Day 89 of 170: Mike Miller Turns Up the Heat

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Miami Heat
Posted on: January 23rd, 2011

Line of the Night: The Warriors came up oh-so-short against the Clippers, but Stephen Curry’s (2.49) 32 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists was tops on the night for fantasy purposes. After being in a funk in the early part of January, Curry has scored 66 points over the Warriors’ last two games.

Honorable Mentions: Blake Griffin (2.13) was seemingly everywhere on the court at once in the win for the Clips. He scored 30 points on 10-16 shooting, tied his career high with 18 rebounds, dished out a career high 8 assists, and hit a go-ahead three pointer with less than a minute to go in the game. Oh yeah, and then there was this:

Antawn Jamison (2.16) double-doubled against the Bulls with 31 points (4-7 from three) and 11 rebounds as the Cavs lost their 16th straight game. JJ Hickson (0.08) grabbed 20 rebounds in the game, but was also 5-19 from the floor.

No Wade and Bosh? No problem. LeBron James (1.81) got comfortable in the post against the Toronto – playing more on the block due to the absence of Bosh – and finishing with 38 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists in a 120-103 win. Jose Calderon (1.88) led the Raptors with 14 points and 13 assists in the game.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Speaking of the Heat, Mike Miller (2.13) has been relegated to mostly garbage time minutes since returning from a thumb injury. But with Dwyane Wade missing yesterday’s game with a migraine, Miller got the spot start and played out of his mind, finishing with 32 points, 6 threes and 10 rebounds. Maybe this is the start of something for Miller, but more likely is that Wade returns for the Heat’s next game and Miller is pushed back to limited minutes off the bench. Don’t be too optimistic about Miller given that his injury may take all year to fully recover.

Pick Up Lines: Rudy Fernandez (1.34) is still only owned in 15% of Yahoo leagues, so we’ll keep talking about him here until that number goes over 50%. With Andre Miller leaving the game early with gastroenteritis, Fernandez got 37 minutes off the bench against the Pacers, hit 3-5 from three and finished with 11 points, 6 rebounds and a season high 8 assists. In the 4 games since Camby went down, Fernandez has been averaging 2.3 threes, 4.5 assists and 3 steals a game. Add him now.

Earl Boykins (1.76) continues to put up solid, if unspectacular, lines off the bench for the Bucks. Some assists would be nice, but his latest line included 23 points and 4 steals. He’s still got a week or two of fantasy relevance (and I use that term loosely) while Jennings works his way back.

A day after completely destroying the Hawks, the Hornets rolled the Spurs like victory cigar and a big part of the reason was Marcus Thornton (1.46), who scored 18 points in 23 minutes off the bench. He was 4-4 from three and 7-10 shooting on the night. That is three straight double-digit scoring games in a row for Thornton, who has been working his way back into the rotation and is getting consistent minutes again.

A game after I dropped Mario Chalmers (1.24) in one deep league, he finally takes over the starting PG spot from Carlos Arroyo and finishes with 10 points and a season-high 9 assists. The assists are probably a one-time thing with Wade out and LeBron in the post, so I don’t feel too bad about the decision other than the timing. But if you’re looking for a threes/steals thing in a deep, deep league, Chalmers is worth a play.

Chase Budinger (1.11) got some extra run in a blowout loss to the Magic. In 33 minutes, he finished with 19 points on 8-11 shooting and 5 boards. As long as Kevin Martin and Shane Battier are healthy, he’s not going to get consistent enough minutes to be worth picking up.

Biggest Loser: A day after Monta Ellis (-1.11) had to be helped off the court after injuring his ankle against the Kings, he was back in the lineup and played a team high 42 minutes against the Clippers. He should have taken the rest, as his 17 points came on 6-21 shooting. He also added 5 turnovers.

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Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version).

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Tags: Mario Chalmers, Mike Miller, Monta Ellis, Rudy Fernandez, Stephen Curry