Jared Sullinger was wicked sick Friday night as he scored a season high 14 points adding 11 rebounds and shooting 7 for 8 from the field before fouling out. Sully’s been feeling the luck of the Irish lately as Friday’s game was his third straight game in double digits and his second game in a row with a double-double. With Jared’s outstanding play, its no surprise the Celtics have now won five games in a row. In fact, over the past five games, the rookie is averaging a double-double with 10.2 rebounds and 10.2 points a game, and adding 7 total assists and 4 blocks in that span. The Celtics are in desperate need of a big man’s presence down low to help ol’ man Kevin Garnett, and with Brandon Bass (4 pts, 3 rebs in 27 minutes) currently playing like a shell of what he was last season Jared should see plenty of time off the bench. Coach Doc Rivers is not known for playing youngsters so the major minutes Sullinger has been getting are certainly encouraging as well. Just ask a local Bostonian what he thinks, “OWAH ROOKIES AHRE BIGGAH AND STRONGAH AND FASTAH THAN YOURAH ROOKIES! GO SAWX!” My thoughts, exactly, and at just under 20% owned in most leagues, Sully could be worth grabbing if you need rebounds. The Celtics have been benefiting from his recent surge and so should your fantasy team. Pick him up if you’re feeling lucky.
Here’s what else happened Friday night in fantasy basketball:
Reggie Evans – 7 pts, 15 rebounds. Ten offensive rebounds! Chill Redge, you’re gonna make Brook Lopez look bad! He is averaging 12 rebounds a game over the past 8 games, but he won’t help much elsewhere, his percentages might hurt you though.
Andray Blatche – 15 pts, 8 rebs. Blatche was in this weeks BUY. His double-double streak ended Friday night but I’m still buying! Maybe you should, too…? Not if I do first!
Amir Johnson – 12 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk. Nice bounce back game after the double dribbling debacle. Amir claims he wasn’t clear on the rule, but now that he is he can move forward, just not after he stops dribbling.
Kyle Lowry – 9 pts, 6 ast, 2 reb. Call me crazy but I think K-Low has too much talent to continue to be coming off the bench. Consider this your opportunity to buy low. Or buy lowry.
Greivis Vasquez – 18 pts, 4 reb, 13 ast. Yep, this game sealed it. Greivis is now officially my favorite Venezuelan NBA player. I’m sorry, Oscar Torres, I will never forget you.
Jason Smith – 14 pts, 5 reb, 7-8 FG. Now has double-digit scoring efforts in 4 of the past 5 games with a 17 pts, 10 reb, 3 blk gem on Wednesday night. Wait. Some white guy is taking all of Anthony Davis’ minutes and his name is not Ryan Anderson?
Andrei Kirilenko – 17 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast. AK-47 has been outstanding this season and with Kevin Love sidelined he’s someone I’d consider buying. And unlike the other AK, buying and trading for Andrei won’t require a permit or a background check.
Devin Harris – 24 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl in 35 minutes. The Wisconsin Badgers called, they want their All-Star back. Seriously, this came out of nowhere. It was his second game back from injury, and with Jeff Teague (7 pts, 4 ast) and Lou Williams (13 pts, 3 ast) getting all the shine, this might have been Devin’s only moment in the sun. Hopefully I’m wrong and this time next week Harris will be owned EVERYWHERE.
Randy Foye – 25 pts, 6 3pm. SIX THREES! DAAAYUM!
Jamaal Tinsley – 4 pts, 9 ast, 4 to. Tinsley is a nice fantasy option if you need assists and you hate yourself.
Jared Dudley – 18 pts, 4 ast, 5 reb. After a dudley of a game versus Boston on Wednesday, Jared bounced back and hit all four of his 3-point attempts last night like a studley.
Carmelo Anthony – 39 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk. After the game, Anthony waited patiently outside the locker room for Luol Deng (33 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast). When Deng exited, he asked Luol for his number and they gabbed it up like school girls on the phone later that night until dawn.
J.R. Smith – 11 pts, 4-17 FG. Smith was New York’s second highest scorer behind Melo’s 39 last night. Still trying to figure out how the Knicks lost this one.
Andre Drummond– 8 pts, 11 rebounds, 4 blk. If you own him for rebounds and blocks then hey, you’re pretty happy right now. Just keep away from the free throw line, Drums.
Tim Duncan – 13 pts, 15 rebounds, 4 ast, 3 blk. Old reliable.
Manu Ginobili – 14 pts, 6 rebounds, 5 ast, 1 stl. Played 36 minutes off the bench, and filled up the stat sheet. Yeah, he’s still got it. Monsieur Tony Parker added 30 points and 5 asts as the Spurs trio was fantasy gold last night. Somewhere David Stern is smiling.
Zach Randolph – 18 pts, 10 rebs. New reliable.
Kyrie Irving – 28 pts, 7 ast, 3 reb, 5 stl. Kyrie was battling illness all day. Will he play? I don’t think so. Maybe? Probably not. But wait, it’s possible. No, no actually, we don’t know. Yeah, he’s gonna play AND he’s gonna drop 28 points, 7 assists and 5 steals! You’ve been kyrie’d!
Tristan Thompson – 16 pts, 7 reb. Tristan is still only owned in just over 50% of yahoo leagues and that is criminal. He’s practically averaging a double-double (9.7 ppg, 9.1 rpg) and the news that Anderson Varejao won’t be returning soon only ups his value. Somehow he is owned in over 95% of ESPN leagues, and I’m pretty sure they’ve all abandoned those teams months ago, so yahoo-ers get on it.
Tyler Zeller – 2 pts, 8 rebs, 2 stl, 3 blk. TyZell is another player who should benefit in Varejao’s absence. He’s been wildly inconsistent but is worth a look in deeper leagues due to all the minutes he’ll be playing.
Kosta Koufos – 21 pts, 6 reb. Denver’s Big Fat Greek starting center. The hot shot forward, Kenny Faried (17 pts, 11 rebs) may get all the rebounds, but his name is nowhere near as fun to say.
Damian Lillard – 37 points. 6 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl (7-12 3pm). Just when I thought I was out you puuuuull me back in. Lillard returned to his hometown of Oaktown Friday night and had much of his family and friends on hand to watch him dismantle the Warriors. Yep, he is good at basketball. #roy #theomen #lillard #he’sback!
LaMarcus Aldrige – 7 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl 2 blk. Off night from the field for LMA, but when you really look at the line, heck, you’ll take that every night out. The Blazers had a four game winning streak going before last nights loss. They’d been playing well despite Lillard’s struggles, funny how they take a loss when he finally breaks out again. I guess that’s Portlandia for you.
Harrison Barnes – 13 pts, 7 reb, 2 stl. I finally dropped Barnes only because I needed to drop someone. I will now regret the decision after every Warriors game until he a.) is injured b.) retires or c.) I or someone else decides to pick him up again. I’m sorry, Harri-ba, we shall meet again.
Jarrett Jack – 9 pts, 7 ast, 6 reb, Has cooled down considerably after averaging double digits points for a stretch there. I like Jarrett, but if you thought he was going to keep that up, you don’t know Jack.
Earl Clark – 10 pts, 10 reb, 3 ast, 3 blk, 1 stl in 37 minutes as he got the start. After Wednesday night’s 22 pts, 13 reb performance the Duke of Earl had our curiosity, but after last nights performance, now he has our attention! (yay django!) The Earl of Sandwich could provide some nice upside in the interim with Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard sidelined. In addition to rebounds and points, Clark will add some threes and blocks and could be worth a look while Pau and Dwight are out.
Antawn Jamison – 19 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast in 31 minutes. After recommending him to all the last time he broke out like this, I can’t recommend him this time around. With D-wight and Pow set to return at some point and Earl Clark playing like a pearl, I need to see more consistency from Antawn before even thinking about picking him up.
Kevin Durant – 42 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast and Kevin Martin – 15 pts, 3 3pm. Los Kevin strike again! “We need to talk about the Kevins again, Doc.” said the Lakers. “They were coming from everywhere, both sides even! Scoring, rebounding, off the bench, in the paint, in the locker room. Just Kevins. Everywhere. They could not be stopped.”
Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap, as fantasy basketball continues next week, all week long!
