Pressed into additional service with Nicolas Batum out sick, Jeremy Lin started for the Hornets last night and played like Linsanity was back in full effect. At 47 minutes of action, even a few cans of Dapper Dan wouldn’t keep the mohawk afloat! As the game pressed on, the spikes kept drooping like wet noodles. “Hey Jeremy, the trainer has a handful of Elmer’s Glue for you on the bench for a touch up!” I still can’t understand how he can play through a really sweaty game, and have it not feel like he just dunked his head in a pool full of Vaseline.
Whatever product he uses is just gonna ooze down his whole face! While looking like a melting wax statue, Lin went nuts for 35/5/3/0/2 on 13-22 FG (2-5 3PTM 7-9 FT). He was constantly attacking the rim and all over the defensive glass, really giving this starting opportunity 100%. Unfortunately there’s nothing too actionable with the strong performance, as Batum should be back soon after his rough Chipotle visit and Lin will be back to a swing man off the bench. If your streamed Lin then hat’s off to you (mainly because Lin can’t wear a hat), and it does let us know that if Batum should suffer a prolonged injury, you can feel pretty good calling Lin a must-add. You’d bust out your Ben Stiller hair gel, spike up your hair, and enjoy the ride! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Terrence Ross – Got hot early for a few treys and played pretty well for 17/1/1/1/0 on 6-12 shooting (5-10 3PTM). He’s played solid minutes these last six with DeMarre Carroll out with a bum knee, but it hadn’t shown much on the stat sheet since they played the Lakers a few weeks ago. ThrAGNOF!
DeMar DeRozan – Making everyone mad! Hit a floater with under a minute left to give Slim his first point on the 30-point challenge board, then hits a crazy 45-foot jumper right before the buzzer to win the game!!!!!!!! Except, the poor Raptors called timeout, granted right when DeRozan was in mid-shot, I’m sure to the utter frustration of fans up North. It was a comedy of errors too, since Lowry motioned for timeout with about 3.5 seconds left after a missed FT, but was only granted with 0.7 secs left. Thanks for noticing, refs! Better late than never?! Then DeRozan doesn’t score in OT and the Hornets run away with it. Odd game. I hate Slim.
Kyle Lowry – My pick for 30 pts decided to be colder than a nudist going ice fishing. 6-29 from the field, including an incredulous 3-17 3PTM. Somehow still gets to 20 Pts in a 20/4/7/1/0 line, and hey! No TO! Blah.
Bismack Biyombo – Really embraced going against his former team, as his first few swats were followed by the Mutombo finger wag. Then once he got to 4 or 5, he ceased the wag. Especially after no-hops-Spencer Hawes posterized him! I couldn’t find a YouTube, but if you watch that vid, at 0:51 in slow motion you can see Hawes barely got it over the front rim! How Biyombo missed that, I dunno… Anyway, crazy 8/18/0/1/7 game for Bis, even hitting 4-6 of his FT. 18 Reb were a career best, the 7 blocks tied it, but he had 6 blocks combined the past 6 games. Still in the streamer big man range if not a dire need; obviously if you need a big he’s a hold.
Spencer Hawes – Speaking of Hawes, 5/10/4/3/1, but didn’t look particularly special out there. Especially dunking the ball with some help from the front rim for a 7-footer…
Cody Zeller – Yeah, maybe I did give him a little too much praise, but he did battle foul trouble in this one, fouling out in 21 minutes. I’m starting to not like Steve Clifford for fantasy that much…
Jeremy Lamb – Clifford played only a little Lamb, almost becoming a giant goat as the Hornets almost coughed up this game, instead giving P.J. Hairston the lion’s share of minutes. Now I’m hungry for animal crackers! Lamb was off a hot game (given some stats were in garbage time), but oddly only got 15 minutes in a Batum-less game. Hairston hit 4 treys without doing much else, yet played 36 minutes. I guess Clifford the Big Red Dog wanted to prioritize wing defense late rather than offense, but A – the sputtering O almost cost Charlotte the game and B – the Raptors were playing so small, Marvin Williams was on DeRozan (who I guess was playing the 4?!?!), with Hairston just sitting on Ross. That sounded weird.
Kemba Walker – 27/6/7/1/2 on 10-24 shooting, including clutch drives to the rim late. Unlike Lowry, after realizing his perimeter shot was way off (0-3), decided to find other ways to score…
LeBron James – While I’m sure most people were watching OKC@CLE, I obviously watched that whole Hornets game. Boy did I miss some craziness! Either you can’t fault LeBron’s effort game-in and game-out, or he’s really jealous of the talent golfers can pull! I probably shouldn’t keed, but if you missed it, LeBron hurled into the stands and sent Jason Day’s wife to the hospital. Pretty sure she’ll be OK, while fantasy owners were probably more worried about a LeBron injury! He was fine, and had a solid line of 33/9/11/2/0, but with 7 TO. Pretty sure that collision should’ve counted for a few more TO as well…
Matthew Dellavedova – Every time he gets a dimebag, god kills a kitten… 11/5/10 in 39 minutes. It just shouldn’t be happening…
Kevin Love – A little bit of a dud for 11/7/5/2/0, and after we talked up how well his numbers were looking in Higher/Lower on the Pod a few weeks ago, he’s actually scored 11 Pts or fewer in 4 of the last 6, and had a 4-game stretch with no treys last week. Luckily he hit 2 in this one, although one was pure garbage as he was going for the foul and line-drived the shot in. Thanks for the shooting help, Nick Collison!
Kevin Durant – Battle of the PF Kevins went to Durant (wait, when would it not?!), going 25/3/5/0/2 with a couple of treys and beautiful 9-10 FT. The sputtering Wiz who are losing SF left and right are just salivating right now…
Russell Westbrook – As usual, the two OKC studs played well, with Westy going 27/3/10/3/0. Wait, no tripdub?! What happened on the glass last night, Westy?!
Serge Ibaka – And really the triumvirate of Thunder all played well if you include Ibaka in there, going 8-14 from the field for 23/9/1/0/1 and two treys. The blocks come in bursts, but it was nice to see the 5 3PTA were a season-high. Even though it might hurt his FG% which is at a solid 49%, I kinda wish his 3PTA were close to 3 a game than 1.4…
Rest of the Thunder – No one did anything except show some really efficient fouling. Steven Adams and Enes Kanter both fouled out in a combined 46 minutes. No player scored over 6 Pts. Yikes.
Terrence Jones – Wooooooo! Glad I held him on the few RCLs I had him just for a Thursday game. He was already dropped yesterday morning before the game in one of them, but I’m holding just in case for another. 16/4/2/0/1 on 5-7 from the field, 5-6 FT, and a trey. All of that in… only 21 minutes yet again… Well, he did what he was supposed to, which is tear apart the Lakers. So at least we know he’s not dead.
Clint Capela – Near rainbow! 10/12/1/2/4, but should have half his stats removed after being posterized by his grandpa, aherm, Kobe. Kobe could literally be in the next Uncle Drew movie without needing any makeup… I guess Capela is the guy to own if you need production right now between he and Tjones, as he has at least 1 STL and 1 BLK in each of the past 3. But it’s tough to give full reliance on either. If more a stash, Tjones is your guy, maybe there’s a trade.
Donatas Motiejunes – Dmo, also known as “that other girl”, popped in for 8/4/2 with a trey, but 3 TO and 1-4 FT shooting. He really shouldn’t be getting 19 minutes to Tjones’s 21. Put that all in Jones’s basket!
Kobe Bryant – Posterizing dunk, however awful-izing your FT%! 22/8/3/0/1 on 9-16 from the field, but decided his usual missed shots should come from the stripe this time. I hope he adopts the granny shot, ya know, being old and all…
Julius Randle – Gets benched, but instead of sulking and not playing hard, is putting up the numbers. 18/10/2/1/0 in only 23 minutes, shooting 6-15 from the field, 5-6 from the stripe which has been a bugaboo, and even added his first career trey. Efficient with threes is good with me!
D’Angelo Russell – …which is the polar opposite of D last night. 2/3/7/1/0, the 7 AST are nice, but 4 TO, 1-9 shooting, and 0-4 from deep. D’Angelo Barksdale got lost amongst dem towers! It was a long fight to take dem towers! Instead, he’s been sent to The Pit…
Larry Nance Jr. – 11/5/0/1/1, but you can’t trust him in anything but the deepest of leagues. Even then, anything you get out of his low-20 min starts is gravy. I MISS THANKSGIVING ALREADY!
I hope everyone had a wonderful final full work week before the Holidays, and looking forward to a great final few weeks of 2015. I’ll be back on Monday to recap the weekend and preview week 9, so I’ll catch ya then Razzball Nation!
