Well, I can’t say I haven’t been steadfast (double negative police!) about my Dwight Howard hatred… Look at that rock bottom red right there!
And with Dwight coming back from his knee injury and the precursing news of his return, I have said I wouldn’t add him in virtually any 10 or 12ers. I don’t trust the minutes, and after giving Slim a 19 minutes over/under for Dwight’s return on the Pod, he only went for 16:27 putting up 4/7/2/0/1 with a TO. At least he stayed off the FT line! After we had started the Pod, McHale said he was only giving Dwight 16 minutes, just enough to be sure his TO and FT% wouldn’t hurt fantasy teams. I may have been liberal with McHale’s quote for that last part… In 8-cat or non-FT% leagues I guess he probably should be scooped up, but he’ll probably sit back-to-backs and the Rockets have a pair left on the schedule with Sun/Mon and Wed/Thurs games this upcoming week. Get your sales ready, Big & Tall, we got a bigun needing more street clothes! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:
Austin Rivers – “It’s a blowout daddy, let me play!” 21/0/3/2/0 hitting 9-10 FG (1-1 3PTM 2-2 FT). Team-high scoring! What a disgrace, those Poppycockers…
Alexey Shved – Well, there goes that. Pour a glass of vodka out for Shved and one for your homies. Turns out the rib injury is a fracture and he’ll be re-evaluated in 2-3 weeks. No chance he’s back.
Langston Galloway – Gives me a tad more confidence for The Harlem Renaissance, but struggled to do much of anything last night for 11/2/3 hitting 5-13 with 3 TO. Really surprising he briefly left this game with a hand injury, yet still got to 40 minutes. Langston and Fisher, sitting in a tree!
Elfrid Payton – Whoa, look at Elfrid putting the most Magic shots on the Shelfrid! Although that sounds like some sort of bartending lingo… 19/9/7/1/0, but with that ugly 5 TO. Shot 7-19 which isn’t awful, and made 5-7 from the FT line which is like a revelation! If only the Magic didn’t have two games this week…
George Hill – Goin’ ham time! Hit the game-winner in a preposterous 29/7/9/1/1 line hitting 12-24 FG and 5-5 FT. His post-ASB is 16.4/4.1/5.2/1.2/0.3 with 1.4 treys, and even his season-long stats with all those easing-in games is a career year. Too bad it’s going to be hard to believe in with Paul George back in the fold in 15-16.
Roy Hibbert – Oh mercy me! 0-6 FG in 17 horrific minutes of 0/5/2/0/0. Mmmm, more rock bottom red!
John Wall – Man, the PG matchup vs. Hill was crazy in this one! Advantage Hill for the W, but advantage Wall on the line for 34/4/6/2/1 with a couple of treys.
Bradley Beal – Wall had to pick up the slack, as Beal suffered a kankle after playing only 11 minutes and was in a lot of pain. It’s that same leg as all those stress issues he’s had the past few years, so this is no bueno. Almost certainly will miss a few.
Jimmy Butler – Buckets back to being the primo Bucket! 23/5/3 on 7-8 FG (2-3 3PTM 7-9 FT). Mmmmmm, efficiency. Apparently I’m hungry during these daily notes!
Tony Snell – Hot low-end ThrAGNOF! 17/1/2 in only 18 minutes hitting 7-9 from the field. But nothing to count on.
Nikola Mirotic – No Minutes Mirotic fighting off the nickname! Got 28 minutes to Taj Gibson‘s 14 in a full lineup of Bulls bigs. Miro wasn’t huge for 15/2/2/1/0 and it helped Miro’s run that the Raptors do a lot of stretch 4 with Patrick Patterson. Proceeding cautiously.
Greivis Vasquez – The Twerp filling in for some ThrAGNOFfin’! 22/2/3/1/0 on 7-15 FG with 6-11 being treys. Was really hoping for some more dimes! Eh, well, if you used him with Kyle Lowry out you are feeling pretty good. Lowry said he won’t rush back this time, so certainly holding General Greivis for a few more battles.
Deron Williams – Rant alert! Always nice to see D-Will suddenly nearing tripdubs every night the first two games this week… My REL team is cursed! 10/7/14, even though he only shot 2-9 from the field. I’m more surprised his glass kankles have stayed together this long…
Thaddeus Young – Suffered a hyperextended knee last night and is likely heading towards an MRI. I’d be pretty surprised if he didn’t miss a single game, but staying tuned.
Mo Williams – In the battle of the Williamses (Williams’s? Williamsi?), advantage D-Will but Mo-Will shot poopy as well for 2-10 for 9/4/6 with 4 TO. Man the Hornets are bad…
Al Jefferson – Credit the big fellah for guttin’ it through the injuries! Had his knee drained (DRAINAGE!) and put up a 23/10/2/0/2 line in a whopping 35 minutes. Playoff push means no rest for the wicked! But letting Brook Lopez put up 34/10?! Especially giving up the 10 rebounds?! That’s wicked!
Dwyane Wade – Sat last night with his knee swelling a bit, but the Heat still crushed the Celtics without Hassan Whiteside or Chris Andersen as well (only won by 7, but had a 11-24 4th quarter deficit). Udonis Haslem, savior of Miami!
Jae Crowder – The Boston Clam Crowder is serving up some consistent chowdah right now! 16/7/0/0/1 and was the only Celtic to show up last night. He’s had a nice low-end run. Unlike the triumphant return of…
Isaiah Thomas – …IT2/3 who put up more like 1/100 of a stat line. 4/0/0/0/0 with 3 TO on 2-7 FG (0-3 3PTM 0-3 FT). That’s more like a Rajon Rondo line!
Patrick Beverley – Ugh, has a torn ligament in his wrist, and will be re-evaluated in 7-10 days. Sounds like they’ll hope he can play through it in the playoffs then get some off-season surgery. Droppable in all redrafts, even though 10 and 12ers probably jumped that shark a while ago.
Donatas Motiejunas – No worry of a dropoff here! Well, I’d imagine Dwight works it up to a few more minutes, but a great 21/8/1/2/1 line from D-Mo shooting 10-16 with a trey. Remember when they promised Josh Smith a starting job when they signed him? Bleeding cash!
Anthony Davis – Briefly left after dinging his shoulder again, but thankfully returned for another epic 24/14/1/3/3 line with no TO. That said, a really atypical 6-14 FT. Now I don’t know how many of those FT were before/after hurting the shoulder, but it does have me a little concerned. As does the fact the Pels lost again and a shut down could be looming as their playoffs hopes seem lost.
Chase Budinger – So last night the Wolves broadcast showed all of the hurt guys in street clothes, and Nikola Pekovic was a row behind them! They can’t even fit them all on the bench together! And with all that collateral damage, Buddy the Elf got 40 minutes for 22/6/1/1/1. Rant alert! He should be on my REL team, except a stupid waiver priority! Instead he goes to my opp! Ahhhhh! Although getting Lorenzo Brown as a consolation and his 2 usable games for a 20-teamer I guess is OK…
Robert Covington – Unleash the RobCov! Brett Brown must’ve realized the Sixers had TOO MUCH of a lead to tank it, so let Lord Covington keep stroking the J for 25/6/0/2/1 on 8-17 FG (6-11 3PTM 3-3 FT) all with no TO. Damn, and he came off the bench for poor J-Rich! Eh, Jason Richardson ain’t that poor… Still going to be hard to trust Covington movington forward. He helps them win too much!
Nerlens Noel – Whoa, Captain N on a rampage! 14/15/2/4/4, only 2 dimes off from a double rainbow. His post-ASB numbers are preposteroni – a Philadelphia treat! 13.0/9.8/1.7/2.3/2.7 shooting 49% from the field and getting that FT% up to 69% on 3.1-4.5. Huge step forward.
Jusuf Nurkic – After that bad kankle sprain, a huge step back. Only 7 minutes off the bench and was awful. Hey, at least it’ll lower his value next year for more sleeper picks!
I hate fantasy basketball – Yes, that’s the name of this blurb! So I recommend Dorell Wright as a stream when he starts and he lays a turdmuffin Tuesday, yet last night went 15/5/2/1/0 with 3 treys and Tuesday’s outburst from C.J. McCollum turns into only 7/4/0/1/0 with 2 TO! And this was even with LaMarcus Aldridge returning to fill up those F minutes! I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!
Rudy Gobert – Finally hit a wall against the juggernaut that is… Robin Lopez? I HATE FANTASY BASKETBALL! Makes no sense… Eh well, Rolo is still terrible in fantasy so at least that universal constant will keep me sane.
Tony Parker – No one was missing! The Spurs just dismantled the Thunder 130-91 with Parker’s team high 21 Pts in a 21/6/6/3/0 line with no TO on 10-14 (1-1 3PTM) shooting. Spurs shot 58% from the field and 61.9% from deep! Can’t rest any of these guys right now Pop, they too hot! Can’t stop til you Pop! Or Pop and you can’t stop? I dunno, some Pringles ad slogan!
Russell Westbrook – His first bad game since, I dunno, 2010. 16/4/7/2/0 with 4 TO on 5-16 shooting. Still isn’t that bad, but man, rough timing during the H2H playoffs! Instead it’s D-Will getting tripdubs every night… Sheesh.
Steven Adams – Well it wasn’t foul trouble, but the bad game indeed cometh right as I prophesized! I think I made some words up there… He did land hard on his elbow it looked like at one point, but regardless stayed in at the time only going 4/4/0/1/0 in 21:30. Blowout benching!
Brandon Knight – Seemed like he was oh so close to playing, but couldn’t get the kankle loose. Hopefully you had him benched.
Marcus Morris – And hopefully you kept in other-Morris for a nice 19/3/0/1/0 game with 3 treys! Man, the Morris twins combine for 43 and the Suns lose by 9 to the dreadful Kings?! Hey, P.J. Tucker, after going 0-5 from deep, what made you think the 6th was gonna go in?!
Streamers/Cheap Daily League Picks:
Zaza Pachulia (38% owned) – No Daily tonight, I’m sure! I’m breaking my rule since I consider Zaza a hold more than a streamer, but with only one game it’s Slim Pickens. Should be solid against the Pacers.
C.J. Miles (23% owned) – Time to do some 1-game slate ThrAGNOFfin! Had a really cold one (not a beer) two games ago, but bounced back last night for 16 Pts and 3 treys. Should be in that realm again tonight.
I hope everyone’s semi-finals are turning into blowout wins, and we’ll catch you for a short daily notes tomorrow!
