Day 152 of 170: Derrick Rose Will Lead Them

Categorized as: Author: Patrick
Posted on: March 27th, 2011

Line of the Night: You could make an argument that Derrick Rose (1.83) had his best game of the season last night against the Milwaukee Bucks. Rose scored 30 points, was 12-12 from the free throw line and dished out a season-high 17 assists (compared to only 2 turnovers) in the win. Tom Thibodeau (or Thibs as I like to call him) says that Rose is fearless, I say he just carries around a giant pair of balls everywhere he goes.

Honorable Mentions: With 6 straight losses, the vultures are circling around Carmelo Anthony (1.64) and the Knicks. But here is where fantasy and real life diverge from each other. Melo has been great from a fantasy perspective in his tenure with New York, and yesterday’s 36 points, 3 threes and 2 blocks was no exception. If Melo in NY is wrong, well, I don’t want to be right..

A game after Paul Silas said not to expect Stephen Jackson back anytime soon, Stephen Jackson (1.26) was back on the court against the Knicks (Paul Silas: master of subterfuge). And for the first time in a couple weeks, Jackson was actually really, really good, scoring 19 points and adding 4 threes and 7 rebounds in 29 minutes on the court. Boris Diaw (0.99) also came to play for the first time this week and added 20 points, 8 rebounds for the Bobcats. Of course, these performances came against the Knicks, so don’t read too much into them.

Carlos Delfino (1.55) finally crossed the 50% ownership threshold in Yahoo leagues; and he gave owners a 23 point, 5 three 7 rebound game to celebrate. Delfino is currently starting and getting big minutes for the Bucks, so ride his strong finish to the season in for your playoffs or as you end your roto season.

The two old dudes got it done for Dallas as they blew out the Jazz. Oh wait, that could apply to just about anyone on the team. Shawn Marion (1.27) had 13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks; while Jason Terry (1.04) scored a game-high 22 points, hitting 4-5 from three.

Chris Kaman (1.21) has come on strong the past week. Against the Raptors, Kaman recorded his 3rd double-double in 4 games with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Meanwhile, Kaman’s resurgence has relegated DeAndre Jordan to blocks specialist off the bench. At least he did his job last night with 4 blocks.

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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Shelden Williams (0.99), who joined the Knicks in the Melo trade, saw his first significant action in about three weeks. In 25 minutes, he scored 10 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. With Ronny Turiaf both useless and perpetually injured, Williams is definitely in line for more minutes and could start at center for a team that needs to shake things up. This is probably going to be the apex of Williams’ career, and he’s worth a short-term fantasy pick up as long as Turiaf is out.

Pick Up Lines: Ed Davis (0.97) had his second huge double-double for the Raptors with 21 points and 11 rebounds against the Clips. Andrea Bargnani and Reggie Evans both sat with injuries for Toronto, which gave Davis nearly 40 minutes of run. As long as those two remain out (they are day-to-day) Davis is worth a play, but if the Raptors ever get healthy again – and I know that sounds crazy – it means that the ragtag forward collection Davis, Evans and James Johnson won’t be consistent enough on a game-to-game basis to rely on in most fantasy leagues.

Brandon Rush (0.96) got 36 minutes off the bench for the Pacers thanks to some foul trouble from Paul George (George only ended up playing 12 minutes in the game). Rush took advantage with 19 points and 4 threes on 7-10 shooting. Rush has been outplaying George as of late and with the Pacers barely holding onto the 8th playoff spot in the East, he could be in for an increased role again over the next couple of weeks of the season.

Brook Lopez was ineffective against the Hawks (more on that below), but Johan Petro was glorious, scoring 12 points with 8 boards in 22 minutes off the bench for the Nets. The last time Petro scored in double-digits was… let’s see… in April of 2010. Considering he doesn’t bring much else to the table, leave him as a free agent for now.

Another solid, under the radar type game from Gerald Henderson (0.78), who scored 13 points and blocked 3 shots against the Knicks. I know Henderson went to Duke, but he still deserves to be owned in more than 16% of leagues based on how he’s been playing since the all-star break.

Biggest Loser: Brook Lopez (-0.87) has had a few 1 rebound games this season, but as far as I can tell, yesterday was his first no rebound game of 2010-11. That’s right, 7 feet tall, 0 rebounds. A night after being shut down by Dwight Howard, Lopez finished with 6 points, 0 boards and 2 assists against Al Horford and the Hawks. So I want to know, in what round would you be willing to draft Lopez next season?

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

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Tags: Brandon Rush, Brook Lopez, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Ed Davis, Gerald Henderson, Johan Petro, Shelden Williams