Crazy game in OKC last night! It was a crazy night across the board! For a while I thought the Sixers were really going to pull that one out – had the lead most of regulation and then clawed back late – but Russell Westbrook playing like Michael Jordan these days got the Thunder the OT win.
Behind all of RW’s historical hooblah which we’ll go into later, is Isaiah Canaan‘s career game. Career best 31 points on 10-16 FG (8-13 3PTM 3-3 FT) 31/7/6/1/0. And of course he does that right after I said you’d rather own Ish Smith! And Ish did ish in 15 minutes… All that said, Canaan had 29 early in the 4th and the Sixers couldn’t figure out ways to consistently get their hot shooter the rock. The continuity was awful with Philly only staying in the game by taking some horrible deep 3 pointers with no spacing or rebounders. It felt like one of those college intramural games where the much better team was struggling because the other team’s scrubs kept hitting 3s for some reason. Did I say intramural? I meant more like every time Duke beats Chapel Hill! Only because of the 3s… Although Chapel Hill has trouble teaching their players the difference between “2” and “3” so there’s that… I would still Aaron Brooks over Canaan and I’m not dropping a valuable guy just for this hot shooting game. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Andrea Bargnani – Il Diva strikes again! 25/4/4/1/2 hitting 10-17 from the field and a couple of treys. The ageless Diva! He’s like the Madonna of NBA players. Hey, kinda like former Poppycoker Amar’e Stoudemire, ride it while it’s hot!
Ian Mahinmi – Picked up a start at C with Roy Hibbert out (siesta), and proves you can rest any mix of your starters and still get blowout wins against the Knicks.
Brandon Knight – Had a ridiculous inbounds interception to seal the win that would make Richard Sherman proud! 28/1/7/3/0 hitting 7-15 from the field with 4 treys and 10-12 FT. Maybe it won’t go so bad in Phoenix after all!
Eric Bledsoe – Still had a nice tripdub flirt (13/7/9/3/1) but a rough 7 TO. Those TO are still a little too high from a 5.9 APG guy for me to be too bold in his pre-rank next year.
Alex Len – Early foul trouble jacked up his flow, like putting extra cowbell in a Kanye song! 2/4/0/0/0 with 3 TO. Meh, just one of those games.
Markieff Morris – I feel like Kieff owners are unappreciative! I know there’s some ups and downs, but 23/6/2 last night on 11-17 shooting is useful… Wish some steals and blocks and maybe a trey would come with it, but he’s not a schlamato!
P.J. Tucker – 19/5/0/3/1 on 7-10 shooting and on a redonk roll the past 9 games. Mmmm, PbJ on a roll…
Victor Oladipo – The sell window is more open than a David Duchovny marriage! Sorry Tea Leoni, twas too easy, hope you’re not a reader! Monster career-high night for 38/4/3/3/0 on 15-25 FG (4-8 3PTM 4-4 FT). But dat playoff sched doe! And had 7 TO. In his previous 6 games – had 4 combined 3s and 5 combined steals. The points are there, but not diming and not going to play much for you in the postseason of H2H. Always be closing!
Elfrid Payton – After getting benched on Sunday, I imagine a lot of panicky owners let him go, but had a huge bounce back for 9/4/10/5/0. Had 5 TO, but the Elfrid is back off the shelfrid!
Dewayne Dedmon – James Borrego hinted at a line-up change, and starting Dedmon as a monster 4 is what he went with… Against the Suns who play small line-ups… Hmmm… 8/8/0/1/1 in 21 minutes hitting all 3 of his shots was a pretty promising showing, and had 5 fouls that may have kept the minutes low. Worth keeping an eye on for deepers.
Trey Burke – Tripdub flirt! 16/6/8 on 7-17 shooting. He’s so undependable though. “Undepends – the poop will just fall right out into your pants!”
Isaiah Thomas – Nice bounce back for IT2/3 (new nickname since it’s either, apparently… And ya know, he’s short as in 2/3 the size of a normal NBA player… Like/dislike?) hitting 6-12 shots for 21/3/7.
Tyler Zeller – If only buzzer-beaters were a cat! Still a pretty good 8/11/1/1/2 in a tough matchup against Rudy Gobert.
Kelly Olynyk – Welcome back, Olynyk of Nazareth! Andddddd, you can take a few more off… Came off the bench for 1 rebound and no other stats missing all 3 shots and committing 2 fouls. Still worth the own right now, and Brandon Bass can probably be released back into the lake.
Marvin Williams – Starvin’ Marvin’ was starvin’ for a start! 18/7/1/0/1 hitting 5-8 FG (4-5 3PTM 4-4 FT) getting the nod over Cody Zeller. I kinda think part of this was for the matchup against Joe Johnson technically starting at PF for the Nets (??), but the Hornets had one of their best games of the year. Maybe they roll with it, as Marvin was originally penciled in to be the stretch 4 coming into the season.
Kemba Walker – Whoa, reportedly got a great re-evaluation and could return in a week. Maybe I was too pessimistic on Kemba, as I haven’t suggested he’s a great stash, but that would put him a week ahead of his target return date on an injury I thought might linger. Still, Mo Williams is going mad ham, and outplaying what Kemba was doing anyway (14/3/14 with 2 treys last night). Maybe Kemba isn’t the huge minutes guy in the playoffs even after easing back.
Jarrett Jack – The low 21 bench minutes suck, but actually led the Nets in shots with 13. Didn’t help this was a blowout right away, but Jack was kinda decent for 9/4/3/2/0 with no TO. He’s not must-own anymore, but I think is underrated. Although in a tweet last night, I did recommend Canaan over him, so there’s that…
LeBron James – Whoa, faciliJames! 29/6/14, and facilitated a lot of Raptors rebounds with another poor 8-13 FT night.
The Luminescent Lithuanian – Better late than never! Or I guess, “better sporadic than never” works about as well… 26/11/1/0/2 on 12-17 shooting. Geez he’s so up and down… I don’t think I’d ever feel good drafting him for a few years.
Greivis Vasquez – Wasn’t too surprising to see Kyle Lowry have another night off when I read the tea leaves, and the big Twerp had a huge dimebag for 6/3/13/2/0. It wouldn’t be a shock at all to see one more Lowry DNP (at the least), with TOR resting him up for the postseason. Greivis is worth a short-term add.
Anthony Davis – Jebus! Say what you want about Brow being injury prone, but man it doesn’t cut into production! Absolutely monster rainbow 39/13/2/3/8 with only 1 TO on 17-30 shooting. I dunno man, even with the injuries I’m gonna have trouble having him below #1 next year.
Alexis Ajinca – Even with Brow back, the Frenchy isn’t stenchy! 10/11/2/0/1, and stiill has some deep-league big man usability.
Reggie Jackson – After StanVan benched him down the stretch last time out, R-Jax brought it for 14/5/11/2/0 last night. Sure 7-16 shooting, no 3s and 4 TO hurt, but good to see a bounce back.
Zach Randolph – Awesome seeing T Dog shake off his illness better than T Dog in The Walking Dead! 15/8/6/3/1, and that multi-cat line proves he should get sick more often!
James Harden – Returned from la suspencion (!) for 18/4/13/1/2 with a couple of treys. No trimming this beard!
Hassan Whiteside – Has his own gravitational force! 25 boards, but that force also makes FT difficult hitting only 6-13. 18/25/0/0/4 with 4 TO and with that bad FT, all-in-all it wasn’t the best. Where the tripdub with blocks games at?!
Goran Dragic – Got stretched back out from his back spasms for 21/4/6/3/1 on 6-10 FG and 8-8 FT. Over 55% shooting in 4 of 6 and hasn’t missed any FT the past 5 games. Old Dragon is back!
Jeremy Lin – The Linsanity continues! 12/2/8/4/0 with a trey and only 1 TO in 29 bench minutes. Jordan Clarkson also had a pretty good line for 10/7/5, but no steals and 4 TO on 3-11 shooting. It’s Lin for the win!
Kenneth Faried – Shaw was trying to tame the Manimal, but he hath now been unleashed! Huge rainbow line last night for 18/14/2/2/2 and even though he’s playing a little out-of-position at C, he’s Manimalizing. He’s Manimalingup. Manimalamazing.
Will Barton – The slasher! Should be his nickname. 17/6/2/2/0 hitting 6-10 FG (2-4 3PTM 3-4 FT) with no TO. And got another big helping of minutes at 30. I’m interested; I think he’s 12er worthy in a Corey Brewer-esque kinda way.
Nikola Pekovic – Returned from his kankle issues for 6/5/0/2/0 in 15 minutes. Yuck. But I hear something… shh… It’s getting louder… CHOO CHOO! Here comes the Dieng Train!
Gorgui Dieng – 33 minutes of 8/10/0/1/2. Not huge, but he’ll be solid down the stretch even with Pek back to play his five minute stints.
Russell Westbrook – Geez, what an unbelievable player. 49/16/10/3/1, setting career highs in scoring and rebounding. The last time a player had 4 straight tripdubs it was Michael Jordan in 1989. Geez, look at that Jordan game log! March and April 89 were insane! OK so this might be nuts, but it’s just a rambling thought, not something I 100% think. What if Westbrook becomes the Jordan and Kevin Durant the Scottie Pippen? Maybe that’s the swap that gets OKC over the edge… Probably not the case, and then again this was against the Sixers who hit every single 3 it seemed like… So they needed everything from RW…
Dion Waiters – The Sixers are small so the Thunder could go small, giving Waiters 39 minutes of 20/10/3/0/0. Meh, not too interested.
D.J. Augustin – Well, this stream call was right but on the wrong premise! I thought OKC would blow em out and Westbrook wouldn’t be needed for his full workload, but ended up Philly went uber-small and DJ still got 37 minutes next to Westbrook’s 42. DJ for 17/4/2/2/0 on 6-13 FG (2-5 3PTM 3-3 FT) and I think maintains a little value. It’s weird OKC wouldn’t play much combo G with Westbrook when Reggie Jackson was in town, but yeah, sounded like a lot of strife was going on behind the scenes.
Nerlens Noel – The beast of Captain N! 8/13/1/4/5 in a monster defensive line, but struggled with 3-10 shooting, 2-4 freebies and 5 TO. Still, very stoked to get him as a sleeper next year.
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute – Lots of crazy outlier stats in this game, including 5-name going 18/14/5 taking an absurd 21 shots. He must’ve just turned 21 to take 21 shots! Eh, who are we kidding, we know he’s 52.
Jason Richardson – Whoa, it’s 2005! 29/6/3/1/0 hitting 8-19 shots (9-9 FT) and 4 treys. Probably the most shocking number is 36 minutes played! Yeah, he might be headed to a DNP on Friday.
Ray McCallum – Well after tanking in the dream matchup against the Knicks, played much better last night in the blowout loss in San Antonio for 12/7/4/3/1. Eh, I don’t trust Ray Mac. Sounds like a line from Goodfellas.
DeMarcus Cousins – Ewwww. Only 3 rebounds against the soft interiored Spurs?! 14/3/0/3/2 with 5 TO and didn’t look good in 22 minutes. Damn those lingering kankles! Maybe Michael Moore can make a doc on those.
Michael Carter-Williams – It’s still so MCW! It’s still got that MCW taint! That sounded wrong… 16/4/7/2/0, but 5 TO and hit only 5-14. 6-6 FT through! Something glimmering with hope! Maybe he’ll give us some golden showers of FT%. I can’t get anything to sound right in this blurb!
Ersan Ilyasova – After a nice run, got sent to the bench. But no bother, still played 35 minutes for 13/10/1/1/0 with 3 treys. The Six-foot-one Turkey keeping it going!
Draymond Green – #Occupy baby! 23/12/5/3/3 and his stats are creating such class warfare on oppos. Although he did have a rough 1-6 FT. MCW magically transferred all his FT woes to DrayDray! Maybe transferred it through the taint. This is going so bad…
Shaun Livingston – Hmmm. 16/1/6/1/0, and now 3 of the past 4 games he’s been at least 11 Pts/4 Ast. Not huge or anything, but my eyebrow is raised for deepers. Then again, Leandro Barbosa only played his full role in one of those…
Damian Lillard – Hah so I was tweeting with Gallagher from Rotoworld in awe of all the crazy last night before I even stumbled upon this redonk Lillard line! I mean, what in the wide world of sports, amiright?! 5/18/4/0/0 hitting only 1-13 shots with 5 TO. It’s like, “hell I’m gonna hit the glass hard – both with my shot and with boards!” And this was off hitting 10-22 then 11-20 the previous two games! Must’ve been a full moon or something last night.
Nicolas Batum – Maybe “Batum” is French for “inconsistent”. An awesome 20/7/8/1/2 line last night with 4 treys, after COMBINING the previous two games with an 11/8/8/2/1 line with 2 treys. Eh well, if you’ve held this long at least you got a goodun!
Chris Paul – Twas a night of elite performances. 36/6/12/1/0 hitting 14-29 FG (2-6 3PTM 6-6 FT). Even with that line and the D on Lillard, couldn’t carry the Clips to a W!
Streamers/Cheap Daily League Picks:
D.J. Augustin (31% owned) – Back-to-back DJ streams! I’m like a club hopping European! I see OKC giving DJ the minutes again tonight and enough run to deliver vs. his former Bulls.
Devin Harris (17% owned) – With only 2 games it’s a little Slim Pickens out there, but I think Lillard plays a tenacious game after being terrible last night, and it’ll impact the even more terrible Rajon Rondo. Harris is still out there in a lot of leagues due to the low minutes, but the points are consistent and can chip in a few dimes and steals.
What a crazy Wednesday! I hope all your teams fared well, and we’ll catch you tomorrow Razzball Nation!
