Jeremy Lin started over Iman Shumpert again, which suggests three things: 1) Shumpert is still very, very raw and not ready to lead this team anywhere but downward. 2) Baron Davis will be used when he returns. Oh, yes. He will be quite used. And 3) Lin is clearly the egghead New York threw out there for Utah to take aim at, while Carmelo Anthony everyone else ran the show. But he finished all night at the basket! He was poetic! Agreed. It was a great game for Jeremy, but I’m not sold that the Knicks found their answer. This happens all the time. A team doesn’t do it’s scouting on a guy and the guy goes off. It happened with Douglas. It happened with Shumpert. You watch. Lin is like the infantry helmet one half of the platoon raises up on a stick to draw fire from the enemy, while the other half of the platoon sneaks around the back way to slice their throats with bowie knives. If I ever played professional basketball against an Ivy Leaguer, I’d never NOT make him try to draw a charge. Still, Lin played a fine game for a team that has played very few fine games this season. Stoudemire was out, Carmelo injured his no-no zone, Chandler was in foul trouble and so what you got left? The P’n’R with Lin and Jared Jeffries for days, son. Lin ended the first half with 9 points and 7 assists in 21 minutes and finished with 28 points and 8 assists in 45 minutes. Forty-five minutes!?! Okay, fine. If you dumpeddumped ShumpShump, I can no longer hold it against you, just as I can no longer hold it against you if you’ve forgotten which way is the correct spelling of Tony/Toni/Toney Douglas. At this point, the best strategy is to own whoever the starting Knicks PG is. Lin is the man now. It won’t last, but he should be owned now, while he’s playing that many minutes. It’s that easy. All he does is Lin!
Carmelo Anthony – Pulled his groin and went to the locker room, which just illustrates how backward this team is: it’s far more appropriate to pull one’s groin once inside the locker room, not before you get there! That’s so ‘Melo! Bill Walker is the add, which should be good for about 25 percent of Anthony’s production. Just 75 more to go!
Steve Novak – Season-high 19 points including 5 threes. His previous high this season was 9 points and 3 threes. His previous high before that was with friends at Bonnaroo.
Jose Calderon – Since his 17-assists asplosion against the Wiz on Friday, Kettle has assisted only 7 times in the two games since (including another one against the Wiz last night). He’s the second best player on the Raptors, which means the Raptors aren’t good at playing professional basketball.
Linas Kleiza – Sank a season-high 30 last night, and has scored at least 15 in five of his last six. He’s also sank 17 threes in his last seven games. Also, I might have meant that he sunk 17 threes. Or maybe sanked. Sunken, maybe? Is sanka a thing? Maybe I meant sanka.
Greivis Vasquez – Jarrett Jack out last night and likely tomorrow, allowing Vasquez to air his grievances (20/2/9 last night) for the next two games. Stream it.
Chris Singleton – Started in place of Rashard Lewis and ended with 4/2 and a block. So, um … success!
Jameer Nelson – Returned after a week long layoff to go 15/3/12. Raise your hand if you saw that coming. Okay, now all of you put your hands down you damn dirty liars.
Hedo Turkoglu – Only played 25 cold minutes in an overtime loss to the Clips. A few more onlys before we move on. 0-for-6. Only grabbed two boards. Only got to the line never.
Jason Richardson – 2.7 3ptm/16.3 pts/5.7 rbd/3 ast/1 stl/1 blk in his last three coming into this game. He dropped 20/3/2, with 3 threes last night. What does it all mean? I dunno. I’m the numbers guy, you come up with the meaning.
Kenneth Faried – Starting! Fouling! Disappointing! … Especially disappointing considering Faried was starting alongside Lawson, Gallinari and a couple guys I’m pretty sure won a radio call-in contest.
Luis Scola – 25/8/3, Probably his best performance all year. It just takes a little accidental stomping. I own Scola in one league: More Stompings, Please!
Jason Thompson – 4/2/0, in 17 foul-riddled minutes. I would have preferred another double-double, but he decided to go in another direction.
Chris Kaman – 10/12, with 2 blocks. Likely could have gone for 14-16 points last night if he hadn’t been so rusty. Gustavo Ayon played poorly and, although I wasn’t leaning toward Kaman yesterday, I am today. Kaman won’t save your team, but he could help it.
Derrick Rose – Rose’s toes was froze, so off to the locker room, again, he goes. I’d tell Razzballers to grab C.J. Watson, but everyone already knows.
Mehmet Okur – DeShawn was out and Mar$hon was out and Morrow was out and mares eat oats and dos eat oats and the little Nets won’t thrivey. I’ve got nothing else to say about a game that saw a 21-point chasm after one quarter.
Andrew Goudelock – In his last six coming into last night: 20 mpg/.490/1.000/9 3ptm/ 63 pts. Last night he went 4-for-6, scored 9 and hit a three. For you deep leaguers looking for a Korver-alternative, here he is.
Spencer Hawes – 13.5 pts/11.8 rbd/3.7 ast/2.2 blk in the first six games of his season, 8.3 pts/5.6 rbd/2.1 ast/1 blk, in his next eight, including last night. Haweful. I’m calling sell-high on him before word spreads.
Channing Frye -Ended with 19 points and 3 threes. It was just the second time in his last 13 games that he scored in double-digits or sank multiple threes. It’s the first time in 14 games that he did both simultaneously.
Randy Foye – If you own Billups, you know that he was carted off the floor like damsel being helped over a puddle. If you own Mo Williams, you already started drooling at the prosepct of more playing time. If you already own Randy Foye … well, you probably don’t already own Randy Foye. If you do, for God’s sake drop him and pick him right back up so that people don’t know you were rostering him for some damn reason. If Billups misses time, Foye is the new Mo is the new Chauncey. Dig it?
Danny Green – 0-for-8. Green stood on the court for almost 30 minutes and had only a quartet of assists and boards to show for it. That’s it. And I’m pretty sure Quincy Pondexter tripped and fell into Green, lost the ball and the Memphis scorer’s table just awarded him a block. Pity block! Green can quietly fill a box score, similarly to James Johnson, but unlike Johnson, Green’s unreliability isn’t adorable.
Tony Allen – Speaking of Quincy Pondexter, Tony Allen is not him. Pondexter was just pretending to be him while Allen recovers from his hip and knee injuries. I’m not a fan of owning Allen, but I’m 100 times more supportive of that decision than the decision to own Pondexter.
