So after working overnights, it’s a big change working standard hours and doing Razzball in the wee-hours of the morning. Instead of following sports all night, you wake up to them! Which in some cases is nice; others, infuriating. At least I don’t have to go to sleep mad!
On the annoying end, in fantasy football I’m going into a must-win game against an Aaron Rodgers owner. Plus I recommended a friend play Kyle Rudolph over Richard Rodgers. How annoying was that 70 yard hail mary?!?!?! Ahhhhh! Luckily I don’t care as much about fantasy football, since it’s 100% luck. We don’t play that ish here at basketball, we at fantasy hoops play a game of skill! And very few are as skilled as Kawhi Leonard, who went 27/8/3/2/1 to continue his dominant season. On top of his normal multi-cat, he was mad hot hitting 9-13 from the field including a nuts 7-9 3PTM. Instead of texting my buddy Kap all night about how giddy it made me, I wake up to just the one text of “Kawhi banged 7 threes! How much of a boner did you get?” The answer is, I constantly wake up during the night half mast! Kawhi’s been a wet dream all season… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:
Russell Westbrook – 25/5/7/1/0 with 7 TO. When he found out Durant was coming back from the hammy, he was like “ahhhh!” Then he thought he was a bird “coocooooooo!”, then he took a nap, then I realized I had no interesting spin on this performance last night…
Kevin Durant – When you look at the box score, it’s easy to not realize he sat most of the first quarter after picking up two quick fouls. After yelling for a few minutes at the refs, didn’t pick up any other fouls though! I guess he made his point… Also had a nice tech getting all up in Goran Dragic’s grill for trying to subtely undercut him. “They call me Mr. Glass, Dragon! Lay off!” 25/9/5/0/0 with a couple of treys, but with the 5 TO and 9-21 shooting, it was a pretty down night. Given the early exit though, you’ll take it.
Serge Ibaka – The blocks had a resurgence, then last night was a divergent. He’s happy to have an allegiant back with Durant. If anyone gets the theme of this blurb, that’s disappointing…
Andre Roberson – 2/9/0/2/1 on 1-3 shooting in his usual, sparse line. He’s the Brazilian wax of an NBA contributor…
The Awesome Matchup That Was Steven Adams vs. Hassan Whiteside – Talk about some chippiness! You could start a Lays factory with all the chippiness! Gotta love the NBA – Hassan and Steven from literally the other ends of the world worth of 500+ pounds and 14+ feet of man-pushing. Wow, went full Arrested Development Tobias on that one! Adams had a pretty empty 9/8 of 20 minutes, while Whiteside was 11/8/0/0/2 on 5-8 FG, 1-2 FT, and 2 TO. The chippiness is bland! Need some flavoring on that, my vote is usually salt and vinegar.
Dwyane Wade – 28/4/4 and put the Heat on his back. You know what’s fun to watch – opposing defenses are now sagging off the pick-and-roll to Whiteside instead of the driver, to not allow lobs. So Wade got a tonnnnn of layups, so maybe his low-FG% thus far starts climbing. For as long as he’s able to climb, that is. We don’t need another 127 Hours to happen…
Chris Bosh – 16/8/2/2/0 and by far a game-high +/- +20. Boshasaurus gave us a scare, but certainly is far from extinct!
Goran Dragic – Besides that Durant drama, played well for 14/3/7/2/0. Hit a couple of treys, a nice sign those could start coming back. Maybe this is a Dragon-trainable moment…
DeMar DeRozan – Nice work, draco21! Commenter 30-pt challenge picks are here to stay, that was a lot of fun! In case you missed the Pod, every Tuesday and Thursday in the Pod comments, share your 30-pt challenge picks and keep making Slim and I look stupid since we’re doing awful! 34/5/5/0/0 on 14-26 shooting. I feel like I slammed a little on DeRozan maybe about November 11th… Because since then, his last 11 games are 21.8/4.2/4.8, boosting the AST which were 3.3 per his first 9 games. It’s marginal, but a lot of his other stats are similar, so I guess I’m grasping at straws since his numbers look fine right now…
Bismack Biyombo – 6/7/0/0/1 in 25 minutes. This should’ve been a matchup where he gobbled up a ton of big man stats against the Nugs…
Cory Joseph – …instead a lot of small ball, and the run continues for Cojo. 15/4/2/2/0 in 28 minutes, keeping up the efficiency for 6-9 FG (1-1 3PTM 2-3 FT) and 1 TO. Wasn’t enough mojo to keep from the upset yo!
Kyle Lowry – Started mad cold, and well, still shot only 4-16. “You cost us the game, ball hog!” Don’t say that him, he may sink his feelings in food again! At least he got you a rainbow line for 16/6/8/4/2.
Darrell Arthur – A King Arthur in an Overrated Toronto Raptors Court! I feel like that book wouldn’t have done so well… Sorry Raps fans, that was mean! I’m still mad Matty made fun of our morning Podcasts, you think it’s easy Podcasting without our makeup on?! 19/6/2/2/2 on 8-14 shooting and 3-3 treys. Actually had a rainbow line last Saturday as well, which I called the oddest rainbow of the weekend, or something like that. I think I also said, ya know, the Nugs should be playing their vets all these minutes since there’s not youth to develop or anything… It’s tough to take any Denver big man right now as…
Nikola Jokic – …was reported to “have earned” the starting job, which means 2 games later is playing 14 minutes off the bench. Malone, you clown! I’m not owning any Denver big in 12ers for a while.
Joffrey Lauvergne – Including King Joffrey, off a nice 14/10/0/0/1 game. Mexican Lasagna can remain in the layers of my wire.
Will Barton – Yikes, I was wrong to think inconsistency would plague the Bart’s tale this year… 22/4/4/0/1, hitting 7-7 FT and ANOTHER three treys. I did officially graduate him to “must-own” last week, but that was “much-late”. Hopefully that one bad game in there last week gave some owners a last chance kitchen (Top Chef is back! Yes, I watched that while watching the Spurs in background with the lady…).
Emmanuel Mudiay – Had 8 AST and 1 TO at halftime, and I was pumped to talk about an efficient game! Then 1 AST and 2 TO after halftime… Emmanuel Mudslide!
Nikola Vucevic – 16/8/3/2/1, and back-to-back games with the resurrection of the D stats. Also his most consistent run of minutes this past week since the first few games. Thanks Skiles!
Aaron Gordon – FFFFFFFFFFFF YYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUU, SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES! Apparently the 3 fouls were “foul trouble” in 6 minutes, but I still believe they want him to do something over Channing Frye. Wanna know what ISN’T going to help?! Magic have won 5 in a row… Just what we need, a sign Skiles is doing something RIGHT! My caps button got worn out in the blurb… Might as well rename that key the “frustration button”.
Andrew Nicholson – Another reason the frustration button got worn out there… 14/2/0/1/0, but more importantly another 24 minutes to Gordon’s 6. Ouch. So my analysis right now is if you have all healthy players that are at least doing something, I’m still holding Gordon. If you have a few banged up guys or any other stashes, Gordon can go. Nicholson is very blah, pretty ThrAGNOFfy with a streaming-downside of not playing much if you stream him this weekend.
Trevor Booker – A lot of Bookbuzz after the Rudy Gobert injury, and he was a Bookworm. NERD! 15 minutes of 2/2/0/1/1, so at least shows you the potential if they gave him run. Minutes are going to fluctuate based on when the Jazz wanna go small, like last night.
Alec Burks – 21/5/3/0/2 on 6-12 FG (3-6 3PTM 6-8 FT). Three-straight good games, and here come the 3s! Wish he had a few more dimes lately as we’ve been maintaining they’re coming, but 9 in the last 3 is actually a decent improvement. Definitely a must-own for me.
Tim Duncan – Ageless wonder. 6/10/5/1/3. Gotta sell the Timmay Tim Tam when you can though, it’s almost worse for his value the Spurs have such a great record so far – fear the DNP-land.
Tony Parker – Same for Frenchy, off a 17/7/5 night with the dimes really coming up lately. If only someone had a positive AST outlook for Parker coming into the season!
Marc Gasol – Other than a pair of scrubs going 2-4 and 1-2, Gasol was the only Grizzly to shoot over 50%, on only 11 shots… Weird… Give Marcy Marc the ball! 7-11 FG 15/8/2/2/3. Did have 5 TO, so the efficiency wasn’t all-encompassing, but still…
Mario Chalmers – Remember when that was a thing?! Then it disappeared… And now it’s teasing you again! This is the worst strip tease ever, get me Demi on the phone! 15/5/2/2/0 with another crazy 8-8 FT outburst, but shot only 3-11 and played only 20 minutes. Meh, still a deep-leaguer or desperation stream to me.
Isaiah Thomas – YOU BOYS LIKE MEXICO?! IT2/3 made the snozzberries taste like snozzberries, going 21/6/9/4/0 against his former Kings in Mexico City, shooting 8-14 with only 1 TO. If Mexico gets an expansion team, IT2/3 needs to be the face! The Mexican Pizza Guy!
Kelly Olynyk – Who what when where why howwwwww?! 21/4/4/1/0, as Jared Sullinger played only 14 minutes and Amir Johnson was meh. At least my hate for Stevens has numbed over his consistency of no consistency these past few years…
Jae Crowder – Boston Clam Crowder brought his Northeastern cuisine to Mexico for 20/3/6/2/0 and 4 treys. Had that three game lull last week, luckily he had Fri/Sun games at the end of the week which had me hold onto him in all the leagues I had him. Won’t lie, he otherwise would’ve been cut. Thank you, schedule minions!
Avery Bradley – Keeping it going, scoring 20 with 4 treys and another 3 swipes. Been unreal since Marcus Smart went down. I am kinda thinking this might be a tough line-up to crack for Smart to get back to consistent nice minutes…
Willie Cauley-Stein – Eeeeesh, I doubt he will wanna go back south of the border again… Open dislocation of a finger (owwwwwww!) and will miss 4-6 weeks. My fingers hurt just thinking about it while typing here… “Well now your back is going to hurt, because you just pulled landscaping duty!”
Rajon Rondo – Ejectamente! Before leaving for arguing with El Referee, 24 minutes of 5/3/8/2/0. At least he played enough to give you something…
Darren Collison – 12/1/5/0/1 on 3-8 FG but a nice 6-6 FT. Wish he had a chance to stretch his wings a little more with Rondo ejected. Although Rondo apparently had a little potty mouth, so maybe an NBA suspension is coming. Free Colly!
C.J. Miles – Uggghhhhhh I dropped him in a league to stream since he was getting a little colder. Given, I was killing it in 3s, so his 8 treys last night didn’t matter much. 27/6/0/1/1, and continuing to love this Pacers Pace.
Paul George – Whoa, 4-17 including 0-9 from deep. Showing some of his old shooting woes from previous seasons. It’s making PG13 owners go ARRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Monta Ellis – Didn’t do much in the first half with a bum shoulder, and decided to sit out the second half. It’s a “shoulder contusion” and Ellis is typically mad durable, so doesn’t sound too serious. If he does miss a game or two though, Rodney Stuckey played well off the pine for 17/5/6/3/0 and would be worth a very short-term stream.
Ed Davis – Wait, why are the Blazers starting Noah Vonleh again?! If Mike Malone was the coach, he’d be starting the vet and Davis would be unreal! 22 minutes off the bench for a 6/13/3/2/1 line for Big Ed, with no TO, hitting 3-3 FG, and no FT. Put him in, Stotts!
Meyers Leonard – Off the bench for a very pedestrian 12/2/1/1/0 with 2 treys. I still don’t get the obsession!
Allen Crabbe – Mr. Crabby made the Pacers crabby with 18 Pts on 7-10 FG (4-5 3PTM). Didn’t do much else, but the Blazers going 18-36 3PTM got a nice home win over the Pacers.
C.J. McCollum – And who else could we end with?! 21/5/5/2/0 with 3 treys in a very nice CJ game. 7-20 FG is swallowable with that kind of line. At least Rotoworld reported on this one…
I hope everyone had a great week back from the Thanksgiving holiday, and have a safe and fantasy-friendly weekend! I’ll be doing 3 Daily Notes next week (MWF), so get ready for more caps lock frustration and stirring the pot with McCollum. Catch ya then, Razzball Nation!
