I wanted to call this Earl Watson-centered intro Earl, You’ll Be A Go, Man Soon, but two things happened: 1) people stopped listening to Urge Overkill, like, a decade ago, 2) Watson is already a go, and I fear that soon, he’ll no longer be a go. Last night, he played all but three minutes against the Rockets and ended with an 11/9/8 line. He’s started the last four games in place of Deron Williams, a gig that wasn’t supposed to last more than two games. With the news that the Jazz don’t really know what’s wrong with Williams, and have just vaguely maintained that he’s day-to-day even after seeing a super secret hand specialist (I assume he’s super-secret, as his name is Dr. Hush, for cryin’ aloud!), it’s time to toy with the notion that Williams’ day-to-day, won’t include today. Or today. Or today. What’s more – or Whatsmore, if you’re a stuffy Englishman – Watson has averaged 8.5 pts/4.5 rbd/8 ast in his four-game tenure as the chief floor leader, which is probably more passable than I thought he’d be, if I had bothered to think of Earl Watson at all before just now. Anyway, you’re not going to be able to replace a top 10 player, with one other player, otherwise you, or someone in your league would have already owned that player. Watson’s not a bad pickup in a pinch, and if you own Williams, you’re in a pinch.
Here’s what else I saw in fantasy basketball yesterday:
Andrea Bargnani – He’s shooting .284 in his last four games. That’s a hard .284 too, as he never took fewer than 12 shots in any of those games. Doc Funk pretty much sums it up.
Amir Johnson – 20/13, with two blocks as he shot .727 from the field. Now, here’s a guy that knows how to enjoy a 13-game losing streak.
Jrue Holiday – Triple-doubled (11/10/11) for the first time in his career, though he’s double-doubled 10 times this season, I’m wondering if we still shouldn’t count this as a double-double. Maybe he was shooting for 20 double-doubles this season and he’d rather credit last night’s performance toward the dub-dub fund. I mean, scoring 11 points on Philly isn’t exactly a notable achievement, no?
Louis Williams – Scoring 26 points from the bench, on the other hand, that’s celebratable. Also celebratable? Making up words like “celebratable.” Also celebratable? Grabbing Louis Williams at the start of another hot streak. It’s like surfing waves, you’ve got a finite amount of time to catch it before it’s time to wait and grab the next one.
Jamal Crawford – 37-for-106 (.349) in his last nine games. Did he buy new underwear? Sometimes I find that I run funny, or can’t get comfortable sitting down after I’ve purchased new boxer-briefs. I’m going to assume this is all just an underwear mishap. And while the inglorious J.C. might not be comfortable sitting right now, you should be comfortable sitting him until he shows that he’s ready to start shooting better than you can.
Jeff Foster – Looks like Freddie Mercury. There. It had to be said.
Roy Hibbert – 13/10, with two blocks in 31 minutes. He’s played 30+ minutes in both post-Jim O’Brien Era games, double-doubled in both, blocked two shots in both. Still, there’s absolutely nothing likable about the Pacers.
Darren Collison – 22/4/9. Congratulations if you’ve hung onto DarCo through the dark period to see him do what we thought he would. Also, to those of you who’ve held onto him that long, congratulations on your fourth-place finish.
Anthony Parker – 17/3/4 and he played 25 minutes. If he continues to see a minutes increase, you can bet that one of the Cavs whose name you don’t know will see a decrease in minutes. My guess is that one guy with the hair who plays guard will see less time.
Ramon Sessions – 25/9, as Ramon set a season-high in scoring. Or, perhaps, “Rah-man” did that, if you listen to the Cleveland announcing crew. Mmm. Ramen. Reminds me of college. … And the five years after college. … And any time I need to go grocery shopping and only have noodles left in my pantry.
Manny Harris – 19/8, with two threes. He’s averaging 19.7/5.3, with two threes in his last three games. If Manny Harris ends this season in the top 100, I’m going to be really pee-oh’ed. Anyway, he’s owned in fewer than 10 percent of fantasy leagues, which a guy scoring 20/5 shouldn’t be.
Toney Douglas – 22 points in 28 minutes playing in place of the injured Wilson Chandler, who could have played last night and probably would have if the Knicks weren’t ensuring their Carmelo trade-bait stay relatively healthy. But this blurb is about Douglas, not Chandler. I’m sorry. We need to stay focused on Douglas, so I’ll say that Douglas will almost certainly not be part of the Carmelo Anthony trade.
Kevin Love – Shot 4-of-9 from the floor and 2-of-5 from the line. Oh. Wait, what? Oh. Yuck.
Jonny Flynn – 11/4/5 in 26 minutes with Luke Ridnour out for personal reasons.Who knows what’s in store for the Wolves next year, but that’s about the soonest you should consider starting Flynn in any league shallower than 12 teams.
DeAndre Jordan – 0/3/0, with two blocks in 30 minutes. It’s easy to note that the Clippers were up against the league’s No.1 defense in the Chicago Bulls and that Jordan is a shaky offensive player anyway, and maybe that’s true. But today, Jordan had to look himself in the mirror and admit that the 60-year-old Kurt Thomas got into his head.
Trevor Ariza – Left with a severe ankle sprain. Crutches, the walking boot – the whole magilla. Quincy Pondexter, Willie Green and Marcus Thornton are your pickups here, but I wouldn’t expect huge stat increases from any of them.
Gerald Wallace – 10/9/3. He’s a top 20 pick who gladly defers to alpha jocks like Stephen Jackson. Top 20 picks should be the alpha jocks, not deferential to them. Maybe this signifies them no longer being top 20 picks. See also: Granger, Danny; Lopez, Brook.
Charlie Villanueva – Played 15 minutes and news about his sprained ankle from last week has been minimal. Way to keep it intriguing, Detroit.
Serge Ibaka – 8/12, with six blocks in 32 minutes. I know I’ve been down on the guy a bit, but that’s because he can’t do this against guys not named David Andersen and Jason Smith.
Steve Nash – 9/6/13, with 9 tovs. It’s not easy to earn the same number of turnovers as points. It’s not recommended you try, either.
Marcin Gortat – 19/11, with two blocks, but against a Bogut-less Bucks. Still, the guy is playing top 30 ball in the last week and is owned like a guy who wouldn’t crack the top 120.
Brandon Jennings – Returned to the lineup for the first time since December 18 and ended with a 6/6/5 on 2-for-10 shooting line. So great, everything is back to normal now with Jennings … in every imaginable way.
