I love Sports. WORST CLICHE OPEN EVER! But seriously, what makes sports awesome is you can have very little interest in one-particular game, then all the sudden you’re watching something unbelievable. A great example was that 2013 Alabama Auburn game that I flipped on for the 4th quarter then the way short field goal ended up being an Auburn TD. I had no stake in that game! But sooooo glad I just happened to flip to it… Then it happened again on Saturday night.
I know what you’re saying… “But JB, it’s GSW and OKC, you weren’t planning your whole weekend around that matchup?!” Well, I have none of those guys on my favorite teams (who are we kidding, none on my REL team), and was out Saturday night anyway at my buddy’s house. We kinda nonchalantly put it on in the background, then the next thing you know, Stephen Curry is running back out of the tunnel like a gladiator after his injury and we watched one of the best regular-season NBA games I’ve ever seen. If not THE best.
In case you missed it during the depths of the offseason, I wrote a pretty lengthy rant on the awfulness that was Interstellar. At some point during the movie, Anne Goaway says something like “Love is the ONE THING that can transcend time and space” or some crap expository dialogue… Well, Christopher Nolan, looks like you need to do a 4-years-too-late re-write! It should be “Stephen Curry’s jump shot is the ONE THING that can transcend time and space”! I don’t think I need to transpose his numbers ever again; he just is the best at basketball. And the game was a little bit of a microcosm of his career – started fine but not awesome, got a kankle, but persevered and was able to get back into the game, then was the best shooter the NBA has ever seen. Cleaning house of awards and records like Mad Max: Fury Road last night! To think he went to college less than a mile from my childhood house and I sat right behind him once at a Davidson College game! I should’ve tried to nab his mouthguard when it was hanging out on a FT shot… Here’s what else went down over the weekend of fantasy hoops action, plus The 7 Ahead for Week 18:
Kyle Lowry – Got blindsided for the Best Performance Oscar by Curry, and what’s funny is I watched a good bit of the Raptors/Cavs game last Friday night thinking THAT was one of, if not the best regular season games this year! I also remember thinking I could write something like “he could flirt with MVP consideration with games like that, if not for someone named Curry…” Lowry just took it over, going 15-20 from the field for 43/5/9/4/0. Too bad he played 42 minutes and Casey ended up sitting him last night though, I bet that hurt a few owners wrapping up the week…
Marvin Williams – Starvin Marvin was starvin’ for some big lines, and patient owners got a huge weekend of 26/13/1/1/2 and 16/9/1. Might be worth checking your wire if any satiated owners decided to not be starvin’ in the 10ers when he was cold.
Robert Covington – Lord Covington was feeling all royal like Lorde last Friday night, going 12/12/0/3/3 with 3 treys against the Wiz. He’s been annoying, but good enough to keep holding in most leagues.
Doug McDermott – He’s quickly becoming a ThrAGNOF poster-child! Scoring, treying, and his other stats are emptier than the Oscars were of black nominees. Wow, they didn’t skimp on clowning around about that last night, did they?!
Bobby Portis – Got busy on the boards against the Blazers Saturday night, going 10/16/2/0/1 in 28 minutes off the bench. Ol’ crazy eyes getting freaky on the glass!
Raymond Felton – Here’s something I definitely didn’t expect to say this year (or ever) – he put his team on his back and willed the Mavs to a W against the Nugs Friday night. Now, if he put the team in his belly, I could buy that. If the Mavs crashed their plane in the Rockies during their flight out of Denver, we all know who would recommend cannibalism first…
David Lee – After going 14/14 on Friday night, continued to be usable for 13/9/1/2/1 last night against the TimberPups. I’m still not investing in 12ers, but any deeper, eesh I guess maybe a flier.
D.J. Augustin – 36 minutes in that OT-loss to the Dallas Feltons, going 20/2/3 with 3 treys. Emmanuel Mudiay played only 26 minutes in an OT game, but I gotta imagine they keep developing the raw rook. Not buying DJ getting this kinda run most of the time.
Danilo Gallinari – Noooooooo, The Rooster sprained his talon! Or whatever a rooster’s foot would be called… Got a kankle and will miss 3-4 weeks. If you’re on the bubble and have no IL spot, you gotta choke the chicken!
Chris Paul – 40/8/13, and at first I was like, “Whoa, 40 points?!” Then I saw it was against the Kings… Almost anyone can score 40 on the Kings…
Seth Curry – 26 minutes and a career-high 19 Pts in that game vs. the Clip. Rajon Rondo sat with both a thumb and toe injury on Friday, which I’m guessing had to do with yet another fall in the shower.
P.J. Hairston – Had back-to-back surprising games last Wednesday and Friday, scoring 17 and 21 Pts. Went down to 4 points of nothingball last night, and hasn’t done a single damn thing the rest of his Grizzlies career besides those 2 games. The commonality of Wed/Fri? Both against the Lakers…
Lance Stephenson – Well, his Memphis career got a nice kick start with these sick moves…
…then went 12/4/3 last night. With not much else going on other than a handful of Pts/Reb/Ast, there’s not much to see here except hopeful Shaqtin’ A Fool nominations.
Hassan Whiteside – 13/15 with 8 blocks at Boston, and yet continued to come off the bench with meh minutes for 16/11/0/3/2 in only 26 minutes against the Knicks last night. Better watch it Spoelstra, Hassan might pull a Kelly Olynyk or Boban Marjanovic in practice this week!
Joe Johnson – Quickly turned around and made it to NY for his Heat debut last night, going 12/3/3/0/0 with 3 TO. Tough to see him doing much more than that… I’m jumping ship in all 12ers.
Jared Sullinger – For the love of multi-cat! His STL and BLK had been really light lately, but beefed em up against the Heat over the weekend for 12/12/4/2/3. Rainbow me Sully!
Eric Gordon – Wow, what a return! 31/3/2/3/0 after missing 16 games to a broken finger, and given the smarts of the Pelicans medical staff, the next time he goes in a slump they’ll recommend pulling out a hammer and breaking another one…
Draymond Green – Lost in that Steph game was an absolutely unreal line from #OccupyDraymondGreen! Well, every part of it was unreal except the scoring, as it might be the best 0-8 FG 2-5 FT game in history. 2/14/14/6/4, and doesn’t get a double-rainbow because he couldn’t buy a basket! I would say something musta been wrong with the rims, but ya know, Curry…
Serge Ibaka – Finally, some boards! 20 REB in that game, I’m guessing all on Draymond misses…
Alex Len – We’ve stayed high on him since the Markieff Morris trade, and patience has paid off with a 22/16/1/1/2 line against the Grizz. Get him in all leagues!
Rudy Gobert – Monsieur Elbow! There’s that mammothian groove we ranked him for! 12/19/0/1/6 against the Nets, especially nice after two duds.
Terrence Ross – Explosion off the bench! 27 Pts on 10-19 shooting with 4 treys, but nothing else in his statline. If you need scoring upside in 14+ team leagues or deeper, then why not? If you’re in something shallower and considering it, WHY?!
Elfrid Payton – Uggghhhh, SKIIIIIIIIIIIIILES! I said, SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES!!!!!!! 27 minutes then a big 33 minutes last night in his lines over the weekend, wrapping up on a 11/4/10/1/1 statstuffer of “dammit-maybe-I-shouldn’t-have-dropped-him”. Evan Fournier has a bummy wrist, but it’s been more about Brandon Jennings playing sub-17 minutes in 4-straight, after 25+ his first two in Orlando. Friggin’ Skiles.
Shabazz Muhammad – Woooo, how about that for a stream call!? Wasn’t monstrous on Saturday, but I recommended him as a Sat/Sun stack last week in limited moves leagues, and he wrapped up on a 24/5/0/0/1 line. Great way to end it!
The 7 Ahead
- 5-game week: n/a
- 4-game weeks: BOS, BKN, DEN, HOU, IND, LAL, MEM, MIA, MIL, OKC, PHI, PHO, POR, SAC, UTA, WAS
- 2-game week: n/a
- Weekly League Streamers (by Y! ownership percent/games this week): JaMychal Green (3%/4), Matt Barnes (43%/4), Josh Richardson (1%/4), Gary Harris (24%/4)
- Stream days: Thursday
Overall Thoughts: Booooooo, another week with nothing but 3 or 4-game schedules! Where’s the 5-gamers or 2-game frustrations?!
We get a second straight week of a nice schedule spread as well, with only one night of under-5 games and a weekend without an overfilled night. So use your streams wisely, as Wednesday might be your only full-roster day.
For my streamers, I’m lovvvvvvvin’ me some JaMychal! Brandan Wright got a scary knee injury Saturday night, so minutes should be there for JaMychal this week. MEM gets @DEN, SAC (mmmmm!), UTA, PHO as well. Gary Harris kinnnnnnnda feels like cheating, in that he should probably be owned in all leagues. With the injuries in DEN, Harris stands to benefit from a few more shots and he was getting unreal run anyway. Speaking of that Rooster injury, Darrell Arthur is seeing a few more minutes, and can contribute across the board as a stretch 4. Then I’m going bold with my final stream! The Heat get CHI (meh), then PHO, @PHI, PHI to round out their week (yummy!). Joe Johnson has pushed Gerald Green to DNP land; Richardson is getting run playing backup PG, which Green can’t really do. If Richardson sticks with these heavy minutes he’s seen lately, it’s a great week of matchups for him.
Monday: CLE, IND, PHI, and WAS come in on back-to-backs to start the week, so double check any banged up guys there. LeBron James already got his DNP-rest, so he should be good to go to start Week 18. BKN is the only team heading INTO a b2b, and it’s a West Coast trip, so check in with your Nets there. Overall it’s a 7-game slate, and you gotta love your Thunder after that loss to the Warriors in the most favorable matchup at all – @SAC. If Markieff Morris was cut in your league, he had his best game against the Sixers 2 games ago and WAS gets them again tonight – I bet he has a nice one.
Tuesday: 6 games on Tuesday for a nice distribution of action to start the week, with CHA, CHI, LAL, ORL, and POR heading into b2bs. If you want to play the boring Courtney Lee, this would be the only time to use him in a b2b vs. PHO and @PHI. Also look for your fringy Nets on the second leg of a b2b @LAL to maybe have some run – your ThrAGNOF Bojan Bogdanovic and Wayne Ellington types.
Wednesday: As with your prototypical NBA week, Wednesday is the bigun with 22 teams active on an 11-game slate. NO, OKC, SAC and SA head into b2bs, so if you’re forced to stream Wednesday, be careful of those guys. Looking at you, Pop! As always, I look at the SAC matchup and they’re heading to Memphis. I already like JaMychal as mentioned above, but even Mario Chalmers and Lance Stephenson could be usable.
Thursday: Our only “stream day”, with a paltry 4-game slate on NBA night on TNT, or whatever it’s called… MIA and PHO go into b2bs, so if you’re streaming from those squads, be sure to check in – thinking about Dwyane Wade and Tyson Chandler. Yay, another Kings matchup! Gotta look at all your Mavs available as they host SAC, looking at Raymond Felton and David Lee there. Wow, Lee is up to 48% owned?! Maybe he’s not out there in enough leagues… I also like the Heat hosting Phoenix; as mentioned above I cut Joe Johnson everywhere, but he could be worth streaming in that one, as could Ronnie Price. In real-life NBA, the Warriors host OKC. Mmmmmm. This time, I’ll plan to watch!
Friday: Like last week, we have a pretty spread weekend. But this time a little heavier Friday, with 20 teams in action. A ton of teams have Fri/Sat stacks for limited moves leagues like the RCLs – ATL, BOS, BKN, CLE, IND, MIN, NY, UTA and WAS all have b2bs for streaming, then you can save a move or two for Sunday if you wanna go that route. None of those teams have matchups that really “stand out”, so I’d just nab the best overall available for the stats you need from those squads.
Saturday: We pull back to an 8-game slate on Saturday, and if you want to wait for Sat/Sun stacks like I procrastinate and tend to do in RCLs, maybe you should re-think it. Both DET and HOU have weekend stacks, unfortunately Detroit still doesn’t have anyone that streamable. And well, Houston isn’t much better, so maybe we need to focus on the Fri/Sat stack teams. Patrick Beverley is under 50% owned but barely, and he’s about the only guy worth a long look. If FT% is already a loss, maybe you roll the dice on either Josh Smith or Clint Capela, but Capela is dealing with a foot sprain, so he’d have to be back on the court by then. We also have the last SAC matchup of the week, going @SA. It’s tough to get excited for any Spur though in the streaming context, as Pop lathers it too thin, like an underbuttered toast.
Sunday: Finally, we wrap on a 7-game Sunday. Be careful with DAL, GSW, MEM, and MIL as final day streams, as they head into b2bs for Sun/Mon. I’m particularly worried about those first two – the Mavs have frequently benched guys, and GSW goes at the Lakers Sunday. I could see one of the studs getting a DNP-rest for Golden State. For some other options to round out your week, POR@DET should have some nice pace if you wanna roll the dice on any lower-tier Blazers (not Moe Harkless though, got a DNP-CD last night and I told you to not invest!), MEM hosts PHO which should be an easy win there (go JaMychal!), and PHI goes @MIA. As mentioned above, I’m going bold with a Josh Richardson stream, so if the minutes and production stay up through the week, I could see taking the dart throw in that game.
The playoffs are around the corner, Razzball Nation! I hope you had a strong weekend to wrap up last week, and let’s get some Ws in Week 18!
