For richer for poorer, in SICKNESS and in health. Yeah, you gotta play through injuries, Josh Richardson! Part of the NBA grind! Attributing his shooting woes to a wrist injury (and hey, I’m not here saying he’s wrong or the wrist isn’t the issue!), J-Rich went into last night shooting an abyssal 26.4% from the field over the previous 5 games, and went so far as to saying he has a sharp pain in his wrist when he shoots right before last night. Well, apparently the Heat have some good painkillers, because ish wasn’t bothering him at all yesterday! Went for a career-best 22 points on 9-16 shooting (2-6 3PTM 2-2 FT) for 22/5/3/1/0 with no TO in 37 minutes.
Looks good to me! But yeah, BANK! Does that one still count…? Maybe more importantly though, kept gutting it out even after the Heat were getting slaughtered, unlike someeeeeeeeeeone (who we’ll get to below). I always liked J-Rich’s multi-cat ability, but argued with Slim about his FG/3PTM %s, not seeing a repeat of 45.2%/46.1% that we saw last year. Yeah, throw that out the window! But I don’t think he’s as bad as 38.6%/31%, and if the wrist thing was “that” bad, the lowly Heat would just shut him down. In one of his interviews on the ailing wrist, he did say “no excuses”; as I feel like I’ve seen a thousand times with lingering “smaller” injuries, it seems like the night is always darkest before the dawn when things turn around like this. I do wish we were seeing more steals (maybe the wrist is keeping him from playing more aggressive on D?) as his per-36 D-stats have fallen WAYYYY down from last year, but he’s on an awful team that is playing him big minutes, so I would be adding him again in 12ers. Let’s get the backed of our rosters J-Rich, bitch! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:
Marc Gasol – Marcy Marc is so Rainbowy Rainbow! 26/4/9/2/3 in another redonk game, with 3 more treys. Gets the dimes up to a career-high, scoring had already blown his career-high out of the water… we need new nicknames! El Capitan?! El arcoiris (what Google translate says “The Rainbow” is)?!
JaMychal Green – J-Mike has fallen into a lull, but interestingly with his minutes bottoming-out to only 22 last night, 8/5/1/2/2 on 3-4 shooting. Didn’t help that…
Zach Randolph – …Zbo was playing well, going 16/10/2/1/0 in 28:30. T Dog ain’t dyin’ yet!
Andrew Harrison – Got the start for Mike Conley, who sat with a sore toe. Really, Conley, a sore toe?! You’re gutting through a broken back, but you can’t get the trainers to give you a quick toe job?! Womp womp… Anywho, A-Hair for 12/5/6/2/0 on 4-12 shooting, a solid little pickup if you can make same-day adds. He played 44 minutes and has shown he can get to the line, but only 4-8 this one.
Tony Allen – 17/8/1/4/0 on 6-9 shooting with 5-7 FT. Played his usual brand of great perimeter D and got 35 minutes, but not enough consistency to put him ahead of streaming in 10/12ers.
Al Horford – 11/4/5/0/2, but 5 turnovers. That said, a few were pretty fluky, it’s not like he was flying around willy-nilly like Tony Wroten out there.
Avery Bradley – Continuing his breakout year. 23/7/4/2/1 on 10-17 shooting with a trey and only 1 TO. C’s are really coming together with everyone healthy – minus PF, the starting 5 are really gelling together well.
Marcus Smart – As with several NBA teams these days, the Celtics look better when they smallball and keep Smart out there and shift everyone else up. 13/4/6/2/1 with 2 treys, playing great backup PG as well. Had 5-6 FT, and playing pretty well the past 4. I’m coming around on him and nabbing him in several 12ers.
Gerald Green – The weave was a SUPER clover last night! 19/5/1/0/1 on 7-10 shooting with 3 treys. Bottom end ThrAGNOF if he could get a consistent bench role!
Russell Westbrook – 29/17/11 but no D stats and 7 TO. 11-22 from the field is nice, but 7-10 FT doesn’t cut it! He almost had a tripdub at half though, he’s ridiculous.
Steven Adams – Only 23 minutes due to a little foul trouble, going 15/8/1/0/2. That said, 4 more TO, as those aren’t going away… But ya know, I hate that offensive fouls are turnovers, it really skews that stat. He goes up there and sets a monster screen and moves his shoulder an inch and he gets the call against him every time…
Jerami Grant – Had a nasty alley whistled off a half-second before it would’ve happened due to said Adams illegal screen, but still had a 10/0/1/0/1 line with 4-4 FT. Seems like he gels really well with Westbrook and I still think there could be an expanded role here down the road.
Hassan Whiteside – More like Hassan Whiteflag! Wave it already! 12/8/1/2/0 on 4-11 shooting in 31 minutes, and didn’t seem engaged at all. 4 TO as well. He whined that he wanted more touches last week, then a couple days ago said he wasn’t healthy. It’s the wrong time to sell, but after his next mammoth game or two, I would get rid of these shares as best you could. I think it’s gonna be an ugly post-ASB run.
Justise Winslow – Speaking of Heat players with bad shots due to bad wrists, 2-10 FG for 7/3/5/2/1. I swear, every time I watch the Heat, I see Winslow airball a corner 3. Maybe you don’t take those!
James Johnson – 6-13 FG – surprising how many shots he took – for 16/5/2/2/0. I dunno if I like this look on him, of a big USG guy. 3-6 FT with 3 TO… You’re out there to multi-cat, not focus on scoring!
Tyler Johnson – 30 minutes of 15/2/2/1/1 with no TO. He actually has no TO the past 4 games, despite averaging 32-33 minutes and getting a ton of USG. He’s so good – maybe when this thing completely goes into the shitter and most of the guards are hurt and traded, he just goes OFF in the second half.
Corey Brewer – Got the start next to James Harden with Patrick Beverley out due to a sore thigh, and as expected, didn’t really do much, going 8/3/1/1/0 with 2 treys.
Eric Gordon – In a game with no Pbev and the Rox scoring 123, I would’ve expected more than 13/5/3 with only 2 treys… Here’s my ThrAGNOF, so call me needy!
Sam Dekker – The best big man on the team?! Hah, but did lead the Rockets with 11 rebounds, going 9/11/3/3/0 with a trey in a great showing. He’s still pretty far off from the streamer range in 12ers, but certainly on deep league radars.
Nene – Got the start and played 19 minutes, of yawwwwwn. Well, I guess 12/8/0/1/1 is fine, but 2-5 FT, bleh. Off the bench this time came Montrezl Harrell, who couldn’t keep it going with only a 7/2/1/0/1 line. I’m holding strong with Trezl in 12ers.
Trevor Ariza – Got ejected with two techs. He’s usually pretty chill out there with his emotions! Apparently started jawing with the Mavs bench, but when you’re the 24-9 Rockets beating the 9-23 Mavs, I don’t think you need to be jawing much…
[update – Apparently the baby giraffe had a mouth on him too! I saw some of this game and saw things got testy, but it turned into a legit soap opera post-game.]
Dirk Nowitzki – Proved the extended absence was only because the Mavs blow! Played on a back to back, going 7/3/0/0/0 on 2-8 shooting. Pretty poopy. Not upset at all that I cut him early on in an RCL or two, but nice to see he’s going to try to play most games for a little stretch here.
Andrew Bogut – Returned from nearly a month off with his knee issue, going 10:30 minutes for 0/6/2/0/2. If desperate for a big, then I guess you could take the flier, but this team’s rotations are all sorts of messy right now. Dwight Powell is off the radar again, you can cut the baby giraffe Salah Mejri everywhere, bleh.
Justin Anderson – Got fiery with Nene when Nene kinda pinned his arm up against him a little weird, and was probably your best Mav last night, going 13/8/2/1/2 with 2 treys and no TO in only 21 minutes. That said, he could 30 minutes or get a DNP their next game. No one has a clue.
Pierre Jackson – Wellllll, that happened. Signed from the D-League, and Dallas waived Jonathan Gibson, who I think was good enough to get scooped up by someone. Anyway, P-Jax got 11 minutes in his debut for 7/1/2/0/0 and 2 TO. Just what we need, more high-scoring guards to play 7 minutes a game!
Gordon Hayward – Move, Julius, get out the way!
31/9/3/0/1 with no TO on 10-17 shooting with 3 treys and 8-9 FT. Nice win for the Jazz who had lost 3 straight, to get this close one @LAL.
Derrick Favors – Back into the starting line-up, wooooo! 8/6/1/1/0 on 2-4 shooting with 4-4 FT in 22 minutes.
Rudy Gobert – 6 turnovers?! What happened there?! Jazz are thankful to survive this one on a 19:19 team AST:TO. Anyway, still playing pretty well on a 12/11/1/1/2 line, but 4-8 FT reared their ugly head again…
Rodney Hood – Still getting over some bad gas station sushi, going 2/2/1/0/0 on 1-7 shooting in a horrible game. But at least he grinded through 25 minutes and his stomach bug has been flushed down the toilet!
Julius Randle – Other than getting steamrolled by The Gordon’s Fisherman, had a pretty big line of 25/12/3/1/0 on 9-12 shooting with a trey. It’s been pretty impressive, the step forward he’s taken.
Luol Deng – Continuing to stay relevant in the 12er context! 9/9/2/1/1 with a trey in 33 minutes, and as long as he gets decent run, it looks like he can Ferry over enough stats to stay usable!
D’Angelo Russell – Wow. Now this is a bad game. 25 minutes of 2-11 shooting for 4/1/4/0/0 and a TO. D Barksdale needs to stick to teaching chess to his pawns!
I hope everyone is off to a strong start to their week, and I’ll catch you tomorrow morning Razzball Nation! Tomorrow morning will be my last daily notes of 2016, man the year has flown by!
