Day 106 of 170: Real All Stars Don’t Need An All Star Game

Categorized as: Author: Nels, Fantasy Basketball, Miami Heat
Posted on: February 9th, 2011

Line of the Night: Two night ago, LaMarcus Aldridge showed he doesn’t need to be in the All Star game to play like one, and last night another guy with two capitals in his first name showed that he doesn’t need a dunk contest to be able to dunk. LeBron James (2.61) scored 41 points (15-23 from the field), with 13 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals, and came up with the put back dunk off after D-Wade got blocked (see #1 in the video below, but check out the other really nice plays).

Honorable Mentions: Baron Davis (2.43) is a once and former All Star, showing it again last night with 25 points (4 threes, 5-5 from the line), 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals. Kevin Durant (2.03) has sparked quite the fake controversy by being selected for the Three Point Contest but last night, he only made 2 three-pointers in his 31 points (5-5 from the line), adding 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks. If Zach Randolph (1.69) could be bothered to block some shots, he’d probably be having all All Star season as he’s been double-doubling almost as regularly as Kevin Love. Last night, Randolph went for 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists. Andrew Bogut (1.47) is averaging 4 blocks per game in his two games back from injury. Last night he had 14 points (6-8 from the field) and 5 rebounds to go with the 5 blocks.

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I know you want recommendations of who to pick up, but I’m sorry, there’s not much of that going in the Venn diagram intersection of guys who played last night with those might still be available in your league. I guess that’s what happens when the All Stars show why they’re the All Stars.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: No, this doesn’t mean that the Sam Young Fantasy Event is over (Young still played 45 minutes and had 14 points with a steal and a block), but last night, Tony Allen (2.25) got 40 minutes, and ended up with 27 points (9-12 from the field), 5 steals, and 3 blocks. If you look at this game log, you’ll see why he’s only 6% owned. And you’re probably best off leaving him at that level.

Pick Up Lines: Jodie Meeks (1.45) got a little extra playing time since the 76ers were able to take out the Hawks so handily. In 37 minutes, Meeks scored 16 points, got 8 rebounds, and 3 steals. In the likely event that the 76ers won’t ever win by that much again, Meeks will probably go back to about 20-25 minutes per game and stay right around 5% owned.

Chuck Hayes (1.28) has had a few good games in a row now. I usually don’t like to use words like tease because they come off wrong, but Chuck Hayes is a fantasy tease. His score from last night includes 10 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, but the big fantasy booster was the 5 steals. His rate of 38% ownership seems about right for someone who was injured and has just now put together 4 solid games in a row. Keep an eye on him in case he keeps the double-doubles coming.

Courtney Lee (1.22) came off the bench for the Rockets to play 28 minutes – his most since early January, and score 23 points (9-15 from the field, 4-4 from the line) with 2 steals. That’s pretty much his best game all season, so let’s just leave it at that.

I guess it seemed about time for Mario Chalmers (1.12) to start another tepid streak. With 16 points, and 3 steals he might make a good pick up in deep leagues just in case his next 5-6 games are as good as the last time he started a double-digit scoring streak.

Wayne Ellington‘s (0.95) playing time has been about as consistent as a Carmelo Anthony trade rumor – or rumors of Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez hooking up, which, good for him, that girl is way overrated. Blamo – forced pop culture reference! Anyway, Ellington has played 27 and 25 minutes the last two games, going for 18 points (6-10 from the field, 4-4 from the line) and 4 assists in the most recent one. But one look at his game log reveals that even when he gets minutes like that, he’s not doing much with it.

Biggest Loser: The Hawks got destroyed by the 76ers – who are actually kind of close to winning record, and even in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference – last night, and according to the Player Rater, Joe Johnson (-1.20) is the most culpable. It certainly had something to do with this 6 points (3-8 from the field), 0 rebounds, 1 assist, and 5 turnovers.

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

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Tags: Chuck Hayes, Jodie Meeks, LeBron James, Tony Allen