Jared Dudley did right in Phoenix last night, scoring 22 points and adding 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals with 2 3pm in 43 minutes. The 22 points were a season high, and after starting the season looking kind of like a Dud-ley, the past two games he’s looked sort of Stud-ley (hey that’s the headline!). J-Duds is averaging 15 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 3pm and 2 steals over the past week. He’s just over 50% owned in yahoo leagues. Terrible Brandon Fraser movies aside, Dudley could do right by your fantasy team and could definitely be worth grabbing while he’s playing so well.
Here’s what else happened in fantasy basketball Friday night:
Andrew Nicholson – 15 pts, 9 reb, 4 blocks in 25 minutes. Three of his last four games, he’s scored 14 or more points with 5+ rebounds as well. You can choose to do with that information what you will.
Nikola Vucevic – 12 pts, 17 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl. The pride of Montenegro (not Russia). If he keeps rebounding like this, Orlando fans will hardly notice Dwight Howard is still missing.
Kobe Bryant – 30 pts, 7 reb, 7 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk. Trade everyone but Kobe!
Cartier Martin – 21 pts, 8 reb, 2 stl, 1 ast, 1 blk in 32 minutes. Cartier, whose last name I can only assume is pronounced Marteeen) hit five threes and took eleven. As a fantasy player, eehh, you gotta like those odds.
Bradley Beal – 4 pts, 4 rebs. B-rad’s been on a roll lately and had six straight double digit point games before tonight stinker. He’s still not owned in over half of Yahoo leagues, so now might be the time to grab him.
Nick Young – 8 pts, 5 ast in 37 minutes. Young started in place of Jrue Holiday and despite an off night (4-14 FG), he still played 37 minutes. They call you Nick Young, but your lousy shooting tonight was getting real old! Young is a feast or famine type player and could be worth owning while Holiday is temporarily on the shelf.
Paul George – 28 pts, 6 reb, 3 blk, 2 ast, 1 stl, 5-7 3pm. Do you want to know a secret? John Ringo is Getting Better all the time. You’ve got to admit. He’s so heavy.
Darren Collison – 4 pts, 1 ast in 22 minutes. He must have really pissed off Rick Carlisle with Derek Fisher (8 pts, 3 reb, 5 ast) getting the majority of the time at point guard now. The Mavs got blown out by one of the worst teams in the league, but Shawn Marion lead the way with 12 pts, 13 rebs. Dirk’s coming back soon the Mavs are going “older,” Fisher, Brand, Marion, Carter…there’s just no room for youngsters with upside like Collison.
Jonas Valuniunas – 1 pt, 6 reb in 16 min. His name is Jonas….he dropped the wheel.
Terrence Ross – 18 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 2-7 3pm. Played 23 minutes, and most of that was because this was a blow out (Yes, Toronto smoked Dallas 95-74, this one must have been a thriller…) He took seven three’s, missed five and still scored 18. There looks like there’s promise here!
Mickael Pietrus – 7 pts (2-7 FG) 2 reb. Sure he’s getting plenty of minutes, but he has been just terrible. I am steering clear for now. Averte! Averte!
Linas Kleiza – 20 pts, 5 reb. 5-11 3pm. He’s been sidelined by injury but returned last night and dude can still shoot. With all the injuries to the Raptors, Linus should see plenty of time. If you’re looking for points and threes, you could do worse than Kleiza. See Pietrus, Mickael.
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute – 9 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast, 4 stl, 1 blk. Oh, hello there. Not a bad little game you had there. Luc is averaging 10.8 points and 4.8 rebs over the past five games, but for the sake of my sanity, I hope I’ll never have to type his name here again.
Larry Sanders – 10 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast, 3 blk. Sandman returned from a stuffy nose to put up his second double-double this month. I wrote about Sanders a few weeks back as a deeper league “if you’re really desperate, I guess…”option but boy he has been ones of the hottest schmotatos in the league this month, and now averages 7.8 rebs and 3.1 blks a game. Pro tip* that will help your fantasy team!
Ersan Ilyasova – 11 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk in 25 minutes. If someone has dropped him, I might be inclined to possibly start considering thinking about the possibility of maybe deciding whether or not to pick him up.
Kyrie Irving – 26 pts, 3 ast, 3 reb. Rebounded from a poor outing (9 points, 4 rebs) in hopes of keeping his fantasy owners from killing themselves.
Anderson Varejao – 8 pts, 18 rebs. Left the game with a foot contusion (he returned), otherwise he would have had 36 rebounds.
Kevin Love – 14 pts, 9 reb before leaving with a hand injury (yes, that hand!) in the fourth quarter. X-Rays were negative, somebody loves Love. Huzzah! Also, this.
Alexey Shved – 13 pts, 8 ast, 2 stl, 3 3pm in 35 minutes. Performed very well last night. That’s what she Sheved! Hilarity aside, I mentioned Shved a few weeks ago, and he’s still available in most leagues. Even with Ricky Rubio set to return to-night(!) I think Alexey’s minutes shouldn’t take much of a hit.
Nikola Pekovic – 31 pts, 5 reb. Wait if Vucevic is the pride of Montenegro, what’s that make his Monetnegran brother Pekovic? Are all people from Montenegro named Nikola? A month ago, I was calling both these guys Russian. Ah, ignorance. I’m sorry, Nikolas. Does Montenegro have a Olympic basketball team? If not, they should. Why do I not know this?
Greivis Vasquez – 15 pts, 17 ast, 5 reb in 43 minutes. General Greivis won this battle for sure (except that they lost) and is now averaging 8.6 assists a game. That’s fifth best in the league along with the likes of Rondo, Paul, Westbrook and D-Williams. Greivis Christ! To make it all more impressive, he is getting it done passing to teammates who are not very good at basketball (I keed! sort of). If you need assists, I’d target Greivis before owners realize what they have.
Austin Rivers – 27 pts, 2 ast. Heeeyoooo! It was about time we see something from Austin, you know he’s sunk low when you start to feel bad for him. Anyway, he shot 5-6 from 3 point land and 9-14 overall. It’s his third straight 10+ point game and his fourth in the past 5 games. You probably shouldn’t pick him up yet, but wanted to give him a shout out since his dad and I are cool.
Greg Smith – 15 pts, 6 reb, 3 blk. Another great game for Smith, who tore it up against the Lakers last week, and then proceeded to do nothing until last night.
Chandler Parsons – 15 pts, 9 reb, 8 ast. Pars flirted with the triple double. Can you believe this dude went undrafted in most leagues! Bing!
James Harden – 21 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl. I hope he dyes it white for Christmas.
Isaiah Thomas – 10-13 FG, 4-7 3pm. Channeling classic ‘Zeke, Thomas went absolutely bonkers with 26 points in just 16 minutes, giving the Mighty Thunder a scare in the end of the game (eh, not really). It was actually only 13 minutes in which he did all his damage. Now if only he could start over Aaron “Why Am I Starting, I am Not Good” Brooks. Unfortunately, I don’t see this changing things for I.Thomas 2, as the Kings seem to be absolutely 100% content with being terrible. But a boy can dream!
Serge Ibaka – 18 pts, 11 reb, 1 blk. Great game! But only one Iblocka!
Tayshaun Prince – 12 pts, 10 reb, 6 ast. The 2006 Pistons called, they want their player back. Can you believe Tayshaun has never made an all-star team? Yeah, me too.
Gerald Wallace – 25 pts, 10 reb, 2 stl, 2 blk, 3 3pm. I really like this guy.
Kris Humphries – 0 pts, 5rebs. I really don’t like this guy. And I really really don’t like siding with Kim K.
Andray Blatche – 16 prs 2 reb, 2 stl. Dray returned to the bench but still managed to score in double digits. His production should go back to normal now that Brook Lopez is back to ruining everything.
Derrick Favors – 11 pts, 8 reb in 17 minutes. I’m pretty sure him and Michael Beasely are the same person.
Luis Scola – 4 pts, 5 reb in 13 minutes while Markieff Morris has 5 pts, 6 reb and 3 blk in 18 minutes and Michael Beasley added 11 points, 3 reb and 3 ast.
Antawn Jamison – 0, pts, 1 reb in just 6 minutes. Sigh. Yeah, you can drop him now.
Jodie Meeks – 24 pts, 5 reb, 3 stl, 4-7 3pm. And yeah, if you need points and threes you could pick him up now.
Nene – 17 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast in 22 minutes. Now might be the time to buy Nene. As his minutes go up we should see a lot more nights like this from him. Or not, who knows. It’s the wizards!
Andre Iguodala – 20 pts, 4 rebs, 7 ast, 5 stl, 2 blk. Shot 8-11 FG, and had his best offensive game in a while. Might not be a top offensive option consistently, but he does just about everything else so we’ll let it slide.
Marc Gasol – 10 pts, 9 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl, 4 blk. Finally starting to look like the first round pick I/you/we drafted. Shot 2-10 but still managed a pretty line. Muy bien, Marc. Tanketa, indeed.
Kevin Durant – 31 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 4 stl, 9-9 ftm. I finally saw Thunderstruck, and although it pails in comparison to the pantheon of films such as Space Jam and Kazaam, it was still better than Like Mike. What I don’t understand in these movies is how they just completely lose their “talent” overnight. I mean, 50% of their talent is derived from their height and athletic build. You telling me you can’t jump anymore because some punk kid wished on a star? I learned a lesson in the movie though and that was you have to earn talent with hard work, (it also helps to be born tall and strong, with high vertical leaping ability) you can’t just steal it from an All-Star with crazy gypsy magic. Also, Jim Belushi is the worst.
Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap, as fantasy basketball continues next week, all week long!
