“The Bearded One” James Harden remains the story in the young NBA season as he put up 45 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists in Atlanta last night to lead the Rockets to their second win. Harden shot 14-19 from the floor and hit 2 3-pointers. By the beard of Harden! Have mercy! J-Hard now has 82 points in the first two games with his new team. It looks like James has definitely elevated his game to another level so far in Houston and although its extremely early the Rockets are quickly emerging as one of the NBA’s teams to watch. Based on his performance to date Harden is playing like a top 5 fantasy pick. Sweet sassy molassy! He is playing so well right now I am getting all excited just typing this. Maybe its the Novembeard chill in the air, but the dude is sick right now, and its almost a shame he’s been cooped up on the Oklahoma bench so long. Oh yeah, and he has a beard! A beard! How great is that? Throw in America’s Asian sweetheart Jeremy Lin (21 pts, 10 reb, 7 ast) at point guard? Umm, did the Rockets just become my favorite new team? Uhhh, yeah I think so, YUP. Here we go Houston! #LetsGoRockets2012
Here’s what else happened last night in fantasy basketball.
Omer Asik – Failed to get a point (0-7) but grabbed 19 rebs. Omer-gehrd! He couldn’t buy a bucket but that’s a lotta rebounds. I’ll take it!
Brandon Jennings– 21 pts, 2 reb, 13 ast, 6 stl. Dished all over the new look Celtics and made them look bad–or maybe he’s that good. Spoiler: he is that good.
Tobias Harris – 18 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast and 2 3pm. The nevernude seems to have all but locked up the starting SF job in Milwaukee, and the 8-11 FG tells me he could be a decent scoring option going forward, and there’s a great chance he’s available in your league. Just keep an eye on his for now, he did have 3 turnovers. Tobias, you blowhard!
Rajon Rondo – 14 pts, 4 rebs, 11 asts, 3 stls. Pretty nice line, but its his scowls and attitude that will really break down opposing fantasy teams. You know I love you, Rajon, even if you don’t care for me very much.
Jose Juan Barea – 21 pts, 5 asts, 4 rebs in 28 min off the bench. How can you not love this guy? J.J. might finally have a chance at starting job if he can keep outplaying Luke Ridnour (9pts, 1 ast), but the force is strong with that one. Until then he should provide a nice spark of the T’Wolves bench and perhaps even for your fantasy team.
Kevin Durant – 23 pts, 17 reb, 7 ast, 2 blk. Now don’t you feel silly for drafting Lebron over him?
Damian Lillard – 21 pts, 7 asts. 18 asts and 44 points in his first two games. Officially, The Omen is this year’s “sexy pick” to win the Rookie of the Year. I guess that makes Anthony Davis the “unsexy pick.” Is it his eyebrow that’s the turnoff? I dunno, I kind of like it.
Kevin Martin – 19 pts with 3 3PM in 29 minutes off the bench. Well, I guess the value hit he’d take moving to a bench role isn’t happen. K-Mart clearly has just slid right into Harden’s sixth man dominance role, and picked up right where he left off. Once again the Thunder pull off a brilliant trade. Don’t you wish your team was like that?
Randy Foye – 20 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 2 blk, 4 3PM. Can’t say I’d expect this from him every night out, but tonight was Randy’s night!
Anthony Davis – 8 pts, 6 reb, 2 blk in just 14 min. Left the game early with a concussion after taking an elbow from Austin Rivers to the head. One hopes his massive brow absorbed most of the impact and he’s gonna be okay but Davis will not play Saturday as he’ll undergo tests. Luckily, Ryan Anderson was absolutely on fire 19 pts, 6 reb, 5 3pm in his place.
Grevis Vasquez – 13 pts, 10 asts, 4 reb in 37 minutes. Now has 23 assists in his first two games. If General Grevis isn’t owned in your league yet, now’s the time to to scoop him up.
Lebron James – 23 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast, 3 blk, 2 3pm. Now don’t you feel silly for drafting Durant over him?
Rashard Lewis – 16 pts, 6 reb, 4 3pm. The heat are so stacked I wouldn’t count on Lewis for any consistency, but he will have his games. And that’s more than you could say about him last year.
Carmelo Anthony – 30 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast, 4 3pm. Melo took 28 shots, more than double anyone else on his team. This trend should continue. In the fantasy world we call that a “jackpot.”
Steve Novak – 17 pts, 5 3pm. Honestly, as long as he’s hitting the tres who cares what else he does. That’s why we own him!
Nate Robinson – 16 pts, 5 rebs, 12 asts, 1 stl. Little Nate came up big for Chicago as the Bulls blew out Cleveland by 29 points. Kirk Hinrich (9 pts, 6 ast) started the game but Nate ended up playing 10 more minutes (Hinrich is nursing a groin injury. Ow, my groin!). Robinson should to see consistent minutes and could certainly be worth a flier while the Bulls wait on their fallen savior.
Lou Williams – 22 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl. Can you say sixth man of the year? Because Lou has been saying it to himself over and over in the mirror all offseason.
Danilo Gallinari – 23 pts, 8 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk. The Rooster Cogburn showed some true grit last night contributing across the board, but the Nuggs were still unable to get their first win. A favorite dark horse team pick in the Western conference this year so far Denver has looked like they’ve flown the coop. Get it? Because Rooster? Ahh, forget it.
Glen Davis – 29 pts, 10 reb, 2 blk. Big Baby threw quite the tantrum in Orlando’s home opener with 29 points. I wonder how the Magic fans feel about their new starting big man. Physically, they couldn’t have found a player more different than Dwight Howard. Howard is a specimen, a chiseled action figure of a man, Davis is mostly just, well, skin. Some flab. He looks like he’s real soft, too. But hey, 29 points, maybe Baby is the answer. I’m not saying drop your Dwight Howard’s for him, but he’s still out there in a over a quarter of Yahoo and ESPN leagues so go get him.
J.J. Redick – 21 pts, 6 ast, 4 reb, 3 3pm in 35 minutes off the bench.With Afflalo and Tukoglu nursing injuries Redick should see and bump in court time and even if he doesn’t start he should see 25+ minutes on a nightly basis. His stats won’t overwhelm, but the his nice percentages and 3-pointers can help any fantasy team. He should be owned.
Kemba Walker – 30 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk, 1 3pm. I will take one of everything from the second year guard out of Uconn. Where were you last year Kemba? Nice of you to finally show up, I mean, someones gotta score on this B-Cats team. The 30 points were a career high for Walker. Bigger news here: THE BOBCATS WON A GAME! Sound the alarms, inform the press, twit the twittersphere! The parade will be held in downtown Charlotte tomorrow afternoon and the game ball has already been shipped to Springfield. #LetsGoBobcatsNBAFinalsorBust2012
Brandon Knight – 13 pts, 5 reb, 10 asts, 2 3pm. He’s not the most exciting player to own, sure, but he’s locked in as the starting point guard in Detroit and that’s worth something, right? Right!? Hey, he’s better than Rodney Stuckey (0-7 FG, 1 point).
Goran Dragic – 15 pts, 10 asts. Ahh, yes. Starting to look like the top 25 player we all thought he could be this year.
Marcin Gortat – 16 pts, 16 rbds. They call that the sweet sixteens. Marcin should see his share of rebounds based solely on the fact that’s he’s the only true center in Pheonix. Goran to Gortat! And he scores! Phoenix Suns basketball, folks.
Stephen Curry – 26 pts, 5 reb, 7 asts, 1 stl. Curry owners you can exhale now. Whew. After scoring just 5 points in the season opener Stephen went bananas tonight and proved my he’s been such a popular pick. If he can stay healthy, and he’s proven he cannot, Curry can compete with the best shooting guard in the league.
Mike Conley, Jr. – 21 pts, 3 rb, 7 asts, 5 stls. Oh, hello there 5 steals. Nice to see you, you should stop by more often. Believe it or not, The Grizz are looking like one of the more fantasy relevant teams in the NBA so far. Marc Gasol added 21 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, Zach Randolph had 15 points with 14 board and Rudy Gay scored 18 with 8 rebounds. If fantasy stats translate to NBA success even a little the Grizzles could be tough to beat this season.
Chris Paul – 18 points, 15 assists. Now don’t you feel silly for drafting Lebron and Durant over him? No? Well, yeah you’re probably right, but Paul is still really good at basketball.
Kobe Bryant – 40 points, 6 rebs, 2 stls. Mamba! Well maybe that newbie at the draft wasn’t so crazy for taking him so early? 5th pick!? You is crazy, yo! Well, yo, Kobe was on last night, and it sure is fun to watch him when he’s in the zone like that. Unfortunately, other than his usual partner in crime Pau Gasol (10 pts, 14 rbs) the rest of the team didn’t show up. Sure, Steve Nash didn’t play but come on, Dwight Howard (13 pts, 8 rbs) what’s your excuse, bro? Big Baby is doing things in Orlando and your struggling in LA? The Lakers fall to 0-3 on the season (taking the L to the Clippers, too!) and to most Lakers fans, this is pretty much the end of the world. However, to everyone else it’s pretty much the greatest thing in the world.
Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap, as fantasy basketball continues next week, all week long! As always, questions asked answered in the comments.
