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Timing.  It’s a bitch.  Losing one of your bedrocks the weekend before the H2H playoffs is the injury gods spitting into our faces and hitting us across the jaw!  No joke, last night I had a dream that DeMarcus Cousins straight cold-cocked Salah Mejri in the face.  Must’ve lingered from a convo I had with Grey last week about how there’s no more NBA fights, and Mejri always seems to wanna mix it up.  Weird how spot on that dream could be!

Anywho, my trip out West certainly didn’t help my focus!  We got some awful news Saturday that LaMarcus Aldridge is going to be out indefinitely with minor heart arrhythmia.  He missed the final 9 games in his rookie year and 10 days in 2011 due to heart-related issues, so if the further testing done today is positive, maybe we could get him back by the semi-finals next week.  For teams scrapping their way in a do-or-die quarterfinals in the playoffs, unless you have an open INJ spot, Aldridge can probably go.  Get well soon, LA!  In the meantime, David Lee (12/6/2 – 18 mins) and Dewayne Dedmon (9/7/0/0/2 – 22 mins) should get a little added run, but those numbers quoted there were in that weird game Saturday night against the Dubs, with Kerr and Pop benching everyone.  I’m sure ABC was THRILLED when they heard GSW was DNPing everyone and the Spurs were going to be without Kawhi Leonard and LA!  I’m not huge on Lee, but I think he’s your biggest benefactor, and could help deeper leagues or be a streamer for those boring Pts/Reb cats.  Hopefully losing LA doesn’t make you a Ded Mon!  Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:

Terrence Ross After a strong start with the Magic, fizzling out a little lately.  But at least bounced back from no points on Friday to 11/4/1/1/0 Saturday.  That said, looking like an Orlando Streamer, not to be confused with a Cleveland Steamer.

Christian Wood Got some super junktime run of 14/5/0/2/1 Friday, but looked raw-as-sushi again Saturday for 4/5/0/0/0 with 2 TO.  The Hornets haven’t been able to keep any big men healthy, which is ironic, because Al Jefferson mighta been their most durable big if they kept him…

Marvin Williams – Speaking of big, look at Starvin’ Marvin!  More like Flyin’ Marvin!  Tore up Orlando with a 12/18/7/1/0 line, including this rude dunk.

Somebody is a rude Gus!  Then followed it up with a just-as-strong 27/10/3/1/1 line against the Pels Saturday.  3 straight dubdubs and 4 in the last 5, plus a few swats and treys in there.  Recapturing that 2015-16 magic!

Jonas Valanciunas After back-to-back 30 minute games – including 11/12/1/2/2 against the Hawks Friday – fell back down to only 21 minutes Saturday.  He still dubdubbed (10/10), barely, and no D stats.  Maybe a little blowout influenced as they lost by 15, but it’s still tough to see consistent Luminescence from this Lithuanian.

Bradley Beal Monster Beal!  That would be Jessica Biel’s name if she starred in The Fly‘s reboot…  I’d watch that movie!  Big commentary on women idolization in Hollywood.  Shit, I need to get on this script!  Anyway, 38/10/4/1/1 then 26/1/6/1/0 lines.  This was one of the first years I really liked Beal, and would ya look at that!  Here’s me in the ranks: “I actually might have some Beal shares this year, with some confidence in that the Wizards have faith his leg injury issues are behind him – hell, it’s THEIR medical staff that know him better than anyone!  So if they had doubts, I suspect they wouldn’t have dropped all dat ca$h.”  And that’s me quoting me!

John Wall The Wiz backcourt is kinda unreal right now.  25/4/12/2/0 then blew up for 39/2/9/0/1 in that grinding win in OT at Portland.

Willie Cauley-Stein Pretty nice bounceback for WCS, who was a guy I thought would be better after the Boogie trade mess.  It’s really just minutes though – 42 then 35 minutes on Friday and Saturday, for 20/13/3/1/0 and 13/5/5.  Crazy 13-16 FT too.  Hopefully Joerger can stop being a cheeseburger!  Wait, is that even derogatory?!

Buddy Hield Same analysis for Hield – just needs some run to score a little!  18/5/1 then 17/6/3 over the weekend in 37 then 30 minutes.  Better not keep shuffling it up, cheeseburger!

Utah’s 2nd Unit – Tried to will their way back into a blowout at the hands of OKC, as the starters were getting murdered!  Dante Exum lead the charge with a +15 in the 8-point loss, going 22/1/1 outta nowhere, with Alec Burks going 21/7/2.  Not exactly what you wanted to see as a George Hill owner – the second unit outplaying an oft-injured guy for a playoff team… Gus Ayonin’!

Richaun Holmes Showin’ he can score some buckets, Holmes!  24/9/0/0/0 – not sure where the D stats went – but a great Saturday evening putting the ball in the hoop.  “The game has always been about buckets”, Bill Russell said!  It’s because his fantasy league is points-only…  Anywho, hopefully he kept it going last night, but twas past my bedtime.

Kristaps Porzingis Can’t stop the Blocking Goose!  Makes it sound like he’s a fullback or something…  MOOOOOOSE!  Wait, that was someone else…  18/6/4/0/6 then 19/10/4/0/5 over the weekend.  3 straight with 3 blocks!  3 Fast, 3 Furious!

Brook Lopez Shutdown fears still linger, but had 6 treys and the Mess beat the Poppycockers for the Battle of New York!  New Yorkers should be ashamed of themselves for their basketball representation in the association…

Nikola Vucevic Well, apparently that Achilles is OK, as Vuc tore up the Cavs inside for 20/16/0/0/1.  I mean, the Magic still lost, so maybe “tore up” is hyperbole… I would never do that on the world’s best blog!

Anthony Davis Well, apparently that wrist is OK!  Destroyed the Hornets with a 46/21/3/0/1 line with no TO and 4 treys.  With the Pels twin towers, did that mean Marvin Williams was guarding Brow?!  OK, this line makes perfect sense now…

Jordan Crawford – 19/1/6 in that Hornets game, vaulting him into the world’s hottest pickup.  Meh, 26 then 27 minutes these last two seem a little high, plus Brow got hurt two games ago and only played 17 mins, then DeMarcus Cousins only played 25 minutes in an OT-win on Saturday.  The run feels a little inflated.  Once the twin towers get their 40 minutes played together, Crawford will fizzle.

Nemanja Bjelica B-a-pizza not playing 30-minutes-or-less!  34 then 32 minutes over the weekend, on 10/12/2 then 8/5/3/0/1 lines.  Deep leagues need to be sure he’s owned, and keep him on your radar for streaming.  That ThrAGNOF/rebounding combo isn’t always the easiest to stream, just ask Nikola Mirotic right now…

Matthew Dellavedova – Finally, we can dispense with the PG controversy for a few games, right?!  RIGHT?!  Malcolm Brogdon has a bum back – still doesn’t have a timetable – so big 30+ minute games for Delly, right?!  RIGHT?!  24 minutes of 8/0/3/0/0 then 28 minutes of 16/1/2/0/0 over the weekend.  F you, Kidd.

Thon Maker – Geez, what is the point of starting poor Thon, then pulling him right away?!  It’s like they want him only for the tipoff – hopefully a dunk – then you’re out!

At least Thon made his one FGM the past 2 starts count!  5 minutes in each of his last 2 starts, it’s just so lame. I really hate Kidd.

John Henson – Suddenly making cameos again!  8/7/0/1/4 in 21 minutes Friday then 11/6/0/0/2 Saturday in 19 minutes.  No way you can trust him, and of course when you finally BLOCKnof stream him, he’ll get another DNP…  Kidd is the WORST!

Tony Snell – Hmmm, well 4 straight games of at least 10+ Pts, 1 trey and 1 steal.  Average over this brief span is 15.0/5.3/1.5/1.8/0.0 with 3.0 treys and only 1.0 TO.  Plus a nice dime there above to Thon!  Still in the ThrAGNOF bucket, but 3-n-d streamers could do worse.  Especially since he’s one of the few Bucks immune to Kidd’s PMSing at his players.

Ian Clark – Blew up as the scoring leader for the Golden State B Unit.  B, B, B, B Unit!!!  36/5/0/1/0 on 15-21 shooting in that loss to the Spurs against their own B Unit.  What a travesty of a Saturday night primetime matchup…

Devin Booker Book it!

36/5/2/0/0, in a Saturday line not too dissimilar than that from Ian Clark.  Gus Ayonin’!  10-10 FT and only 1 TO was really nice though, and of course, having ice in your veins…

Dirk Nowitzki – I think he scored the first 11 Pts in that game against the Suns, but then disappeared…  23/11/2 is still a nice line, but damn, sucks to get old…  I’m never going to grow old, me n the man upstairs have a deal!

Nerlens Noel Has missed the last 2 with knee soreness, getting the baby giraffe Mejri more minutes.  Enough to get into a JB dream fight with Boogie!  Ewwwww, wait, that sounded weird…

Taurean Prince Got some added run thanks to junk time for 17/3/2/2/1 on Saturday.  He didn’t score more than 3 points in any of his other 6 games in March.  Would need to see an extended stretch to buy in for much, and there ain’t much of a stretch left.

JaMychal Green Got his second 20/10 game in his last 4.  Which is really weird, since sandwiched between he was a combined 12/14 in two games.  Over the last 4, he has 0 AST, 0 STL, 1 BLK and 5 TO.  He’s become a poor-man’s Zach Randolph!

Jusuf Nurkic We haven’t done a daily notes since Wednesday night’s games, so wanted to remind everyone that THE JAMBA JUS IS GOOD!  We all told you!  It just took him getting off the talent-blind Nuggets for it to work.  As Slim reminded me last week, he told commenters “Sure, you can drop Nurk, but you’ll regret it.”  Meh, was def tough to hold a goose egg for months though…  28/20/8/2/6 in a historic-level game against the Sixers Thursday, but only 7/7/2/1/3 against the Wiz Saturday with 5 fouls.  Nurk gotta stop hacking, isn’t that right, Assange!  Hopefully he got less than 5 fouls last night…

Josh Richardson Got the start yesterday afternoon, and played a redonk 37 minutes!  A kinda meh 9/8/0/3/1 line given the run, but nice to see.  He only started because Goran Dragic was out with a swollen eye, so as long as the boxing trainer rubs that ice shaker on it, he’ll be OK.

 

I hope everyone had the strong weekend they needed to move into the fantasy playoffs!  Looking forward to the postseason, and for you roto-leaguers, the stretch run.  Drop by in the comments and let me know how things are looking for your title contenders!