Day 53 of 124: GUSTAVO!

Categorized as: Author: Patrick, Ballin Outta Control, Injuries, Player News
Posted on: February 16th, 2012

Line of the Night: The Phoenix Suns shut down Joe Johnson (2-10 shooting on the night), but they couldn’t touch Josh Smith (3.35), who took over the game and finished with 30 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks while playing close to 45 minutes in a 101-99 win. Coach Larry Drew has been riding Smith hard this month – he’s had two other games of 46+ minutes in the past week – which is great if you like insane fantasy lines, as long as Smith doesn’t seriously start to wear down as the season rolls on.

Honorable Mentions: Kevin Martin (2.52) owners can exhale now. A game after being held scoreless and playing all of 19 minutes before getting benched, Martin exploded for 32 points, hitting 4-7 from three and adding 2 steals against the OKC. Credit Kevin McHale’s heart-to-heart with Martin before the game I guess. If you happen own Martin and are looking to get rid of him before his confidence disappears again, I’d either start to look at offers now, or wait until he has a second good game in a row and then look to move him (so it doesn’t look so obvious).

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Just too many games today for me to recap them all, but…

26 points, 11 assists and 4 threes for Deron Williams (2.36) in a loss to the Grizzlies. William’s FG% has slowed crept back up over 41%, which is not great, but at least not an embarrassment anymore. Mike Conley (2.09) had a nice 16 point, 10 assist, 4 steal double-double for the Grizzlies.

Ryan Anderson (2.31) scored 27 points while hitting 7 threes for the Magic in their win over the Sixers. It would have been great if he could have grabbed more than 2 rebounds though (don’t go all Andrea Bargnani on us). Jameer Nelson (0.99) scored 12 points, but put up a season-high 14 assists in the game. Nelson is playing much better over the last week since coming back from injury. The Sixers were yet again fantasy led by Louis Williams (1.60), who finished with 21 points and 7 assists off the bench. The Sixers’ starters combined to go 16-42 in this game.

Gerald Wallace (2.02) scored 24 points and hit 4 threes, with 6 rebounds and 2 steals in a win over the Warriors (thanks to some Jamal Crawford free throws). Both Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry were off in this one, but David Lee had 29 and 11 in the game.

Kevin Love (1.96) had a huge 30 points and 18 rebounds against the Bobcats. But if it’s not 30 and 20, we don’t want to hear about it. Nikola Pekovic (1.09) also chipped in 21 and 11 with 3 blocks. For the Bobcats, it’s Diaw time again! Boris Diaw (1.04) had a 14, 9 and 7 and played 38 minutes in this game. Ride him like he’s Josh Smith right now. D.J. Augustin (-0.42) returned to the lineup after missing 11 games and landed with a thud, scoring 9 points with 2 assists in 24 minutes. But hey, he’s back, so time to get him back into your lineups.

Tony Parker (1.94) is still enjoying his time on the court as Manu Ginobili works his way back into game shape. Against the Raptors, Parker scored 34 points – going 12-12 from the line – and adding 14 assists. And in case you didn’t see, Manu Ginobili (0.03) is back on the court for the Spurs! It was a long wait, but congratulations for all those Manu owners out there. The team is working him back slowly, though, as he only played 20 minutes in his third game back and finished with 11 points in the game.

Another guy who is apparently back to his old ways is Jason Kidd (1.93). Kidd had a scoring explosion (for him) with 13 points, adding 4 threes and 3 steals in a win over the Nuggets.

No KG? No problem for Rajon Rondo (1.60), who scored a huge 35 points, adding 5 boards and 6 assists against the Pistons. It was a problem for the Celtics as a team, as they lost the game 98-88. Ben Gordon (1.47) scored 22 points and hit 4 threes off the bench for the Pistons.

Blake Griffin (1.27) had a 23 and 15 in a win over the Wizards. Chris Paul (0.91) added 16 points and 9 assists, while is counterpart John Wall (0.88) led the Wiz with 18 points and 12 assists.

It’s hard to believe that Steve Nash is 38 years old, especially when he keeps putting up lines like this: 22 points and 16 assists against the Hawks. It’s his 8th double-digit assist game in the month of February. I’m 32 and I just hurt my ankle lightly working out at the gym for like 30 minutes yesterday. Nash is a freak.

And, finally, it wouldn’t be a fantasy recap without a Jeremy Lin (0.15) update. Lin’s scoring slowed down last night against the Kings as he only played 26 minutes in a blowout win, but he did manage a career-high 13 assists to go along with 10 points before exiting the game for good in the third quarter. Landry Fields (1.41) added a 15, 10 and 5 in the game.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Thanks to the Eric Gordon injury, Marco Belinelli (2.07) was handed the Hornets starting SG position this year on a silver platter. He then took that platter and crapped all over it, with one of the worst runs of shooting at the start of the season this side of Jason Kidd.

Is he turning it around? His recent game log would suggest no, but last night he hit career-high 6 threes on his way to a season-high 22 points, going 7-10 from the field overall. Belinelli is getting well over 30 minutes a game while Jarrett Jack is out, and the Hornets actually play a back-to-back-to-back starting on Monday before the break, so he could be worth a look if you are trying to squeeze out some extra games as long as you are willing to take the chance that he might destroy you with a 5-30 shooting week.

Pick Up Lines: Marreese Speights (2.00) Sigh… You want the definition of a bad girlfriend? See Speights, Marreese. Lionel Hollins ran with all his starters (including Speights) more than usual last night in a win over the Nets. The result was a season high 38 minutes for Speights which led to a season-high 20 points (on 10-13 shooting from the field), career-high 18 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Should you run out and grab him if he’s available? Only if you feel like getting burned the next time the Grizzlies play. Ok, in reality his minutes have been creeping up lately into the 28-30 minute range and while the dude is inconsistent as any player in the league, he is worth a look if you’re desperate for a big man. The boards should at least be there for him even when his shot isn’t falling.

And you can check out those horrific grizzlies uni’s below…

GUSTAVO! Gustavo Ayon (1.43) got his 5th straight start at PF for the Hornets and tore it up with his first double-double: 12 points, 12 rebounds and 3 steals. With Emeka Okafor now out with a knee injury until after the all-star break, Ayon becomes a short-term must add in all 12+ team leagues, especially seeing that the Hornets play three games during next week’s all-star game shortened week.

Willie Green (1.87) somehow got 34 minutes off the bench for the Hawks, hit 4-6 from three and finished with 20 points and 3 steals. That was a season high in minutes for Green and I’d suggest waiting for a repeat performance before thinking about picking him up.

With Kyrie Irving back in the lineup, Ramon Sessions (1.38) moved back to the bench. But that didn’t stop him from seeing nearly 30 minutes and finishing with 13 points, 4 assists and 2 steals against the Pacers. As long as you don’t expect any more huge double-doubles from Sessions, he could be a sneaky good play for now, especially if Daniel Gibson is forced to miss time with a sprained ankle.

Ersan Ilyasova’s ownership levels (40% in Yahoo leagues) is creeping up to the point where he’s no longer really a waiver wire guy, but if he is available in your league, then take a look after his 23 point, 7 rebound, 2 block game against the Hornets. His lines still bounce around more than I’d like, but it’s not like guys averaging 8 rebounds a game are usually hanging out as free agents in 60% of leagues out there.

Shelden Williams (1.03) got the start for the Nets at center, played 36 minutes and doubled-doubled with 10 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. The problem is that line matches his production from his previous three games combined.

Jose Barea (1.00) has been able to carve out a nice 25 minute a game role for himself off the Timberwolves’ bench behind Ricky Rubio. He had a 12 point, 8 assist, 2 three game against the Bobcats and is worth a look in deep leagues.

He’s been mentioned on GMTR before, but Kosta Koufos (0.94) is still available in over 90% of leagues and is starting at center for Denver while Timofey Mozgov (day-to-day with an ankle injury) is out. Koufos had a nice 12 and 14 double-double against Dallas last night and makes a decent short-term pickup if you need a center.

Speaking of centers, Semih Erden (0.82) scored a career high 18 points with 8 boards in his second start for the Anderson Varejao-less Cavs. Considering he went scoreless in his first start, I’d cut the difference and consider him a low end Zaza Pachulia type (at best) while Varejao is out. At least he’ll be a warm body at center if you play in a really deep league.

With no KG or Brandon Bass for the Celtics, Chris Wilcox (0.82) got the start against Detroit and stepped up with 17 and 9 in 32 minutes. Wilcox has shown in the past he can put up decent fantasy numbers when getting the minutes, but his value only lasts as long as KG is out (maybe until after the all-star break).

Beep… beep… beep… that’s the faint heartbeat of Chandler Parsons’ (0.51) fantasy value. Last night’s 14 points, 7 rebounds and a couple steals against OKC was arguably his best game in the month of February. It’s going to be touch and go with Parsons the rest of the season.

It’s looking like Corey Brewer (0.29) is going to be the Nuggets starting SF while Danilo Gallinari is out (sorry Rudy Fernandez fans). His 3-15 shooting night against Dallas doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but he did grab 7 boards and add 5 steals in the game. He’s more of a defensive guy than a scorer, but at 30+ minutes a game, he’ll do enough to be worth owning.

Biggest Loser: Just when we all started to trust Arron Afflalo (-1.59) again, he burns us with a 3 point (on 0-6 shooting), 1 rebound, 0 assist night against Dallas. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for the tenth time this year, well, I’ve got a problem. Given the 20+ point games he was having leading up to this one, I’d actually give him at least one more chance before dumping his ass back to the wire.

The Nuggets’ shooting woes weren’t contained to Afflalo. Andre Miller (-1.13) has gone about as cold as you can get over the last week, and his 0 points on 0-5 shooting is sadly not that out of line with what he’s been doing lately. Miller hasn’t scored in double-digits since Feb 8th and I’m not sure how much longer fantasy owners should put up with his cold streak.

Ty Lawson (-1.00) had 3 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists while shooting 1-8 from the field. And as mentioned above, Corey Brewer was 3-15 from the floor. It’s amazing that Denver only lost by a score of 104-82.

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Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version). They are based on the stat Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) an estimate of the number of wins a player produces per week in H2H leagues over a replacement (waiver wire) player.

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Tags: Arron Afflalo, Gustavo Ayon, Jeremy Lin, Kevin Love, Manu Ginobili, Marco Belinelli, Marreese Speights, Steve Nash, Tony Parker