A couple weeks back I pointed out that the Hornets were 4-0 this season when Marcus Thornton sees at least 22 minutes of pee-tee. Well, last night he saw a season-high 32 minutes and NOLA beat Orlando in overtime. Booyahkasha! It shouldn’t be this difficult. Play Thornton, win, repeat. Maybe like my uncle with the bad hips, three steps is just too many. So let’s remove the option to play Thornton, as it’s no longer really a choice with Marco Belinelli spraining his ankle 1:07 into the game yesterday. They have to play Thornton now. Eat it, Monty. I dislike having these two guys on the same team. I’m always forcing myself not to type Marcos Thornton or Marcus Belinelli! I don’t see Thornton dropping 22/9/1 every night like he did on Wednesday, but I see him doing it occasionally, occasionally a bit more, most often slightly less. That’s assuming Thornton gets enough occasions to prove me right or wrong, which ain’t a great assumption. Pick him up and see where he takes you.
Here’s what else I saw in fantasy basketball last night:
Hedo Turkoglu – 8/3/4. Hey there, Hedo! haven’t seen you in a while. Say hello to your mother for me.
Paul George – The young fella sank a quartet of treys in 18 minutes on his way to 16 points and two steals. This was the second-best game of his brief season. When this becomes his 10th or 11th best game – or if anything about the Pacers’ rotation begins making sense – we’ll take another look-see.
Darren Collison – Played 31 minutes and ended with a 17/5/4 line with three steals. I might have suggested playing him (or picking him up in shallower leagues) if he’d had a couple more assists. If you’re itchy, DarCo seems to be breaking out a little. Think go-go dancer wearing too much makeup-style breaking out, not a teenage debate team zit bomb. Anyway, Indy’s next two games against the Bulls and Clippers should clear a few things up.
Alexis Ajinca – Played in just his seventh game of the season. Started in his first game of the season. Is not actually named ‘Axel’ as I had first thought when I typed his name here. 4/3/1 with a block does not a fantasy option make.
Stephen Jackson – Missed scoring 20+ for the ninth game in a row by shooting 6-for-17 from the field, including 0-for-5 from the arc. Those shooting percentages are as identifiable to Captain Jack as his own fingerprints.
Gerald Wallace – Returned after missing the last four games to “Crash” the Bulls’ party, if you will (you will). He ended with a line of 14/7, including a steal and two blocks in 41 minutes. Back in your lineup he goes!
Tyrus Thomas – T-time made it past the 29-minute mark for just the seventh time this season and rewarded owners (or pwneders, if you’ve played Thomas every game so far) with 17/13 and two blocks. He’s still fouling a lot and shooting erratically, but he’s a blocking and rebounding machine, shooting decently at the line.
Josh Smith – 3-for-15. Blecch. Who knew not playing in Milwaukee the day before would be such an energy suck for the poor guy?
Jamal Crawford – 36 points in 34 minutes. Is that all? And here I thought Barbosa and Calderon couldn’t play defense. Speaking of which …
Leandro Barbosa – Why have you not picked this guy up yet? He dropped 26/4/5/3 steals on the Hawks and has been doing this for several games now. I’m taking it personally.
Nate Robinson – Four treys and 16 points in 19 minutes off the bench. Ha! What? Were they playing the Kings or something? Oh.
Von Wafer – Exploded for double-digit scoring for the second time in just 32 games. Vanilla Von Wafer’s offensive outburst puts him squarely in the running for fourth reserve guard off the bench.
Pooh Jeter – 10/3/4 for Eugene Genie isn’t bad. Unless you consider he started and played 41 minutes. Also, Pooh pronounces his last name like ‘jetter’. Derek pronounces it like ‘jeeter.’ Which one’s being pretentious here?
Beno Udrih – 16/1/5 last night as he’s currently ranked sixth on ESPN’s Player Rater this week. Makes sense. He’s averaging 21/3/4 with 1.5 treys and 2 steals in his last four games. Ride him while he’s hot, but remember that that hotness is borrowed from Tyreke Evans being away.
Francisco Garcia – Banged knees with DeMarcus Cousins last night … and not in a good way. He played poorly for 22 minutes, which has more to do with Boston’s defense than the injury. Also, there isn’t a ‘good way’ to knock knees with DeMarcus Cousins.
Sam Young – Started in place of the injured Tony Allen who had been starting in place of Xavier Henry, who had been starting in place of O.J. Mayo who may now have to start in place of Sam Young because Sam Young only scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds.
Greg Monroe – Fourth straight game playing 30 minutes, fourth straight double-double (14/11). Then he fouled out. Y’know, like he do.
Tracy McGrady – Started in place of the benched Rip Hamilton, so Ben Gordon wouldn’t have to. As T-Mac went 16/6/4 and Err Gordan actually dropped a decent 25/1/4 line, I wouldn’t be surprised if this setup continues at least one more game.
Matt Bonner – He’s sunk three threes and at least 16 points in each of his last two games. To celebrate, he put three complimentary bottled waters from the locker room into his knapsack and saw The King’s Speech at a nearby art house theater.
Thabo Sefolosha – Thirteen boards, three dimes and a trio of blocks. This may not be the extent of Thabo’s real-life value to the Thunder, but it’s about the extent of his fantasy value to you.
Shawne Williams – Played 34 minutes, sank seven treys and scored a season-high 25 points. Dude can play when given the chance, but I’m convinced he’s not given the chance because New York is filled with guys exactly like Williams and they’re hard to keep track of. Guys with Ws (Wilson Chandler, Bill Walker) or oddly placed Es in their name (Toney Douglas, Kelenna Azbuike). They all seem alike to me. Is that Knicksist?
Bill Walker – Another New York reserve to score 20-something (23) and sink a handful of threes (3) with a regular last name. Watson? Or Wilkins or Wallace or something. I think his first name was Axel.
Mehmet Okur – Returned after a two-week stay awaycation. He played 12 minutes and scored 10 points. Now just fit 100 more of those stat lines into the 46 games the Jazz have remaining and everything will be hunky-dunky.
C.J. Miles – 24/5/1 with four treys. After being hot four weeks ago, and cold two weeks ago, this could be the beginning of more hotness. Meh. I’m luke warm on him at this point.
Raja Bell – 18 points on four threes. Still, though. He’s like Ron Artest or Jermaine O’Neal. You can’t just go around with Raja Bell on your fantasy team. What will the neighbors say?
Andris Biedrins – An’ Bie’ hasn’t scored more than four points or grabbed more than eight rebounds since returning from injury four games ago. Even if you’re desperate for rebounds, DeJuan Blair, Ilyasova, Dalembert, Humphries or Amir Johnson are all better prospects than this guy and his combed hair and his 4/8 ceiling.
