Outside the NBA Lockout disappearing 16 games and the remaining 66 games being stacked on top of one another as efficiently as a Hell’s Kitchen slum, Ricky Rubio‘s injury strikes me as the saddest turn of the season. Just as the Thunder went from terrible to terrific in three seasons, it appears the same thing is happening in Minnesota. The Spaniard’s torn ACL stunts all that. I was also hoping some of the media would return its fickle eye to Rubio now that the insanity surrounding Jeremy Lin (I refuse to use the pun) is dying down. Is it dying down? Isn’t it? In a way Lin has overshadowed rookies like Kyrie Irving and Rubio as much as Rubio has overshadowed Luke Ridnour. I’m not going to convince you that Ridnour is going to pull your fantasy team out of the dregs, but he’s easily the biggest add from the weekend and at 13/3/5 per game it needed to be said. RIP Rubio 2012. PICK Ridnour 2012. Below are less depressing fantasy blurbs from Sunday.
Jrue Holiday – Fantasy ‘perts spent the weekend claiming Holiday owners should be weary of Evan Turner‘s emergence (.491 FG%, 17 pts/12 rbd/3.5 ast as a starter), but I don’t see it. Holiday has been up and down all season. Iggy might see a decline in rebounds, but hasn’t, Holiday might see a decline in dimes, but hasn’t. Or maybe Turner playing this good means the Sixers being a better overall team is the new norm. Also, the new Norm? Steve.
Spencer Hawes – Scheduled to return on a strict minutes limit as early as Wednesday. Luckily, he’ll only have to average five minutes in order to equal Nikola Vucevic‘s output.
J.R. Smith – After starting in the previous game, playing 18 minutes and scoring just a weak trio of points, Earl Jr. returned to the bench, played 23 minutes and dropped a dozen. The J.R. must stand for “justa reserve.”
Jeremy Lin – Attempted 18 shots yesterday, but only sank five of ’em. He hasn’t attempted 18 shots in nine games, but before yesterday, he had made at least six shots in all but one of them. If you’re in a league that counts neither turnovers nor percentages, he’s worth more than Steve Nash. If you do count those things, he’s as valuable as Jeremy Lin.
Tyson Chandler – Returned after a two-game furlough to once again do Tyson Chandler-y things (8/12, with a steal and a block).
Brandon Bass – Reports all claim that Bass has a pain near his ankle. Considering he went 15/8 with a handful of other fun goodies, I’m assuming “near” is a relative term and he was referring to Chris Wilcox.
Chris Wilcox – Out indefinitely with a heart condition. For now, let’s hope the heart boo-boo stems only from hurt feelings from Bass calling him a pain.
Paul George – 22/8, with 3 steals, all Pacer-highs yesterday. He ha a good day is what I’m trying to tell you.
Roy Hibbert – The taller half of Indy’s Bumpus Hounds was on the court for 29 minutes and what he did besides grabbing two boards and blocking the ball twice is beyond me.
David West – 2/3, Ditto. Reading these last two lines, one would assume Howard grabbed 40 boards. He didn’t. One has been warned about assuming thing. He won’t do it again.
Darren Collison – 8/1/4, and has played like lemon-lime shizzert in the last week. The fun part will be watching Coach Vogel promote George Hill (when he’s healthy) to the starting lineup every couple of weeks just to demote him again. I’m making popcorn for it.
J.J. Redick – 18/3/9, with 3 threes. Relatively Redickulous. Jason Richardson missed yesterday’s game and is likely going to miss the next one and maybe the one after that. And about that last pun, just be thanksful I didn’t go with “J.J.’s jays.”
Ersan Ilyasova – 31/12, 2 steals and 3 threes. I spent most of my weekend drafting a proposal for everyone to start calling Ersan “Ernie.” But then, any guy who performs like this deserves to be called by whatever unfamiliar name he was born with.
Goran Dragic – 20/1/8, with 4 threes in place of Kyle Lowry who’s infected by bacteria. This is what happens when you put your mouth on the drinking fountain. He’ll be out 2-4 weeks and Dragic will keep doing what Dragic do when no one is around to stop him from doing it.
Chase Budinger – 16/4/3, in 30 minutes. He also shot .600 from the floor. Welcome to “Hey Chase Budinger Is Available In My League, I Should Pick Him Up For A Week, Part 4.” It’s supposed to be better than part 3, but nowhere near as good as the original.
Kevin Martin – 4-of-18 in his last three games. I’d say more about this, but I don’t want any of the vomit spilling out of my mouth.
Marc Gasol – 7/4, with a steal and a block. I take back everything nice I ever said about Gas Holes (I’ve never said anything nice about Gas Holes).
Mike Conley – Averaged 7 points over his last three, but went back to not disappointing fantasy owners last night (13 points). That’s more likely. Conley is in the business of pleasantly surprising fantasy owners. He’s not supposed to disappoint. Also bagels aren’t supposed to have nuts on them. Otherwise, what purpose do muffins serve? But I digress.
Ty Lawson – “I may not have scored, rebounded or assisted as much as Andre Miller, but I turned the ball over six times, just like he did!” Yes. Yes, you did, Ty Lawson.
Jason Thompson – Was moved to the bench Friday because Donte Greene matched up a little better. Then he was re-entered into the starting lineup on Sunday, where he went 4/3 in 18 minutes and we all realize once again that the best matchup for Thompson is his butt coupled with the bench.
Klay Thompson – Averaging at least two threes in each of his last six games. Missed out on Steve Novak? Klay Thompson. As you were.
Stephen Curry – Left Saturday with an ankle injury. Returned Sunday only to stick in there fewer than 10 minutes (0/3/1, 0-for-3 from the field). The question has stopped being, “Is Curry playing tonight?” and turned into “How many minutes did Curry play last tonight?”
