions: We already mentioned Melo and his 45 points, but he also contributed 10 rebounds and was 3-5 from three; and Baron Davis (0.93) had an 18 point, 17 assist double-double in a loss to the Hornets. Poor Darren Collison (0.4) could only manage 18 points and 14 assists in that game; and hopefully you managed to grab Toney Douglas (0.6) after his breakout performance and didn’t wait for the 20 point, 7 assist encore to see if he was available.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Jrue Holiday (0.75). 18 points, 8 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals in 41 minutes for Holiday. The performance came in a blowout loss to the Knicks, so demerits there. However, point guards probably rank only second to centers in the “fuck it, my team needs someone with some upside, I’m willing to take the risk” type of player that intrigues fantasy owners towards the end of the season. Holiday’s game log displays the type of inconsistency that scares a lot of people away, but so far over the month of March he is averaging 13.9 points, 5.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.1 threes a game.
Not to get all math-geek on you, but if you correlate Holiday’s March numbers with the year to-date stats from the rest of the league, his closest comp is… Stephen Curry.*
Chris Hunter (0.63) is the latest Warrior to get a run at the starting center spot. He certainly made the most of his 36 minutes with 22 points and 7 rebounds. The Warriors were playing the Lakers, so it appears that they were forced to go big with Hunter at C and Anthony Tolliver at PF. I’d expect Hunter to go back to the bench when the Warriors return to their normal lineup (if they even have such a thing) and I’d avoid picking him up for now.
The Biggest Loser: Eric Gordon (-0.54) returned to the lineup last night after missing five games with an injury. And he played with as much rust as my first car (a super sweet 1989 Ford Thunderbird) by shooting 3-12 on the night, finishing with 10 points, 0 rebounds and 3 assists in 35 minutes on the court.
All Eyez on Me:
Atlanta (42-23) at New Jersey (7-59) sets the tone for tonight’s games – playoff teams against the lottery bound. Assuming the Hawks blow out the Nets like they did in their last game, we could see a lot of Atlanta’s bench. Unfortunately, the only fantasy worthy player coming off the bench for the Hawks is Jamal Crawford.
San Antonio (39-25) at Miami (35-32) – the best game of the night record-wise. Until this weekend’s 12 point, 10 assist game, Carlos Arroyo was doing absolutely nothing in his starting role. That was giving me a little hope we’d see the return of my boy Mario Chalmers, but now that’s unlikely, at least for the near future. And expect Michael Beasley, who has missed the Heat’s last two games, to play in this one.
* Really, it is. Two caveats though: 1) the comp match between Holiday and Curry isn’t great (78% out of 100 according to my calculations, when the top comps in the league approach 90%), and 2) Curry is still the better of the two players, especially if you are just looking at their current performance).
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Tags: Carmelo Anthony, Chris Hunter, eric gordon, Jrue Holiday, Stephen Curry
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