Are you not entertained?!
Chris Paul sure put on a show last night, dropping treys, lobbing alleys, fending off tigers chained up as obstacles. You name it! He torched the Warriors in the Clippers “home opener” (despite it being their second straight game in LA) for an unreal 42/4/15 and 6 steals. Shot 12-20 from the field and won you FT% this week going 16-17 at the stripe. Paul was so much like Russell Crowe. In LA there’s even a “Coliseum” (ok maybe that’s a stretch)! Games like this support Doc wanting to cover up the banners and jerseys. Even when Kobe gets back, Paul has to be the best player in LA. I said it before on Opening Night and reiterate below, but the acquisition of J.J. Redick does wonders for Paul in the Clippers spacing. I said he’ll have double-digit assists almost every game. I said he’d score 42 against the Warriors. Dammit, OK so I didn’t say that second one. Elite assists and steals are par for the course, and scoring like this in a few more games will have him the easy #3 fantasy player. Here’s what else I saw in last night’s two NBA games:
Raymond Felton – More hammies, mo’ problems. Luckily he looked good last night, and not limited much by his bum hammy he said would be tight for 6 weeks. You really wouldn’t know it watching this game or looking at his 37 minutes. 13/4/6 with a block – yeah the 5-14 isn’t great, but you’ll take these games where you got him in drafts.
Tyson Chandler – 19 rebounds and 4 blocks last night. Pete got a Boards-n-Blocks stiffy.
Carmelo Anthony – Took more shots than Charlie Sheen in a Vegas hotel room. 8-24 for 22 Pts, but stuffed the stat sheet with 6 Rebs 6 Asts 6 Stls and 2 Blks. Rainbow line! Didn’t hit the shot he needed though in this one.
Iman Shumpert – Played just over 25 minutes in another start, and didn’t do much with it. 7/3/1/2/0. He’s always been only a deeper league option, and that just got even deeper.
Tim Hardaway Jr. – A big reason to cut bait on Shumpert in 14 teamers or smaller. Didn’t set the world on fire shooting 4-13 (2-6 3PTM) for 10/3. But I thought he looked good and should be owned close to the Shumpert %-ownership after playing a minute and a half more than he did.
Terrible Other Knicks Cs – Andrea Bargnani did not look very good, and Amar’e Stoudemire can barely stay on the court. I mean, I guess they need to be owned in the deepest of leagues, but man. Cue the Exorcist vomit. Hey Amar’e, that little blip of hair dye ain’t doing you no favors. You look like Hasheem Thabeet. And no one wants that.
Jimmy Butler – Didn’t follow up a strong debut with a huge encore, but another solid multi-cat contribution going 11/10/1/2/1. 3-11 shooting didn’t evoke the power of the JB! But Butler owners are happy thus far.
Carlos Boozer – What, he’s not a 30+ PPG scorer this year?!?!?! Went 5-7 for 14/7. A happy medium between his first two games sounds about right, but closer to the latter.
Derrick Rose – Melo beat him by one in their shots race. I’mmmm nooottttt drunkkkk…. But Rose hit the big one when it mattered. 7-23 for 18/6/3 with no steals. Pretty brutal game for his price, but he still looks good to me at the eye level. If anyone isn’t happy, worth a buy low shot in the dark.
Luol Deng – Back on track shooting, 8-15 for a 17/3/6 line.
Joakim Noah – Another solid multi-cat line of 6/15/5/1/1. Needs to score to get back to Goromotaro ways! Although the most encouraging thing was hopping up from 20 minutes to almost 36 in the first two games.
Blake Griffin – Actually filtered in some other stats with a 23/10/2/2/1 line. Shot 9-12 from the field but only 5-8 from the stripe. Still, games like this will easily make his draft day value worth the price of admission.
DeAndre Jordan – 9/17/1/2/1 in a ridiculously-long 41 minutes. Wait, DeAndre Jordan did that?! Yup! But then he did what he also does. 3-12 FT. Probably lost H2H owners FT for the week. I think he should pull a [Michael] Jordan All-Star game move and on the second free throw just alley it to himself. Just has to hit the rim!
J.J. Redick – This is what you drafted him to do. “They were who we thought they were!” 5-11 (3-7 3 PTM 4-4 FT) 17/5/2. I still maintain, as stated in the open, the value he really brings is spreading the court. He helps Blake and DeAndre space the block, and gives Paul all sorts of room.
Klay Thompson – Weirdest stat of the night – one day after going 15-19 for a career high, didn’t take his first FG attempt until his 16th minute on the floor. What the hey?! Played just over 38 minutes going 3-7 (1-2 3PTM 3-3 FT) 10/1/1 and two steals. Talk about a cool down! Why I was down on him heading into the year, he has to have a hot shooting hand and actually get the shots to make his draft day value work. Only 1 three in this one. ThrAGNOF!
Andre Iguodala – Second weirdest stat of the night – had 11 assists! 14/4/11 and two steals. Still think he’s a little overrated fantasy-wise. Iguodala in a great value buy in REL – $15. But when he almost fought DeAndre Jordan – priceless.
Stephen Curry – Single-handedly won and lost a H2H category for owners this week. 14-23 with mother fracking 9 threes! 38/3/9. But mother fracking 11 TOs! Not too much to take away, just inflated numbers on the good and bad. 8-cat Curry owners are like, mmmmmmmm, treys! Me likey 8-cat!
Andrew Bogut – Nothing special, but efficient 6-7 from the field, 5-7 from the stripe for 17/6 with a block. He usually chips in the additional stats and they’ll come, but leaves healthy after another 28 minutes. We be happy!
Next Games: I’ll be doubling up with DET @ MEM and OKC @ MIN. I actually think both will be close games. I’ll be watching the two of my boyfriends – Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Corey Brewer. Hopefully they both get 30 minutes tonight and go for solid slashes. Pete is killing me in REL! I need all the help I can get after Brandon Knight already is ruled out. I just hope to make it close…
