It’s Christmas Eve! Santa is doing some last-minute shopping at the outlet mall, popping some speed to get over those procrastination eggnogs last night. Or maybe he was celebrating a big night from his fantasy PGs!
Just a reminder that this is the last Daily Notes for the week, which I hope doesn’t bring any coal to my stocking… Then again, no action tonight and then the light-slate Christmas Day games, so you won’t miss me too much! As always, all comments welcome through the weekend which I will get in between opening all my Brandon Knight memorabilia presents for Christmas!
Point guards just went nuts – like, chestnuts on an open fire nuts – all across the league last night. My boyfriend leading the charge! 34/2/5/1/0 for Knight, shooting 13-21 FG (4-7 3PTM 4-4 FT). To say he’s been up-and-down is an understatement, but right now he’s this kind of up! 20+ Pts in 5 of 6 and 4+ dimes in 5 of 6. The steals have come back down to earth a bit, but he’s only had 3 games on the season without a trey. Three! And that high-volume 90% FT shooting is oh so sexy. My advice has been to hold onto Knight all year (unless you could’ve sold high for something ridiculous a week in), and not get too worried about the ebbs and flows. Or else you would’ve missed out on a Christmas present like last night’s line! Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy action:
George Hill – Didn’t “go nuts” but did “play”, and played well. Finally! 15/4/3/1/0 in 21 season-debut minutes, and is an obvious must-add if he’s still out there. Two treys as well!
Damian Lillard – Put me back on the boooaaaaaarrrrrrddd, yes! Thank you Hawk Harrelson… 40/6/11/2/0 in a come-from-behind OT win. OT are a Thunder Omen!
Russell Westbrook – He’s ridiculous with Kevin Durant, ridiculous without (KD missing again with the sprained ankle), he’s just always ridiculous. 40/10/6/3/0 on 16-34 shooting. Ball hog! Crazy to see both PGs in this game drop 40-burgers.
Eric Bledsoe – Tripdub! 16/10/11/3/0. This might have been the first game all year where ALL THREE Suns PG played well in one game. It was that plentiful a PG Knight! Goran Dragic for 25/3/4 on 10-17 shooting with 2 treys and Isaiah Thomas for 12/0/7. I guess IT3 wasn’t that great, but usually the Suns PG who is bad that night is horrific!
Kyrie Irving – 29 Pts on 12-19 shooting. 6 TO though… “Uncle Drew you’re making my balls turn blue!”
Michael Carter-Williams – Another big steals game against Miami! Had a 9er against them in his NBA debut last year, and six last night in a 20/3/5/6/1 line in a rare Sixers W. Shot 9-18, banged a couple treys, and no TO! Mmmmm, if only he did this from the onset, JB would be printing out the “MCW FTW” bumper stickers.
Jarrett Jack – Wooooo! Huzzah for the streamer/DK call! 17/1/8/1/0 and running the O just fine without Deron Williams. If Jack starts Friday against the Celtics who seem to want to start Jameer for god knows what reason, Jack is a must play.
Ty Lawson – Was all Denver had to even stay close against Brooklyn. 29/4/9 on 10-20 FG with four treys. Remember all that panic with his ankle issues right before the season? I think you can semi-compare that to Carmelo Anthony right now. My main advice in not giving Melo away for nothing.
Rodney Stuckey – Still holding on, even though with Hill back he had a very boring line. 6/5/4/1/1 with a trey in 32 minutes.
Gorgui Dieng – Choo choo! Staying strong on the Dieng train! More like a Snowpiercer lately! 20/11/2/3/4 for a rainbow.
Andrew Wiggins – Wiggin’ out for Wiggins! After three straight single-digit games, busts back out for 27/2/2/1/1 and three treys, his first 3PTM in 10 games. Broken slump alert! Still thinkin’ a big second half is afoot.
Kevin Love – Left briefly with a sprained hitchhiker’s thumb. It got hurt coming all the way from Minnesota to Cleveland for this revenge game! Came back in with a wrap on his hand, focusing on the “came back”, so should be good to go for Christmas.
Anderson Varejao – Had a bad ankle sprain and was spotted by the Brazilian propaganda with a walking boot and crutches. Some big ass crutches! We all hope he can return quickly, but sounding like Tristan Thompson might be a medium-term streamer… DraftKings Christmas anyone???
Marcus Smart – Ughhhh, Jameer Nelson, really?! Jameer goes 9/11 to get a dimebag in 30 otherwise uninspirational minutes, with Smart going 3/2/2/0/0 in 17 equally uninspirational minutes. I don’t think uninspirational is a word, it probably should be “uninspired”, but I’m so uninsporational about the C’s I don’t really give a F.
Tyler Zeller – Ya know, he’s really not that much worse than Jordan Hill. Which says more about Hill… But both are Pts/Reb/occastional Blk guys that hit FT well. There’s a time and a place for that… 22/10/0/1/1 last night with 10-10 FT.
Jared Sullinger – Brad Stevens is the worst… 9 starting minutes of an ebola diarrhea. As soon as you cut him, he goes 20/10 with 5 treys, kinda like a lull then re-breakout stretch we saw last year. I’ve got a finger to stretch for you, B-Rad!
Elfird Payton – With about 3 minutes left, Boston did a hack-a-Elfrid. And he missed both. Buzzzzzzz! Subbed out for Evan Fournier. Who was awful off the bench. Minutes are still there for The Virgin, so he has the slightest bit of a leash.
Kyle O’Quinn – The KOQ of the walk! Owned last night for 18/13/0/2/1 with two treys and hit all 4 FT. The Irishman hating the Celtics! So much Irish going on that I swapped out my rum for Jameson in my eggnog. You’ll feel that drink in your nutmeg!
Jimmy Butler – Ughhhhhh Ohhhhhhh! What I tried warning Slim about on the Pod yesterday, as JB isn’t 100% the beast he is every Derrick Rose game. Only 11/6/2/0/0 last night on 4-13 shooting.
Mike Scott – As the biggest Mike Scott fan of anyone not in Scott’s family, dude just looks fantastic out there. Last year he banged some treys in bunches, but this year he looks more polished than a Ferrari Enzo. 10 minutes of 5/2/0/0/0 on 1-1 FG and 3-4 FT certainly doesn’t play that out, but I watched all 10 of them and deep dynasty owners should be stashing for his future.
Jeff Teague – Eased in off the bench and looked just fine for 9/2/6 and a trey in 24 minutes. Ham restrung!
DeMarre Carroll – Sing us a Christmas carol! 25/10/0/1/0 with 5 treys. “When ya hot, ya hot, when ya not, ya not, candy canes give me the trots!” Very, very underplayed Christmas carol. All I get from this blurb upon re-reading it is creepily murmuring “caaaaannndddyyy cane!” from Joyride.
DeAndre Jordan – A man amongst boys. 15/22/1/0/4, with a little bit of an under-the-radar season (at least, to me) that Slim brought up to me yesterday. Doing exactly what he did last year, and not ceding any minutes. He can seed some of my children though, I want them to fund my retirement!
Sergey Karasev – The most consistent, boring, starting SG out there. But looks great and has confidence going 12/3/5/1/0 last night with no TO. Did miss all 3 treys, but when a dude is constantly getting 10 Pts/2+ Ast/1+ Stl with usually a few treys and low TO, it’s what we were hoping KCP would be doing!
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – While he’s on my mind, Stan Van came out and said the PIstons need to run some plays for him. My response – the Pistons run plays? I’m still back on the KCPaholic bender, so he’s a good target for upside in 12ers are Josh Smith is gone and still awaits his new home.
Mason Plumlee – When there is a return of Brolo, you gotta play like Yolo! 19/13/2/2/3 in a dominatrix-esque rainbow. Just owned the Nuggets Cs. All over the glass and stuffed Jusuf Nurkic on a posterization attempt. No French dip for you, Au Jus!
Kenneth Faried – The return of the Manimal! 20/14/2/1/1 on 8-11 FG and 4-5 FT. Somehow only the second time in over a month to play 30+ minutes. We all know the Nuggets behind the curtain is as jacked up as the 19 Kids and Counting lady, so hopefully this is harbinger of a steady diet of minutes ahead.
Giannis Antetokounmpo – You can’t spell Alphabet without rainbow! I mean, you can’t spell it the Greek way… 11/6/2/2/2 on 3-4 FG and 5-6 FT. Efficiency alert! 3 TO though… Cancel alert, cancel alert… Three straight games of 35+ minutes. Jason Kidd is finally over his wonky ways now that the Fs are less plentiful.
Johnny O’Bryant – He’s started the last two games and played a combined 12 minutes. There must be a clause in Kidd’s contract that says if he can squeeze out 5 starts for O’Bryant he gets a lollipop.
Ersan Ilyasova – Welcome back! I mean, geez sit out one more, you cost me a Knight assist with a missed wide-open dunk! 4/4/1/0/0 on 2-8 shooting. What do you call Matt Bonner‘s package…? Rusty!
Allen Crabbe – Got another start with Nicolas Batum out with “being terrible for fantasy this year”, and nearly gets a rainbow for 5/4/2/2/1 with a trey and no TO in 24 minutes. Looked pretty raw early in the year in a couple starts, but is consistently better and he’s made big strides this season.
Rajon Rondo – You don’t get to go to the top with all the good PG, you bad Rondo you! 13/6/8 with 5 TO on 6-14 shooting. I don’t understand all these shots especially when…
Chandler Parsons – …only gets 9. 7/8/2/0/0 for Parsons with an absurd 6 TO. Two straight abysmal games. Buy low window is creaked open!
Charlie Villanueva – Nope, not a typo. 18/4 last night with another 4 treys, giving him back-to-back 4 3PTM games. Most surprising is 13 shots last night! Deep league ThrAGNOF radar has a tiny blip way off in the distance…
Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Lakers – Late. Pulling the East Cost newspaper reporting on this one! On some earlier Holiday hours and the article is done while this game is still at half… Not a shock – Kobe Bryant did sit this one out. “Give me the walker, I’m going on a trip to have fun in Colorado!”
That’ll do it for this week, don’t forget to set your line-ups early on Christmas morning with the Wizards at the Knicks tipping at noon, and have a wonder and safe holidays Razzball Nation!
