Jerryd Bayless had himself one hell of a weekend. He partied with porn stars in Vegas, he won big at the craps tables, he even married Kim Kardashian, only to divorce her 20 minutes later. Oh yeah, and he had lines of 28/9/6/3/1/3 on Friday followed by 29/6/2/4/5 on Saturday. Of course his recent tear has coincided with Jose Calderon missing some time with an ankle injury, and the word on the street is he will, unfortunately, return soon. But before you go and hire someone to Gillooly poor Jose’s knees, I do believe Bayless can keep up his current pace (except for dimes) for the rest of the season even when the hairy Spaniard returns. How you ask? If you remember, the Raptors traded Leandro Barbosa at the deadline to the Pacers in exchange for a package of seaweed crisps, so Bayless should continue to see upwards of 30 minutes a game. I could see him putting up numbers around 16/4/4/2/2 the rest of the way, which is nothing to scoff at you scoffers. Here were the other goings-on in basketball this past weekend:
Josh Smith – Hit just 3-of-15 shots from the floor, finishing with less points and rebounds than Zaza Pachulia, which I thought was virtually impossible. He did however dish out nine dimes for the homeless in Cleveland, and has been sharing the ball more over his last four games (7.0 APG). I guess somebody has to rack up assists if Jeff Teague isn’t going to.
Zaza Pachulia – The big man from Georgia (did anyone else know there was a country named Georgia? I sure didn’t) pulled down 12 boards and now has double-digit boards in 10 of his last 12. That is just sweet as a Georgia peach.
Alonzo Gee – Dropped 20 points and nine boards against the Hawks. He has now averaged over 15 points and over two steals a game since I mentioned him as a buy a couple weeks ago. Gee wiz!
Luke Walton – The prize jewel of the Ramon Sessions trade suited up for the Cavs and… didn’t play a single minute. Walton bein’ Walton.
Greg Monroe – Manroe had 23-point, 15-board dub-dub, including a sweet 11-of-13 from the line. He was a player who I knew would be good this year, but thought his price tag was too high in drafts this season and ended up not owning him anywhere (I share the same feeling towards Brett Lawrie on the baseball side of things). #fantasyworldproblems
Tayshaun Prince – Had 20 points and seven boards, and is averaging 20/6/3.3 over his last three. Prince is playing like it’s 2004.
Blake Griffin – Double-doubled, shot under 50 percent from line, yadda yadda same shizz as always. But the highlight of his night is when Jason Maxiell shoved him into a courtside woman knocking her beer and popcorn everywhere. Terrell Owens: “Shoulda had her popcorn ready.”
Randy Foye – Chucked up 14 shot attempts after taking 17 shots a night ago, but was only successful on 39 percent of them. This was Foye’s way of trying to look good so Nick Young doesn’t take his starting gig. If Nick Young is considered a better option than you, then you aren’t that good anyways. Vinny Del Neg has already hinted that Young will take over the starting two guard position, so Foye’s days of logging big minutes are numbered.
Zach Randolph – Z-Bo returned to the court Friday, dropping 25 points on the Raptors’ heads. Tonight he came off the bench again and had 13 points and nine boards in 24 minutes. He should regain his starting gig in a game or two, which will send Marreese Speights back into obscurity.
Jeremy Pargo – Only made one bucket, but man, what a bucket it was!
Kevin Seraphin – After getting over the embarrassment of being posterized by a man half his size, Seraphin put together a 12-point, 12-rebound dub-dub. He has been playing well since being inserted into the starting lineup. Nene didn’t play tonight because he had to watch the season finale of The Walking Dead, and he isn’t expected to start until Wednesday, so Seraphin will have one more game of usefulness left in him.
Jordan Crawford – Sank 22 points as he no longer has to share time taking a bunch of shots and not passing the ball with Nick Young anymore.
Isaiah Thomas – Had a line of 18/2/2/1 including four treys and has been playing a lot better recently after being stuck in a rut. Maybe he is finally catching up with the league after it caught up with him. As your attorney I advise you to grab him if he was dropped during his cold stretch.
Jason Thompson – Just dropped his third-straight double-double, finishing with 13 points and 10 boards. I usually don’t endorse bigs who just offer points and boards and nothing else (I’m looking at you Pachulia), but it is hard to ignore what Thompson has done these past few games. Pick him up, hop on, and ride the hot streak.
Nikola Pekovic – Didn’t play Sunday because of a sore ankle. And by “sore ankle” I really mean he wanted to join Nene to watch The Walking Dead.
Martell Webster – Has started three-straight games, averaging 12 points during that span. Deep leaguers, do whatcha do.
Hedo Turkoglu – Two points, four boards, three assists, and no threes. It is games like these that make me want drop him, then pick him back up, just so I can drop him again. But then I know he will go out and put up nine assists and four treys later in the week so I hesitate. What a conundrumglu.
Ryan Anderson – Scored just five points in 22 minutes. Ah I see what happened here. He had Turkoglu wear his jersey and miss shots in the second half so that he could – you guessed it – go over to Nene’s crib to watch The Walking Dead.
Goran Dragic – The Magic Dragic continues to ball hard in place of Kyle Lowry. There is still no new news on the state of Lowry’s bacterial illness (just take a bath dude!), so Dragic should continue to produce going forward.
Michael Redd – Managed to score 25 points in just 19 minutes. The 25 points came on 10-of-13 shooting from the field. He hasn’t really done anything else this entire month, so I wouldn’t pick him up based on just this one performance. However, he can be very useful if you are trying to intimidate your opponents.
Al Jefferson – Missed Sunday’s game because his grandmother passed away. In his place, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter contributed 12/10 and 17/8 respectively, but Big Al should be back on the court soon.
Joel Przybilla – Has one of the coolest names to say in the NBA. Since Marcus Camby was traded, the Pryz has averaged 25 minutes as a starter. He didn’t do much last game (two points, four boards) but managed have a line of 6/11/2 on Sunday. The latter is what you can expect from the big man if he continues to get PT.
