Give Me The Rock

Too bad he doesn’t have the same kind of bad blood with the Wizards or the Bulls might get 6 good games from him each season.

Line of the Night: Tracy McGrady (6.53) had 35/6/5 with 4 threes, 2 steals and a block. According to NBA.com, the Rockets are the only team with 4 wins over the Blazers this season. We’ll see what Greg Oden has to say about that next season.

Honorable Mentions: Larry Hughes (6.34) almost had the first triple double of his career (as a Bull at least, he might have had one for another team) with 25/8/9. He, like McGrady, had 2 steals and a block. After that we drop down to LeBron (5.53) who only scored a single point in the 4th quarter against the Bulls last night. Apparently there’s some back spasms going on. But he still had 33/5/4 with 3 threes, 2 steals, and two blocks. Brad Miller (5.46) follows James with his Marcus Camby impression, scoring only 6 points (on a Biggest Loseresque 2/7 from the field), but saving himself with 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks, and only 1 turnover. Since there were only 3 games last night, we’ll end this list with Kevin Martin’s (4.82) 26/3/3 with 4 threes and a steal.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Dikembe Mutombo (3.97) continued his run at immortality with 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Not a great line, but if you need blocks and rebounds this week (for daily lineup changers) or next week (if you’re already looking ahead), he will definitely get you those.

Another guy who might be available and has been playing about as well as anyone who’s likely to be available is Mikki Moore (3.85). Last night, he had 16 and 5 with 2 steals and a block, while shooting 7/8 from the floor (only 2/4 from the line, though).

The Biggest Loser: I’m going with Al Thornton (2.20) because his 3/14 shooting (for a line of 8/5/1 and a block) has pretty much singlehandedly dropped me two-tenths of a percent below my opponent in the DroppingDimes Experts League. I’m up 7-2 right now, but it’s a very tentative 7-2, and I need to at least have a chance in every category. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling that pain.

Friday’s Tiny Dancer: To take away some of that pain, let’s celebrate T-Mac’s LotN with this weeks Rockets Power Dancer of the Week: Heidi. Hi Dee In Deed.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, LeBron now has a supporting cast. Yeah! What? Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally Z, and Delonte West suddenly count as a “supporting cast”? I’m sorry, what?

If you’re still reading this instead of picking up Joakim Noah, do that now. Someone in the GMTR Readers’ League actually drafted Joakim. Wow. I was writing him an email to congratulate him until I realized he’d drafted Eddy Curry with the pick right before that one. In an interesting coinkydink, he also has Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. He is still the Illest Gauskas.

UPDATE: Also, check to see if Boobie (aka Daniel) Gibson is available. Probably want to pick him up too, since there’s no one else to play PG in the land of Cleve. In my haste to post, I didn’t realize that the Boobster had a HIGH ankle sprain. Aka not good. So… follow along below…

Cavs

Big Z probably needs some rest. Ben Wallace will give him that. I would expect Ilguaskas’ numbers to dip slightly. Wallace’s numbers can’t really get any lower… so good luck with that.

Joe Smith and Drew Gooden are pretty much the exact same player at this point. Seriously. Look at their stats. It’s sort of crazy. So, on the Cavs side, Smith will take over Gooden’s role, and probably have the same value. On the Bulls side, Gooden will fill in for Smith (arguably the Bulls best player at this point), and also keep his value. At least until Deng and Gordon start playing real minutes.

UPDATE: I already told you to pick up Daniel Gibson. What else is there really? With Gibson out, I guess Delonte West will be the PG in Cleveland… and that leaves Wally at SG. Really, this helps LeBron how? And do you really want to pick up Wally Szczerbiak or Delonte West? Maybe and maybier. If you need to pick one, go with Wally, at least he can do something. He’ll get you points and threes from the SF position (which is awesome if you’re rollin with a Mid Ball team). Delonte seems to just squander whatever court time he gets.

UPDATED:
PG: Delonte West, Daniel Gibson (INJ), Eric Snow, Damon Jones
SG: Wally Szczerbiak, Devin Brown
SF: LeBron James
PF: Joe Smith, Anderson Varejao (starter?)
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace

Bulls

Pick up Joakim Noah. Did I mention that?

Unfortunately, if Larry Hughes actually plays well, this could mean the end of the Thabo Era. With Deng and Gordon both back, the addition of Larry Hughes means that pretty much every spot from PG to PF has at least 2 players looking for PT. Joakim and Aaron Gray will evidently be holding down the Center spot, but I think they can split the PT pretty well (aka Joakim will get most of it, Gray will get the rest).

Here’s the Bulls:
PG: Hinirch, Duhon (we’re back to normal here)
SG: Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefolosha, Larry Hughes
SF: Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Andres Nocioni
PF: Drew Gooden, Tyrus Thomas, Andres Nocioni
C: Joakim Noah, Drew Gooden

Seattle

They made another deal, so let’s look at the new dept chart…

PG: Earl Watson, Luke Ridnour
SG: Kevin Durant, Brent Barry, Ira Newble
SF: Jeff Green, Damien Wilkins, Adrian Griffin
PF: Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison (soon), Donyell Marshall
C: Johan Petro, Francisco Elson

If you have any of the starters or Nick Collison, you’re good to go. If not, um, yeah, why? I don’t see Newble nor Griffin nor Marshall finding themselves all of sudden in Seattle.

–

In other news, Yahoo has revamped their sports pages again to make them EVEN EASIER to navigate. It’s somewhat ridiculous. No wonder Microsoft wants to buy them. They have actual usability people on their teams.

Line of the Night: Shawn Marion (5.64) continues to produce. Phoenix played last night, and I’ll admit I have to keep reminding myself that Marion is no longer with them. Marion is definitely contributing more to his new team than the guy he got traded for, but as the Heat lost their 24th of 25 games, Marion is realizing that grass only looks greener on the Miami beaches. It’s really just lots of sand. Cause they’re beaches. Not much grass.

Anyway, Marion 23/7/3 with 4 and 1 (steals and blocks), and 3 threes. Classic Shawn Marion. Ain’t nothing changed but the rent.

Honorable Mentions: Steve Nash (reminder: no longer on Shawn Marion’s team) (5.48) had 24/6/13 with 4 threes and a block; Dwyane Wade (5.0) had 30/7/7.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Since there were only 2 games last night, this one is pretty easy. If Thabo Sefolosha (4.26) is still available in your league, seriously, you’re playing against people who aren’t paying attention. Sef had 17/12/1 with 4 steals.

Weird Statistical Error of the Night: Boris Diaw (5.06????) shot 3/9 but is listed as having 10 points in the FG% category. That’s more like Biggest Loser material, and certainly not enough or 3rd place overall on the night.

The Biggest Loser: Just when people start to get hot on Joakim Noah (1.40), he only gets to play 15 minutes, scoring 4 points and getting only 2 rebounds.

Okay, something really weird is going on… Dorell Wright (1.50????) had 19/8/4 with 2 steals and a block; not to mention the 2 threes. There’s no way that’s only a 1.50. I think some at NBA.com took off early for the All Star game.

Friday’s Tiny Dancer: Now, the Phoenix Suns Dance Team is consistently one of the best in the league, but remember, Shawn Marion is not on the Suns anymore. So, we have to settle for one of the Miami Heat dancers today. I know. Major Bummer.

Line of the Night: Well, as the headline suggests, one of the Chicago Bulls got the Line of the Night. With Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich out for the night, it had to have been… um… well… Chris Duhon! Duhon’s 34 points, 4 threes, 3 steals, and 9:3 assist to turnover ratio got him a 6.85 last night. That’s almost a Lucky 7! (There were only 3 games last night; 56 players; so the high score may be more a function of that) Mrs. Fantasy has a rundown of Duhon’s game here.

Honorable Mentions: Andre Iguodala (6.24) had 25, 8, 4, adding 3 and 3 on the defensive side; LeBron (5.74) had a similar game with 32, 7, 6, and 2 and 2 for defense; Baron Davis (4.92) had 22 points and 8 assists, but had Chris Duhon in his face all night, resulting in an 8-24 shooting performance.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Dorrell Wright (3.91) had another good game with 16 and 10. Unfortunately for Dorrell, there’s a guy named Shawn Marion who will be playing for the Heat soon. Those 30+ minute games are going to go the way of Night Ranger’s career.

With only 56 players seeing floor time last night, it gets pretty ugly when looking for Waiver Wire pick ups… so, to counteract that ugly, here’s

Friday’s Tiny Dancer: (if you have a better name, please help me out)

In honor of Chris Duhon’s career night:

The Biggest Loser: Maybe I should give him a little while to get back in game shape, but Chris Webber (1.98) started yesterday and only played for 13 minutes going 2-5. Really, I just wanted to post this picture though, because how awesome is it that they can just pull a stock photo from 14 years ago for a player’s profile picture? I’m sure somebody at NBA.com was laughing their ass off about that.

Line of the Night: Kirk Hinrich (5.55) had his first really good game of the season. And of course, in the GMTR Readers League, I put him on the bench this week. I knew I shouldn’t have done it since I was at the game where Chris Duhon got injured, but for some reason, I went with Devin Harris. Oh, and did I mention I also chose to start Ben Gordon and Luol Deng in the DroppingDimes Experts League. So, Hinrich took over with Duhon, Gordon, and Deng on the bench, scoring 38 points (14-21, 6-6, 4 threes), dishing 10 assists, grabbing 7 rebounds, and stealing the ball twice. Did anyone buy low on him knowing that he couldn’t play any worse than he had been?

Honorable Mentions: Danny Granger (5.04), who I am starting this week, scored 33 (11-18, 7-7, and 4 threes), with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block; Josh Smith (4.97) shot pretty terribly (8-23 = 34%), but had 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals, and 5 blocks; Sylar Jose Calderon (4.84) had 24 points (8-10, 4-4, 3 threes), with 13 assists and 3 steals; Tim Duncan (4.64) had 28 and 17; Marcus Camby had 13 and 21 with 4 blocks. I could go on, but with 244 players on the court last night, there’s just too many…

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Al Thornton (3.65) might still be available (he was in the DroppingDimes Experts League). He had 23 and 9, with 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He’s an even better addition if you have a really low FG% because he’s only shooting 42% on the season, but in the last month he’s up to 43%, and in the last week, 46%.

The Biggest Loser: A week after I recommended you pick him up (and did the same myself) Juan Carlos Navarro (1.31) has seen his playing time drop to 17 minutes, and of the 5 shots he got, he only made 1 of them.

Watch Out: The Ben Wallace Era might be coming to an end, as Big Ben only got to a 1.51 last night in 24 minutes. It looked like somewhat of a blowout going into the half, so that might explain it, but Joakim Noah saw 34 minutes of action (in which he had 14 points and 15 rebounds).

Jamario Moon (1.82) followed up 17 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals and a block with 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals on 2-9 (22%) shooting.

Line of the Night: Obviously, LeBron’s 51 points on 64% FG shooting with 6 threes is LotN (6.01). But he shot better from the field than from the line (59%), and only narrowly avoided getting a triple-double. I considered chastising and saying something like he was afraid if he got too many triple-doubles that he’d be labeled as a Point Guard, or The Next Jason Kidd. But I suppose the truth of the reason behind why LeBron hasn’t had a triple-double since Nov 25th is really because his teammates aren’t quite Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. I realize that assists are harder to come by, especially for someone who’s 6′ 8″ and 250 pounds, but still LeBron is averaging only 2/10 less assists than rebounds so far this season. Really, it’s amazing that he can find teammates to make 7.5 buckets a game when you look at the Cavs roster.

Honorable Mentions: Richard Hamilton in a distant 2nd place with 4.70 (39 points, 6 assists, 5 threes); Antonio McDyess stole the ball 7 times and got 13 rebounds to take 3rd place with 4.62.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Juan Carlos Navarro was still available in a few leagues this morning, but with his 26 points, 6 threes, 4 assists, and 2 steals, he might not be around for much longer.

Others: Speaking of 26 points, Antoine Walker decided to score that many and add 10 rebounds to his 4 three-pointers; Sam Cassell went for 32 with 7 assists and 6 rebounds - too bad he’s probably too old to play 32 minutes a night anymore.

The Biggest Loser: Ben Gordon (1.48). This is sort of a Recent Achievement Award; Ben only played 15 minutes last night since the Bulls got blown out by Orlando, but in the game before that he had 29.5 minutes and went 3-13, and the game before that he was 4-13. And just when you thought it was safe to have Bulls in your lineup, Kirk Hinrich takes a day with back spasms. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s been going on all season. I really wanted to look forward to going to the game on Saturday, too. Now I’m just a little scared.

At least I have something to look forward to, though…

Skiles (and Bulls fans everywhere) are relieved.

I say now is as good a time as any to pick up Tyrus Thomas.