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You wanna know who could use some Suns is the East Coast over here!  Let’s hope this weather doesn’t cost us some reschedules tonight!

Sure, sure, sure, the Suns are a mess mainly due to injuries, and of course got slaughtered by the Spurs last night.  Nothing surprising there.  But the Suns still deserve some slappage in a wake-up call – Brandon Knight (out last night with a groin strain) and Eric Bledsoe had rumors they didn’t like playing alongside one another, Tyson Chandler got an awful contract based on his returns thus far and Alex Len is a capable starter, and of course the whole Markieff Morris thing.  Marcus Morris might be the best player on this team right now!  As they continue to implode into a black hole (science metaphor!), it will create more and more opportunities for youth.  Devin Booker has been a lot better than I thought as a starting 2, going 24/1/5 with 2 treys and 6-7 shooting last night.  Archie Goodwin, a guy I loved going into his rookie year, had a full 20/3/2/1/1 line.  And you can’t really keep a guy in the doghouse when you have 6 injured players, so T.J. Warren was back in the fold for 18 Pts.  On top of investing in their youth ROS, the Suns have become the Sixers of the West for opposing rotations – no Spur regular played over 22:12 and Pop sat a lot of his guys…  And they still won by 28!  So keep an eye on the Suns if you’re streaming – play some of the key reserves against them and maybe on full schedule nights, you bench your backend starters as they are likely to get less run.  Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Brandon Jennings – Because of course the 23-19 Pistons would be blown out by the, I dunno, 2-190930390 Pelicans and give BJ some extra garbage-time run for 20/1/5.  All happened because I go against him in the REL as injuries start crippling me.  Wahhhhhh, I feel like Jarrett Jack!

Andre Drummond Near Goromotaro going 19/22/1/4/0, and only missed 2 FT this time!  3-5!!!!  What does he win, Bob?!

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope With Reggie Jackson struggling last night, KCP was clearly the #1 offensive option.  While being the #1 defender…  God I love KCP (as I’m typing this I’m brushing my teeth with my finger).

Norris Cole – Wow, better than I thought…  Moved into the starting 5 with the Eric Gordon injury (broken/surgically repaired finger), and Cole put up 12/8/7/0/0 on the flat top.  No treys either.  While I could see the Cole clamor, Jrue Holiday played only 22:29, his lowest run since December 23.  Didn’t need Jrue in the blowout!  Not going crazy for Cole yet.

Tyreke Evans – 22/4/10/2/0 with a couple of treys and a %-boosting 8-14 FG and 4-4 FT.  There’s been a lot of speculation around a shutdown and Gentry said he didn’t want Evans playing through injuries, but I think you hope for a few more shimmering lines like this and let those news stories blow over before selling high.

Anthony Davis Brow continues to kill it, until he kills you with an injury.  32/7/2/1/2 and you’re just rolling with the good times as best you can!  Hoping this doesn’t end up like The Wolf of Wall St.  Getting so used to an excess of stats that when it comes crumbling down you come short of an Oscar!  Leo’s getting it this year though!

Chris Paul Dammit Matty!  Nice call on the 30-pt challenge as CP30 went for 30/3/9/3/0.  The rest of the Clippers were so friggin’ boring.  No one had over 1 steal or 1 block, J.J. Redick was your next highest scorer with a hugggggggge 17/2/0/0/0 line, and DeAndre Jordan went 10/13 with no blocks and your typical 6-15 FT.  I woulda rather watched the Lakers last night!

LeBron James – Whoa, for the love of A:TO!  22/5/12 with nary a TO.  Nary a steal or block either, but the first time without multi-TO since Jan 2 where he also kept a clean sheet.  Cavs fans don’t have clean sheets right now, the way this team is playing!

Kevin Love 18/16 with 3 treys, although had 5 TO.  LeBron owners are like, ” yes, take the TO from LeBron, you can have em!”

J.R. Smith – 8-12 shooting including 6-7 treys.  Nice to see him break out of his mini-slump there.  Guy who is a little up and down, low TO, and hits threes…?  ThrAGNOF!

Marc Gasol Is a spicy salsa out there lately!  27/4/6/1/3, including 3 Pts the old fashioned way to put the Grizz up with 12 second left in a 1-point win.  Both the Gasol brothers are absolutely killing it right now.  They both were great as younguns, but continue to mature with age, like a nice Spanish Tempranillo wine.  I had to Google that, I don’t know shit about wine!  Crown & Coke me, but hold the Coke!

Mike Conley Wow, back to back games with no TO.  And it’s actually 3 straight, with a little sore Achilles break for a few weeks in there…  20/3/2/1/0, nice to see 8-10 FT, but the STL remain low and he only played 27 minutes.  Still worried about the tread on his tires.

Matt Barnes – Didn’t hit his shot (3-10 FG 1-7 3PTM), but nice to see the multi-cat we had grown accustomed to, going 7/7/5/3/1 and playing 36 minutes.  He probably needs to get scooped back up in 10 or 12 team fantasy leagues, unless you’re in Derek Fisher’s friends & family league.  I could see passing there.

Nikola Jokic Ya know, I’m about to make the Nuggets my punching bag instead of the Pelicans.  I only watched a few minutes of this game, and look at these two highlights!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnpmQvH4OOc#t=1m08s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnpmQvH4OOc#t=1m52s

Ain’t no Jokic, amiright Mr. Green Beans!?  And how does Mike Malone reward him for those highlight-reel plays?!  Gives him only 14 minutes of PT…  THERE’S THE MOTHER F JOKIC!  9/2/2/2/0, 5-5 FT, no TO, and gets out-minutesed by Joffrey Lauvergne, who fouled out in 28 minutes.  Man, I really like the glimpses I’ve seen of Jokic, but I love Jusuf Nurkic more and while Slim thinks they can play PF & C ala a twin towers next to each other, I dunno if Jokic can play against a lot of 4s.  But talent will win opportunities, so Mr. Green Beans, look out for some REL Jokic offers coming your way!  (at least I’m honest with my intentions!)

Emmanuel Mudiay – 33 minutes, and really the most important stat is only 1 TO.  14/3/8/0/0, hits two treys, but man he has to figure out the stripe.  0-2 FT.  At least there’s reasons to be excited for his future.

Paul Millsap Multi-cat deity!  Although the biggest Jokic of last night might be the Hawks lowing to the Kings…  Anyway, wasn’t Trillsap’s fault, going 14/14/3/5/4.  Gimme one more dime for the double rainbow!  5 TO does give a little skidmark on the otherwise awesome speedo though…

Jeff Teague – Wow.  WOOOOOWWWWWW.  Benched down the stretch, and didn’t even get to 20 minutes.  4/2/4/1/1 with 3 TO, shooting 2-8.  Instead it was a heavy dose of the German, with Dennis Schroder going 12/3/4/1/0, but all-in-all wasn’t much better with 6 TO on 5-12 shooting.  Yikes, 8:9 AST:TO ratio from your main PG minutes.  Rough night.

DeMarcus Cousins – Lights up every category, even ones you don’t want him to!  24/15/5/3/2, but 6 TO and had 6 shots blocked.  Can’t stop the Trillsap defense!

Rajon Rondo Uggghhhhh, it’s just a thing now that Rondo is good again, I must accept.  First step is acceptance and I guess the second step is…  be sure you’re punting some stats?  Tripdubbed for 11/10/11, but 6 TO and on 5-16 shooting.  Sheesh, was he trying to prove to Coach Butthole that there actually ARE worse shooting PG in the league than his sad two guys last night?!  How about you pass up a few more of those shots, Rajon!  You’re not Raj-on you’re Raj-off!

Willie Cauley-Stein Dubdubbed with some nice run as a starter going 12/11/0/2/0.  5-8 FG and made both his freebies.  He’s creeping on ownability in 12ers again with the run and ability for out-of-position steals.

Boban Marjanovic Everyone’s favorite Orc Orcked out on the Suns last night!  17/13/0/1/0, and he’s great against second units with his 7’3 300 pounds out there!  Hit 6-10 FG and 5-6 FT.  And even though he’s like a 12 year-old playing against the U6 kids at the Y due to some egregious clerical error, he’s not afraid to stare you down after a dunk!

Tyson Chandler – I ragged on him a little in the open there, but did get 20 REB.  Hey, when everyone else is hurt, the ball has to land to someone

 

I hope everyone in the Northeast and Middle East are braced for this storm today!  Stay warm, hopefully you’re working from home, and start pre-gaming for a big night of NBA action!  Lordy my REL team is getting murdered, damn your gigantic hips Hassan Whiteside!  Have a great weekend Razzball Nation, and catch you on Monday!