Damian Lillard got the night off in Portland to get some well deserved rest, and the rest of the Blazers all got a decided boost; none more than CJ McCollum, who went 2-28-10-10-1-0-3 on 10-of-23 shooting and 6-for-7 from the line. This was CJ’s first career triple-double and just shows he’s more of a complete player than people thought. He still didn’t give you much in the way of defensive stats, but this will probably go down as one of his best stat-lines of the season. Just keep in mind if Lillard misses any other games, CJ and the rest of his Blazer Buddies become viable DFS options. It was a pretty short schedule for a Saturday night with only five games. I guess with no real NFL games in the week before the Super Bowl, they wanted to stack Sunday, with no competition from football. Anyway, there is still a lot to get into so without further ado, here’s what else went down last night:
Seth Curry– 4-22-3-2-1-2-1 on 8-of-13 shooting and 2-for-2 FTs. Got the start, and did the most with it. This is actually his second nice game in a row, but I doubt he’s still a viable option when Lillard returns.
Jusuf Nurkic– 15-9-4-2-3-3 on 4-of-10 shooting and 7-of-8 FTs. The Juice Man just keeps squeezing out the D stats. Jusuf or Draymond next year? Yahoo! has Nurkic ranked as the 31st overall player in standard leagues.
Maurice Harkless– 1-16-5-0-1-1-4 on 7-of-11 shooting and 1-of-2 FTs. I like his game for fantasy, but he can’t seem to get healthy this year. He’s played five games consecutively, but the Blazers are too often Harkless-less.
Al-Farouq Aminu– 2-17-8-4-2-1-0 on 4-of-5 shooting and 7-for-7 from the line. Weird, it was like everyone on Portland knew they had to step up. He’s a 73.7% career FT shooter, but this year he’s shooting 83.3 from the charity stripe and has really helped his value this year.
Trae Young– 3-30-2-8-1-1-4 on 11-of-15 shooting and 5-of-6 FTs. Trae Bay-Bay! The shooting efficiency was much better then usual for Trae, but the turnovers are right at his average (4.1 per game).
Dewayne Dedmon– 1-11-3-0-4-3-0 on 4-of-8 shooting and 2-for-2 FTs. Wake up D. Dedmon! The Rastafarian Necromancer is part of the elite 1-1-1 club of over one 3-pointer, steal, and block per game. That’s fantasy gold, even if it is pretty low end.
Taurean Prince– 1-11-6-2-2-0-0 on 5-of-14 shooting in 36 minutes off the bench. This was by far, the most minutes he’s gotten since returning from a long absence, and he looks to be returning to form. The problem is, he wasn’t great before he got injured…
Alex Len– 1-9-5-2-0-2-1 on 3-of-7 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line in just 14 minutes. If he could just do something like this every night, he’d be a solid low-end center. He just completely disappears from time to time, and it’s hard to predict when, since the Hawks lose by a lot fairly frequently.
Rudy Gay– 2-22-11-3-1-1-1 on 6-of-13 shooting and 8-for-8 from the line. Gay has been playing really well since returning from a five-game absence, but he tweaked his ankle and is questionable to play tonight. X-rays were negative, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he sits out at least one game.
Pau Gasol– Got the start and went 13-9-4-1-0-1 on 6-of-8 shooting and 1-for-2 from the line in 22 minutes. DeMar DeRozan sat this one out, so Pau got the rare start. This is just an outlier, as he only played 18 combined minutes over the Spurs’ previous four games.
LaMarcus Aldridge– 28-12-2-0-0-1 on 12-of-20 shooting and 4-for-4 FTs. LMA-NO D-stats… He’ll usually chip in a block or two, but the efficient scoring and rebounds keep him solidly locked into 3rd-round value.
Derrick White– 1-12-3-4-2-2-2 on 5-of-9 shooting and made his lone FT. Mr. White has really been playing well. Good on you if you picked him up after he was dropped in early December. It just goes to show, some guys take a while to come around when given the opportunity.
Jahil Okafor– 24-15-0-1-3-0 on 10-of-12 shooting and 4-of-5 FTs. Wow. He’s really been beasting since Anthony Davis went down. His career trajectory has kind of gone the the opposite way of where you’d want it, but he’s showing what he can do when given a chance. Maybe they can trade him.
Jrue Holiday– 3-29-7-3-0-1-1 on 9-of-20 shooting and 8-of-12 FTs. Jrue Grit is having a career-year, and deserves to be an All-Star.
Thaddeus Young– 7-8-1-1-1-3 on 3-of-7 shooting and 1-of-2 FTs. He had a monster game his last time out, but has been quiet in three of his last four. Still, crushing his draft-day value.
Bojan Bogdanovic– 1-21-5-1-0-0-2 on 6-of-14 shooting and 8-of-9 from the line. He actually led the team in scoring and could see a slight usage boost with Oladipo gone for the year.
Myles Turner– 3-14-3-3-1-2-1 on 5-of-10 shooting and 1-of-2 FTs. I love him as a late 3rd/early 4th round guy, but he just doesn’t have that scorer’s mentality. The Pacers do spreed it around a lot though and he could be in line for more shots.
Darren Collison– 2-18-2-9-1-0-2 on 3-of-5 shooting and 10-for-10 FTs. The real ‘winner’ in the Victor Oladipo injury, Collison should be handling the ball a ton now and I’m kicking myself for not adding him in November.
Tyreke Evans– Got the start and went 1-9-3-1-0-0-2 on 4-of-7 shooting in 24 minutes. I’d give it another game, but this is not what owners wanted to see.
Cory Joseph– 10-3-3-1-1-1 on 3-of-8 shooting and 4-for-4 from the line. Another possible beneficiary of the Oladipo injury, did basically what he’d been doing previous to Victor going down.
Jaren Jackson Jr.- 20-6-2-1-0-1 on 8-of-14 shooting and 4-for-5 from the line in 31 minutes. He’s wildly inconsistent, but has definitely been more good than bad. He was playing better in the first month or so of the season, but If anyone on the Grizz get traded, he could see his usage go up a bit. He needs to stay out of foul trouble, which is always difficult for a young shot-blocker. John Collins’ rookie year had similar growing pains, but now he’s seemingly abandoned the blocks and has been able to stay on the floor. Hopefully, JJJ can keep some balance.
Justin Holiday– 1-16-1-4-1-0-1 on 5-of-11 shooting and 5-of-6 FTs. He got the start and played a whopping 39 minutes. He’s been getting a ton of minutes with Kyle Anderson out, and he could sustain a big role if the Grizzlies move one or more of their stars.
Marc Gasol– 3-18-7-4-1-1-1 on 7-of-12 shooting and 1-of-2 from the line. The blocks have not been there lately, but he’s been playing pretty well regardless. He could be looking at some new scenery soon, so I could see a usage dip in his future, but I could see the blocks potentially going up with less of a burden on the offensive end.
Bruno Caboclo– 3-11-4-1-1-2-0 on 3-of-5 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line in 29 minutes off the bench. What in the world!? He’s on a 10-day contract with he Grizzlies, but he could prove he’s worth a damn, and stick around. I remember when he was drafted and laughing at the Raptors for wasting a first-round pick. Well, who’s laughing now?
Kevin Durant– 1-33-9-3-0-2-4 on 10-of-23 shooting and 12-of-13 FTs. Poor shooting night in a potential Finals Preview. 10-for-23? Inexcusable!
Draymond Green– 1-5-11-8-3-1-3 on 1-of-3 shooting and 2-of-4 FTs. The most stereotypical Draymond line. He took three shots…
DeMarcus Cousins– 1-15-8-3-3-1-3 on 4-of-9 shooting and 6-of-7 FTs in. Just 23 minutes. Slowly ramping up the minutes and even if he does this every night, he would have been worth the stash.
Kevon Looney– 8-6-1-0-1-0 on 3-of-5 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line in 20 minutes off the bench. He’s been surprisingly solid lately, but he’s low-end and probably not much more than a streamer for blocks, boards, and FG%.
Al Horford– 2-22-13-3-1-2-5 on 10-of-15 shooting. The rest days worry me, but nights like this really ease the nerves.
Kyrie Irving– 4-32-6-10-2-0-4 on 12-of-27 shooting and 4-for-4 from the line. LeBron has reportedly been trying to set up a reunion, which would make the Lakers super interesting and probably make Lonzo Ball owners cry.
Marcus Smart– 2-12-3-2-0-0-2 on 4-of-11 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line. Wicked Smaht of you to pick him up. He’s really improved from 3-point land this year and it will be interesting to see where he gets drafted next year.
Gordon Hayward– 2-7-2-2-1-1 on 0-of-5 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line. *Womp-womp.* Maybe next year… He’s still actually fringe-ownable, but he misses games and is not super productive in any one category.
JJ Redick– 4-22-2-3-0-0-2 on 9-of-19 shooting. Led the Sixers in scoring. No Embiid or Jimmy Butler last night freed up some shots for everyone on the Sixers.
Corey Brewer– 1-20-6-2-4-0-1 on 7-of-15 shooting and 5-of-6 FTs. Got the start and made the most of his 32 minutes. One month ago, he was out of the league, now he’s starting for a playoff team. I doubt he keeps a sizable role once the Sixers get healthy, but it’s a nice story.
Paul Millsap– 4-4-1-0-0-0 on 1-of-2 shooting and 2-for-2 from the line. The Nuggets just have so much depth, it’s kind of hard for any one player to have great value. (Besides Jokic).
Torrey Craig– 1-15-6-1-1-0-3 on 6-of-13 shooting and 2-for-2 FTs. Got the start with Jamal Murray out and played 35 minutes. That Nuggets depth. Can’t wait till IT returns to further muddy the backcourt situation.
Nikola Jokic– 2-32-18-10-1-0-1 on 12-of-22 shooting and 6-of-7 FTs. Trip-dub alert! Easily could have been the lede, but he could be almost every night he plays.
Gary Harris– 1-9-1-3-1-2-2 on 4-of-10 shooting in 25 minutes. Still easing his way back into the mix, but again, the Nuggets have like 11 mouths to feed on a nightly basis, so his usage should be down from last year.
Mason Plumlee– 17-6-4-0-1-1 on 5-of-5 shooting and 7-for-10 from the line. Nice ceiling game for Plumlee, who we now know is not afraid to throw down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsiSuYQK0yk Mason Plumlee: Super Gangster.
Malik Beasley– 2-14-1-1-1-0-1 on 6-of-12 shooting in 20 minutes off the bench. Why did they sign Isaiah exactly? He’s actually maintained a decent role, but Nuggets have had players missing all year.
