In a matchup where they might’ve gone ahead and whipped em out to see who was bigger, this round went to Joel Embiid! The Sixers snapped the longest stretch of NBA games without back-to-back wins (108), by besting Hassan Whiteside and the Heat 101-94.
Look at Embiid flex those guns. So much man meat in the paint right there! Ok, I’m done with that, but it was awesome to see such prototypical, turn-back-the-clock big men face off against each other, with each being the current face of their respective franchise. Embiid had one of his best lines of the year, going 22/5/0/1/3 on 7-13 shooting, mainly highlighted by only one TO. He’s only had one game with 2 TO, and all the others 3+. On the flip side, Whiteside was a monster, going 32/13/0/0/2 on 13-19 shooting and hit 6 of his 8 FT. For the love of big man stats! Whiteside was 0-3 from the stripe in his previous game, so hopefully something has righted the ship there. Someone in the comments asked where Embiid might go in drafts next year, and I said 30-40 range. But at this rate, that might be too conservative! Let’s see him get through a full season first, and be sure none of that giant EMBIIIIIID gets hurt. I lied, I got one more in! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Josh Richardson – 4/2/1/1/1, you hate the 1-11 shooting, but no TO and still contributed across the board. He should not be available in any 12ers.
Dion Waiters – Continuing to play as a must-own while hot. Well, if you’re in a 10er without a drop, you don’t have to own him, but any deeper he should be rostered. 19/3/5/0/1 with a pair of treys, and at least he tried to help Miami win this game!
Gerald Henderson – Played through his “change-of-season” cold for 19/3/2 on 6-8 shooting (3-3 3PTM 4-4 FT). He’s gonna be like Phoebe when she wants to stay sick to have her “sexy phlegm singing voice” and lick everyone in the locker room’s spoons and collect their tissues the rest of the season.
Sergio Rodriguez – Well this sucks. Jerryd Bayless comes back, and gets 15 minutes (4/2/5/0/0 1-7 shooting). Then Butthole Brown runs T.J. McConnell for 14 minutes as well, leaving 20 for Sergio. I rounded those, but they add up to more or less 48 minutes. Looks like PG is a three-headed shitdragon. You can wake up and let Sergio go go.
Rodney Stuckey – For the love of junk time! 21/2/2 with no TO as the Warriors blew them out of the water, with key Pacers injuries. I need to play DFS more, I coulda seen that coming!
Glenn Robinson III – With Paul George (ankle) and C.J. Miles (knee) out, G Rob 3 could only muster 8/5/1/2/0 in a whopping 37 minutes. Little dog.
Monta Ellis – With Myles Turner also out, Monta managed only 5/2/1/0/1 on 2-8 shooting with 4 TO, when he had a chance to be an alpha against his former team. I’m not against dropping him in 10ers.
Kevin Durant – I’m too lazy to look it up, but I bet this is the first time in many years he didn’t take double-digit shots in a game. 14/11/6/2/2 on 3-9 shooting, with 7-7 FT. Still getting it done without the FGA!
Brandon Knight – Like Ellis, squandering some extra opportunity. T.J. Warren was also out with sniffies (watch out for Gerald Henderson coming to steal your used tissues!) giving Knight a start, and he only went 4/6/3/0/0 with 4 TO on 2-7 shooting. Feeling better advising some 10er owners they could drop him. He is #1 or #2 on a list of guys who flat out NEED a trade.
Eric Bledsoe/Devin Booker – Took virtually all the shots. E Bled for 29/9/6/2/2 as he’s rounding into form on 10-25 shooting, with Book going his usual empty 30/2/2/0/0 on 26 shots. No one else had double-digit looks. Ball hawgs!
God I love that video, it encapsulates the Suns last night…
Bradley Beal – Video might work for the Wiz backcourt too! John Wall had an insane line despite shooting 6-24 (18/4/15/4/3 – one more block for a double rainbow!), but Beal gets the headline with a career-high scoring night. 42/4/0/0/0 with 5 treys. Epic ThrAGNOF! Stop trying to copy Devin Booker’s game!
Vince Carter – Well, with Chandler Parsons going down, everyone rushed to nab James Ennis, who then went down himself last night with a calf strain. Ugh! I swear Vince Carter is a vampire. He’s sucking all the life force out of their wings, and staying youthful with a 10/5/5/1/0 line last night with 2 treys. Unbelievable he’s in the streaming and hold-while-hot-and-there’s-injuries class in 12ers.
Mike Conley – Monster game, going 31/4/2/3/0 with 5 treys. He was off his worst back-to-back games before this one, so nice to see. That said, after having a nice resurgence in dimes, 3, 3, 2 the last 3 games, and he’s shooting 49.3% from deep on the season. Screams sell high.
Frank Kaminsky – The bench bigs for the Hornets had a nice game, with Frank the Stank going 23/0/0/1/3 on 9-11 shooting in only 20 minutes. He picked up a kankle, or else this could’ve been a magical breakout. With Roy Hibbert on a minutes-limit (11 mins, but shouldn’t be playing more anyway because he sucks) and Cody Zeller out, 37 whopping minutes for Spencer Hawes (14/10/1/1/2 2 treys). If you have a roster spot you’d like to fill in tomorrow’s slate, Hawes is definitely worth a stream against the Spurs.
Clint Capela – Keeping it rolling for 15/12/2/0/2 and only 2 FTA, making one of them. Good thing he doesn’t pull a Joakim Noah and yell and-one every layup! Needs to yell “and none!”
Ryan Anderson – Brutal, 10/6/1/0/1 with no treys. I compared him to someone atrocious on the Podcast in Can We Make Slim Look Stupid, with said atrocious player out-producing him. Sad. You’ll have to listen to hear who!
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – #addict.
I couldn’t find a vid cutting together his highlights, but was driving, hitting his jumpers, got a pick-six steal and layup… 26/1/2/2/0 with 3 treys. Purdy.
Serge Ibaka – Finally, more goodness! Well I guess his previous game was OK, but 21/8/1/2/3 as we’d been hoping his huge breakout against his former Thunder a few games ago would kick-start him. He has been a little better, with 3 swats in the past two games now.
Aaron Gordon – Minutes and usage are sickening! Back-to-back games of only 5 points and 4 rebounds, going 5/4/0/1/0 with 2 TO last night, and 3-6 FT. Hurts more than helps! Officially with Knight in the 10er-you-can-drop range. A-Gord, more like A-Gone! Although that’s Adrian Gonzalez… But you get it!
Giannis Antetokounmpo – When our player pages got made, I was sure to ask Giannis would fit! Wooooo, web development! And his stats barely fit either, tripdub alert! 21/10/10/5/3 in an absolutely epic line: tripdub, 1.5 rainbow, shot 9-9 FT… Just missed both his treys, but certainly gets a pass for that. Whoever offered me atrocious trades for Giannis in the RCL I own him in should be ashamed of themselves! Hah I keed, I appreciate the effort! But… Nah…
John Henson – 2/3/2/0/3 with no TO. BLOCKnof! And Greg Monroe is still an afterthought, getting 8 minutes. Monroe can go everywhere. That sentence made it sound like he exploded, but you get my gist! Loving my super low rank of Moose.
Jae Crowder – As I mentioned yesterday, he looked tentative on his ankle Saturday night, and apparently it flared up again yesterday. Damn, I wish he had just sat out another week… Very questionable for tomorrow, and I think he needs to just sit it out. Let some Thanksgiving food and a long nap heal that up!
Gorgui Dieng – Choo Choo!!!! 20/10/3/2/1 on 10-16 shooting. The 0-2 FT and 5 TO are out of character, but at least we saw a little scoring outburst.
Karl-Anthony Towns – Speaking of outbursts, KAT is a monster! 27/18/3/0/2 and a couple more treys. Deadspin stealing our graphics to talk about his 3-point shot! It’s all good Deadspin, we can still be friends, especially after they let Grey make Matthew Berry whining about us look pretty funny. At least the Berry interview went better than when we had Jose Canseco on the Podcast!
Jonathan Gibson – I know, I know, I pimped him kinda hard after his weekend breakout, and he only gets 16 minutes last night. That said, mmmmmmmm!
Only 7/1/2/1/0, but no TO. And while 16 minutes blows, Rick Carlisle subbed him in on offense for both of the final Mavs sets as they tried to upset the Spurs at home. Now, a big reason was to run point and have Seth come off screens since he was hot, but still, mad confidence in Gibson to play the pivotal plays in the last minute.
Seth Curry – As mentioned, was hot this game. 9-16 shooting, 5-10 from deep, for 23/2/4/1/0. Had 4 TO though, and I watched a good bit of this game, and he still just doesn’t look special to me. Didn’t make any plays like that Gibson drive above! Just the shots were falling, and when he was in iso, he was taking stepback jumpers and not creating any forward-separation. He was off a shoulder injury as well, and this game stayed surprisingly close, getting him to 36 minutes. All this said, I feel like I’m slamming his game due to #RELbias for Gibson. I said Curry was a must-add due to PG injuries and he proved that right. For now.
Wesley Matthews – 40 minutes. 40! 20/5/4/1/0 with 3 treys, nice to see, but 4 TO as he made some bad passes. When you have a non-playmaker (cough, Seth, cough) running point, it’s tough out there!
Salah Mejri – The big Salah Bar had extra bacon bits last night, going 8/11/1/4/1 in 32 minutes. Andrew Bogut sat with “old” and Dirk Nowitzki is still out. Mejri hasn’t done much this year, not much to see.
Pau Gasol – Ho hum 16/8/2/0/0 in a game without LaMarcus Aldridge. Only 28 minutes too. I think Pop saw this as an easy victory, but the Mavs looked like an NBA team! David Lee ended up getting 28 minutes as well, going 12/4/3/2/1. But it’s David Lee…. Moving on.
DeJounte Murray – With no Tony Parker, Murray got his first career start. Ease him into NBA experience with some awful Seth Curry defense, I like that idea!
4/2/4/0/0 with 4 TO in only 15 minutes is a pretty terrible debut though… Albeit, nice Paris Hilton-esque flash on that drive!
DeAndre Jordan/Chris Paul – Did their normal things, but the Yahoo box score had this picture up:
Is DJ breast-feeding CP3?!
Blake Griffin – Rewarding owners who nabbed him seeing a strong bounce back, going 26/7/7/1/1 with no TO last night, on 10-17 shooting. Too much for Pascal Siakam! 5 fouls in 13 minutes for poor Pascal…
DeMar DeRozan – ONLY 25 POINTS?! WHAT IS THIS?! Plus he added 7 dimes, what are you doing passing the ball, DeRozan?! Nice line of 25/4/7/1/0 on 11-21 shooting. Amazing year.
I hope everyone got off to a strong start in week 5; it’sThanksgiving week! Hopefully everyone is excited for a nice break from work, as Thanksgiving is pretty much my only Holiday where there’s no work OR NBA action! I don’t know what to do with myself, watch football?! Dumb!
