Like LeBron James, I find underwear constricting. It just smashes shizz together that feels so much more free in some gym shorts or pajama pants. Let me be free!
And I just can’t imagine what Tyler Johnson goes through… Must be like putting on shrunken spandex when he’s getting suited up every night! He certainly brought the full Johnson effort against the Kings, putting up 19/3/3/1/0 with 3 treys on 6-8 FG and 4-4 FT. That line is longer than… Ok, ok, we get the idea… Every time he gets run, he just seems to deliver. He got a DNP in the opener, played 1:28 in game 2 before seeing an expanded role, and had a couple sub-20 minute games in there. But in the 7 he’s played 20+ minutes, he’s 11.6/3.7/2.3/0.9/0.7 with 1.1 treys and hitting over 60% from the field. All with only 1.3 TO! I would call him a metrics whore, but with assets like we talked about above there, it’s tough not to be! Even though Hassan Whiteside is tripdubbing here and there with his redonkulous blockage, Johnson finished up down the stretch with the other 4 regular starters. Gerald Green only played 16 minutes, and it looks like Johnson and Justise Winslow are firmly entrenched as your main two subs. Johnson certainly isn’t a must-own in 12ers, but that’s three straight Thursday games he’s been a fantastic streamer. It’s almost like I said that on Monday in The 7 Ahead! I’m not one to toot my own horn too much, but then again, it’s not as big a horn as Johnson… I’m just your regular ol’ trumpet while he’s a tuba! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Giannis Antetokounmpo – Greek gettin’ all Freaky! 33/5/2/2/0, hitting a crazy 12-15 from the field for a career-high scoring night. Plus no TO, 8-8 FT, and a trey! It’s like he dedicated last night solely to his fantasy non-believers. Too bad the rest of the Bucks had no answers… Including Michael Carter-Williams, who dedicates all his games to his fantasy believers. In that, he never gets to draft himself, so he blows just to tank all his leaguemates.
Jabari Parker – I haven’t talked about him much this year, but I feel like he’s pretty boring even when out there. 14/3/1/0/1 in 31 minutes last night, hitting 6-10 from the field. Not breaking the bank to get him.
Jerryd Bayless – I’ve been pretty anti-JB considering I am of course pro-JB in general, but the Bucks JB seemed to be overly-benefiting from MCW being DNP and is now TTYL. Does anyone even use talk to you later anymore? My acronym game is still from learning it on AIM… Anyway, 9/1/2/0/0 last night in 25 pretty uninspiring minutes, even with MCW not playing well and having foul trouble. JB G2G.
LeBron James – 8-9 FT!!!!!!! Wooooo!!!!!!!! Drop the confetti!
Kevin Love – Maybe my hate on Love had too much hate and not enough love. 22/15/1/1/1 with 3 treys, but there’s still Cav shutdowns to be fearful of. Just so many emotions!
J.R. Smith – 4 treys, 18 Pts, and not much else… ThrAGNOF!
Matthew Dellavedova – Aussies know how to party, Delly keeps bringing the dimebags! 7/1/13 with a trey, starting at PG with Mo Williams out with a leg issue and we’re obviously still waiting for Kyrie Irving. Still just an AST streamer, but having one use is better than none!
Tristan Thompson – Dubdubbed. About all that’s interesting. I streamed him for some boards in one of my RCLs. He is no longer on any of my teams, even with…
Timofey Mozgov – Healthcare.Mozgov got the ol’ 404 URL not found with 11 minutes of nothingball before leaving with a shoulder injury. Thompson started the second half, then it was 11 minutes for Anderson Varejao, who was 4-4 from the field. I think I still own Mozgov somewhere… I’m about to become a super right Republican and repeal the ish outta Obamacare and shutdown that Healthcare.Mozgov! He hasn’t been that good, but at least while it’s still active, he can get some nice government healthcare for that bum shoulder…
Hassan Whiteside – Picked up two early fouls, barely played the end of the first half, then racked up his normal Whiteside-ian stats to go 12/5/0/2/4 virtually all in the 3rd quarter. 4-7 from the field and a shocking 4-4 FT. All with no TO. You could argue this 18 minute game is his best line on the season. All you can say negatively about this was a game the foul trouble hurt him and he didn’t finish down the stretch. With a line like last night, he doesn’t need to!
Goran Dragic – 9/1/6/0/0 with a three. Dwyane Wade was back, and was unreal for 24/5/6/2/0 with no TO on 10-23 shooting. Usage abyss! He’s a usage Sarlacc Pit! Dragic owners just need to keep eking it out; when there’s no Wade, there’s a big void for a Dragon.
Chris Bosh – Hit everything, going 8-12 from the field (2-2 3PTM 5-5 FT) for 23/11/4/0/1. He’s returned very solid value if you got him at a discount on draft day.
Rudy Gay – Yikes, banged his shoulder and looked like he was in a lot of pain. He’s had surgery on that shoulder before, but it could be a pectoral thing… I’m no doctor, but none of this sounds good. I know Gay’s not even cold yet, but for deeper leagues, Omri Casspi might be worth a look, as he went 16/6/0/1/1 with 2 treys in 39 minutes as the starting SF. Even if Gay is out for an extended period, I don’t think Casspi is a must-own in 12ers, but any deeper he’s worth the spec add right now.
Kotsa Koufos – 25 minutes of blah starting for DeMarcus Cousins, who got suspended for his elbow to Al Horford. “Hey Big Al, here’s my big elbow!”
Rajon Rondo – No triple-double, womp womp! 14/9/18, and playing stupid right now. The 18 dimes are an NBA-season high thus far. Plus he managed to hit two treys and stay off the FT line. Darren Collison is back and played 21 minutes off the bench shaking off some rust, but I dunno, I’m a little worried. Colly is the better overall player, but I dunno if the Kings shake this up right now, especially with Rondo great trade bait on that one-and-done deal.
Marco Belinelli – 23/1/1 off the bench, hitting 5 treys. Italian ThrAGNOF!
Stephen Curry – Booooo, the Clippers were up big in the 2nd quarter and still find a way to lose?! I called this a possible first loss for the Warriors if CP3 was back, who was unreal. And it looked like it was gonna happen too! Then after a slow start, Curry went bonkers for a 40/11/4/3/0 line, another standard 6 treys and 12-12 FT. While there’s still the possibility of playoff schedule DNPs, Curry is certainly making me burn with my #3 rank, just like how curry makes me burn in the bathroom.
Andrew Bogut – You friggin’ kidding me?! Had an 18 REB game and 40 overall in 4 games last week to cost me an REL cat, and gets 1 rebound last night?! ONE?!?!??! Festus Ezeli with 4 REB and 2 BLK off the bench is still the C to own for the long haul.
Draymond Green – #OccupyFaLife!
Harrison Barnes – I guess I need to take this more and more cereal. 21/7/1 with 3 treys last night, no D stats, but he’s been better than expected. Although every time I think that, I look at his stats and find black eyes. Low D stats overall, 3s are the same as last year… all that’s up is the scoring. His FT% and volume is up, but 4 of the last 6 he didn’t even make a FT. Weighed by some early data there.
Klay Thompson – Wow, another game with only 5 3PT attempts, hitting three of em. Brought all his volume to the stripe! 10-12 on the freebies. It’s mostly getting better, but not to last year’s peaks. I still wouldn’t sell-low.
Blake Griffin – Ummmm, he hit a three! That was pretty cool… First trey on the year! And ummmm, everything else is exactly what you expect from one of the league’s most consistent stat-stuffers. I am of course contractually obligated to mention his name every daily notes, due to pending commenter lawsuits…
Chris Paul – Ridiculous. Pssshhh, who said groin muscles were important?! 35/4/8/3/0 on 13-22 FG (5-9 3PTM 4-4 FT) in a helluva good game for a losing effort. Imagine if his groin was healthy! He’d be slingin’ it like Tyler Johnson!
Austin Rivers – Still deep-league usable off the bench for 10/3/1/2/0 and a trey, playing several minutes alongside CP3. He’s kinda the slow, bumbling sidekick to the golden player, so he’s R2D2-ish. Although it needs to be changed slightly to match CP3’s slight difference from CP3-0. R2D. He’s twice as bad as Doc was… Hah I dunno, we’ll work on it… Suggestions?
DeAndre Jordan – Took only 4 shots and didn’t have a block. Somehow hit 5-8 FT though! At least he didn’t go 0-fer on the swats and destroy your FT% at the same time…
I hope everyone is destroying their matchups this week, and let’s have a killer weekend! We’ll be back Monday morning with the weekend daily notes and The 7 Ahead for Week 5. Catch ya then Razball Nation!
