Day 139 of 170: What Happens When the League’s Worst Offense Meets the League’s Best Defense?

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Milwaukee Bucks
Posted on: March 14th, 2011

Line of the Night: No, today’s title is not referring to Stephen Curry (2.45) and the Warriors, who ran over the Timberwolves by a score of 100-77. Curry led the way for Golden State with 24 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 threes and 2 steals. And although I doubt Curry deserves all the credit, the Warriors also ended Kevin Love’s double-double streak at 53 games. Love finished this game with only 6 points. Some strong-D out of the GSW.

Honorable Mentions: Who needs Kendrick Perkins? Serge Ibaka (1.82) had 14 rebounds and 7 blocks as the Thunder beat the Cavs by 20 points (ok they might need Perk against a real NBA team). Russell Westbrook (1.34) had 20 points (shooting 10-16 from the field) with 5 assists and 3 steals in the game, while James Harden (1.47) finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. A hint for all fantasy owners – if you have a player who is going against the Cavs on any given night, make sure to get them in your active lineup. You will more likely than not like the results.

D.J. Augustin (1.79) broke out of his long-term shooting funk with 23 points, going 3-5 from three. It was the first time he shot over 50% from the field in the month of March (yikes); a similar story saw Roy Hibbert (1.60) go for 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots against the Knicks. Unfortunately, like Augustin, Hibbert has reverted to old inconsistent self in March.

Finally, Dwight Howard (1.18) finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots against Robin Lopez and the Suns. Thank god the Magic have Howard, otherwise they’d basically be a Steve Nash-less version of Phoenix.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: GMTR has been riding shotgun on the Gerald Henderson (1.56) bandwagon since the Gerald Wallace trade went down. Henderson is by no means the most consistent performer, but has been putting up decent lines lately like yesterday’s 18 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals against the Raptors. The good news is that his line came with both Stephen Jackson and Tyrus Thomas back in the lineup for the Bobcats. Henderson is available in over 80% of Yahoo leagues right now and is worth owning in most leagues for the stretch run, even with the Bobcats back “at full strength”.

Pick Up Lines: Even less consistent that Henderson has been Shawne Williams (1.52), the Knicks’ first big off the bench on most nights. Against the Nets, Williams scored 13 points (with 3 threes) and added 2 steals in about 30 minutes. Williams is by no means an offensive force, even on the Knicks, so consider him a deep league special for the rest of the season.

Finally, some signs of life from Troy Murphy (0.98) off the Celtics’ bench. Yes, it came in a blowout, but Murphy scored 12 points and added 7 rebounds and 2 steals in 17 minutes. I would not run out and add Murphy because, again, it was a blowout. But it is an encouraging sign if you are someone who is stashing Murphy and hoping to squeeze a few drops of fantasy lemonade from one of this season’s big lemons.

As Erik mentioned in this week’s podcast (coming soon), Reggie Evans (0.84) is back in a big way for the Raptors. With Amir Johnson sitting with an ankle injury, Evans has been getting some extra run of late and the result has been rebound-tatsic. Against the Bobcats’ front line of Kwame Brown and Boris Diaw, Evans finished with 6 points, 17 rebounds and a couple steals. Evans is the closest thing in the league to a rebound specialist (he has 44 rebounds over his last 3 games) and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he’s worth an add if your team needs rebounds, even when Johnson returns to the Raptors’ lineup.

Brandon Bass (0.85) had his first double-digit scoring game since March 4 with 17 points (on 7-10 shooting) with 6 rebounds. The Bass/Ryan Anderson time share situation is killing the value either of them could have as the clear starter.

Warriors’ rookie Ekpe Udoh (0.33) had 5 blocks in only 18 minutes on the court yesterday. He’s still behind Andris Biedrins on the depth chart and only contributes in the one category, but if you’re really jonesing for some blocks, he’s averaging 2 a game in the month of March.

And Tyler Hansbrough (0.82) is well on his way to being this season’s out-of-nowhere year-end bust out player. In his third game since entering the starting lineup, Hansbrough took advantage of the Knicks’ defense to score 29 points, adding 8 boards in 40 minutes. He’s 42% owned at the moment, so grab him if you play in one of those developmentally challenged leagues where he’s currently not owned.

Luc Mbah a Moute (0.68) had the best line for the Bucks in their horrific loss to the C’s with 7 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. That line is classic Mbah a Moute – strong defense, not so much on offense. Considering that he’s available in 96% of leagues right now, he’s worth a look in deep leagues as long Ersan Ilyasova is out. Wait, I already did say that.

Biggest Loser: This one goes out to the entire Milwaukee Bucks organization, for being held to a franchise low 56 points by the Boston Celtics. Some of the biggest losers in this game (and I’m not talking in a Zoe Saldana kind of way) were John Salmons (-1.23), who was 0-5 from the field and scored 0 points with 0 rebounds and 4 turnovers. Carlos Delfino (-0.54) had 3 points on 1-6 shooting, while Brandon Jennings (-0.18) was on fire by comparison by going 3-8 from the field and scoring 8 points.

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

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Tags: Gerald Henderson, John Salmons, Milwaukee Bucks, Reggie Evans, Shawne Williams, Stephen Curry, Troy Murphy