Well… Larry Sanders hasn’t had the best few weeks… The Colonel held his injuries from the field surgeon just long enough to keep hope alive in his troops, but had to undergo the knife to repair his thumb and will be out 6 weeks. Was it from a punch, the champagne bottle, or just getting too close in the delivery room? No one will ever know. Talk about easily the biggest fantasy bust this season thus far. With no IR spot, drop this dude. Zaza Pachulia is now a big pickup for anyone needing big man stats. Za/Za is such a good Scrabble play! Definitely a go-to for 60+ point moves on the triples. If you have the cajones to challenge me in Words With Friends, hit me up (user ID: Jbronze). But if I smell any Word Gen, I’ma publicly smite you! Oh yeah, hoops, John Henson gets a big boost as well looking at consistent run. But beware Henson’s terrible FT shooting and prepare thusly. Speaking of thusly, herebe the NBA beings-all I saw last fortnight (wait, doesn’t that mean like 20 days ago? Eh you know what I meant):
Derrick Rose – Tweaked the hammy last night. The Rose comeback isn’t quite going as expected. Luckily the Bulls are off until Friday and he could avoid missing any time. Maybe that weird neck brace that just looked like electrical tape can go on the back of his leg too.
Wilson Chandler – Stupid, stupid, stupid. We need you Wilson. WILSON!!!! Maybe I should just let you float away. All signs pointed to him playing last night, but it’s looking like it’ll be Wednesday. Dr. Spalding would not clear him for action quite yet.
Steve Nash – Going to miss at least two weeks with some sort of nerve root damage or something. I think it’s called being old. Steve Blake will get good run to continue his hot start.
Omri Casspi – I love him, as you all know. Finished out the first half over Omer Asik for 2/4/3/1/1 in his first 14 minutes of action, with the Rockets +17 while he was on the floor to Asik’s +1. Ended with a 5/6/4/1/1 line, and a plus 16 while no other Rocket had a double-digit + on the game. They’re going to figure this out and start running Casspi. But then they started Terrence Jones to start the third. Very odd. Then Jones, after playing 16 minutes all year got over 32 off the bench! Apparently they liked him for the Rudy Gay defensive matchup, and Gay was awful (below). Also, no Francisco Garcia in this one. Casspi has been dealing with a sore ankle that may have limited a few extra minutes in this 2OT game, but it’s worth noting Chandler Parsons is dealing with some back spasms and played 50 minutes last night. I could see Casspi having a nice run coming up with @ PHI @ NYK (who have been atrocious) DEN BOS as the next four. Easily all 4 could be blowouts and get bench minutes going and Parsons some rest. Garcia will get good minutes too. Not buying Jones.
Gordon Hayward – Played possessed last night. I liked him heading into the year, but only have him on one team. That makes me a sad panda. He did fade a little in the second half, but 22/3/2/1/2 line despite 7 TOs. 41 minutes, and he looked a lot better than that line would indicate. Me likey.
Jonas Valanciunas – 10/13/3 in 30 minutes but fouled out. Still not quite Luminescent, but he’s been fine. Shimmering-ish.
Kawhi Leonard – Back in the starting lineup as I had expected – only coming off the bench against the Knicks because of matchups. 13/8/3/2/0 isn’t huge, but I bet when you look up at the end of the season, it’ll be quality ya-yo.
Michael Carter-Williams – Ugh. 2-11 but rainbow line! 8/2/4/3/3, and only 2 TOs to offset the poor shooting. As long as MCW doesn’t make friends with Donovan McNabb, he could walk on water in Philly.
Spencer Hawes – Every big man that is against me in the REL is having huge rebounding nights. 17/13/3 with 2 swats. Nerlens who?
Jeff Ayres – 25 minutes going 6/6/2. I probably should throw in he’s on the Spurs since I wasn’t sure. Sure he was in a Spurs uniform, but if some random big comes off the bench that I don’t know who it is, I always think it’s Matt Bonner going incognito, dying his ginger hair. Ugh, incognito is not a good vocab word to use in sports there days, is it?
Toronto Ball Hogs – Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan both had 18 shots at the end of the third quarter. Someone didn’t teach them to share. And you wonder why LL isn’t getting the shots… Gay ended up going 11-37 and setting the Raptors franchise record in shots taken. Not surprisingly, he did NOT set the record for points scored…
Damian Lillard – Made two shots less than 3 minutes into the game last night, after going 1-15 on Saturday. Just thought that was funny.
Andrew Bynum – Started?! What the H David Blaine!? 21 minutes 3-5 (5-5 FT) 11/6/2 and 2 blocks. You’ll take that if he could play every game…
Tristan Thompson – Third straight dub-dub going 14/13. Ready for something ridiculous? He has 1, repeat, one assist ON THE SEASON! For a guy averaging over 38 minutes a game. Tough to do. Has a 1:16 Ast:TO ratio hahaha.
Trey Burke – Got an update from the hand specialist that he needs a manicure. Oh, and that he can resume dribbling and 1-on-1 activities. Still a few weeks out. Jazz can wait until he’s for sure 100%, then run the bejesus outta him.
Danny Green – Second straight good game, shooting 6-9 (5-7 3PTM) 18/7/3/1/1. Welcome back to fantasy relevance! Eh, well it was early so hopefully you held strong even though he was a popular drop. Worth being sure he’s not on your wire.
Corey Brewer – I like him more every game. The stat line didn’t show it last night, but played with huge intensity, ran the floor, and kept a smile on his face despite a lot of big contact no calls. In a day and age where everyone complains every call, Brewer is my G. Oh wait, fantasy, that’s right…
Kevin Martin – K-Mart has been anything but Chapter 11, taking a whopping 22 shots, making 9. I watched this game and that was astounding to me, I coulda sworn Love took more, but he had 19. Martin hit 4 threes, 8-8 FT for another 30-point game. Yeah, I sold him short in the rankings… Although I do love the irony that in home games K-Mart plays in Target Center!
Kevin Love – Dude, the Timberwolves are becoming my favorite team. Bandwagon? Definitely, sorta, a little. But Love missed the putback layup at the last second you’ve probably seen the highlight of by now, and he just smiled and pointed to his bench and said “my bad!” It was the same reaction your friend would give after they farted in a full car on a cold wintery day. This team is so fun.
Ricky Rubio – Still can’t provide any scoring, but hit a 3 and shot 100% from deep! 1-1 counts! 5/1/10 and 2 steals. Not huge, but love the dollar worth-a dimes.
Nikola Pekovic – 11-15 and just abused DeAndre in the post. 25/10 game. Pek in ya step!
Jamal Crawford – Was the main reason the Clips won this game. Obviously there’s no direct causation, but he hit a 60-footer buzzer beater to close the third and they won by 2. He was ballin’. 18/2/6, the 6 dimes a season-high on the young year. J.J. Redick kinda disappeared and JC was Superstar.
DeAndre Jordan – Hack a ‘Dre made this a close game. I think he airballed one… 0-6 FT. Yikes, yeah he’s gonna have to get pulled at times in the 4:00-2:00 left range.
Chris Paul – Double digit assists in all 8 games to begin the year. He’s going after Rajon Rondo‘s 34 straight.
Epic Jeremy Lin vs. Patrick Beverley Celebrity Death Match – That would be a good one! Lin went 10-17 in 46 minutes in the double-OT extravaganza for 31/5/0 (yes, zero assists!)/2/1. PBev an atrocious 0-5 1/4/0 (both PGs had zero dimes!)/0/0 line. Now PBev did get into some foul trouble, but it was unreal James Harden got 10 assists and both points had none. Still think Lin and PBev are valuable and about even. Sorry Slim, I hope you’re mentally OK after this PBev line…
Dwight Howard – If only he could hit free throws, he could join Nikola Vucevic as the only guys with Goromotaros! Still just Vuc with a 20/20 as Dwight went 4-12 from the stripe and stuck at 18/24. FT% punting teams with Dwight and DeAndre punted like Andy Lee last night.
Lance Stephenson – Been buying it since game 2. Triple double alert! What the hey?! Didn’t see that coming. 13/11/12. Maybe a tad of a sell high with George Hill still getting back into action, but this is legit from Lance.
Roy Hibbert – 3 Pts 5 Blks. Hilarious.
Memphis Grizzlies – I’m not going to get into individual names, because everyone is playing atrocious. This team is an utter mess right now. I’m scared if I own any Grizzly right now.
Paul Millsap – Of course he would cool off the day after rocking me in the REL last week. It’s like Fantasy Football luck…
Cartier Martin – Worth a look in deep leagues and turning out to be a solid REL FAAB buy. Definitely a ThrAGNOF streamer in all leagues. 16/3/2. shooting 5-7 and going 3-4 from downtown.
Charlie Day – Leading your Charlotte Bobcats in scoring… Josh McRoberts! Man, a lot of weird things went down on 11-11. 19/6/7 for a really solid line, but he’s anything but consistent.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – Very respectable 16/6/2 line on 6-11 shooting and 4-5 FT. Steals and blocks will trickle in. Still feeling good about being bullish on him.
Gerald Henderson – Not feeling as good on this one… 3-8 while 6, repeat SIX other Bobcats took double-digit shots. Very odd.
Olynyk of Nazareth – Got the start. 16/7/5/1/1. That’s really good for you Olynyk disciples. I just saw him look god (sorry) awful a few games back. But you can definitely cut poor ol’ Vitor Faverani in 12 teamers or under with only 15 minutes of 4/5 but did swat 2. I honestly don’t want either, Brad Stevens could flip flop em again.
Jordan Crawford – Ascending all year to the pantheon of a 16/5/10 line last night. Worth a slight gamble in deeper leagues if he’s on the wire.
Avery Bradley – The same, shooting 10-15 last night. Almost everyone was on for the C’s.
Andrew Nicholson – As I foresaw, fading into the ether… Or Ethier… But you have to play Fantasy Baseball to get that one…
Jimmy Butler – Mannnnnnnnn… After the first game my high rank of a fellow JB was looking great. Then Godzilla let me down. If it’s possible I’d hold, I think he can go on multi-cat runs ala Danny Green’s return to form.
Denver Nuggets – I watched this game. The Nuggets looked awful, but played an awful-er team. Ty Lawson is awesome and J.J. Hickson is the big you want with JaVale McGee going down. Wilson Chandler might shoot a million shots a night when he’s at full strength.
Alec Burks – Still looked good out there at the eye level despite 2-9 7/5/1. Not a guy you need to hold onto by any means in 12 teamers or under, but deeper shouldn’t panic.
Brandon Jennings – 24 shots in a very Jennings-ish 28/4/5 line with 3 steals. Stay away from the dentist!
Josh Smith – This Pistons offense is going to have someone left out every night, and it was J Smoove this time. Not worried.
Andre Drummond – Ok Drummond fans, let me have it! I got the better end last game! And therein lies the inconsistency. 16/16/2/2/1 is monstrous. He was against Robin Lopez though. And Lopez blows. 7 of those boards were offensive (nice call El Burro, I think that was your theory on the bad Jennings misses!) but still think this is a better Drummond line than most.
Next Game: None tonight, but then ramping up for WAS @ SAS on Wednesday. Looking to see if Danny Green can stay hot and oping for big games from Wall and Kawhi. Good luck in the short slate of games tonight!
