The Washington Franchise Hitting A Wall?

Morning, Razzball Nation!  I’m filling in for Peter Kap this morning as he’s on a business trip in Jamaica.  The reason?  A getaway from DC from having to be a Wizards fan!  Well, the Redskins are good now at least!  And the Nationals have a bright future!  But the Wizards keep regressing even with paying big money to retain their stars.  Washington regressing despite more money for positions?!  I’ll just leave that there…

If I told Pete & Wizards fans that John Wall would have a 52 burger, but it would be in a loss at home to the Magic, with the team falling to a .368 win percentage, I think they’d reply saying all the other starters must’ve gotten hurt…  52/4/8/3/0 last night, shooting 18-31 FG (5-8 3PTM 11-14) and giving us back-to-back nights with 50-point performances from guys eligible for the 30-point challenge!  And the highest two scoring games on the season, on consecutive nights.  Man, what a call from NYFantaC!  Almost got the double point bonus for a 60 game!

Wall was apparently due indeed, and up to 24.1/4.2/9.8 on the season.  He actually outscored the Magic starters!  But that’s more about Vogel bringing his best players off the bench…  It’s been an explosive first few nights of this NBA week, so let’s hope it keeps going!  Here’s what else happened last night in Fantasy Basketball:

Elfrid Payton – Tis the Holiday Season, to see if the gift of Elfrid, who can be added to your Shelfrid!  I know I said he was cuttable in 10ers, but hopefully in deepers you stuck it out just long enough for a monster 25/1/9/3/3 line in 35 minutes off the bench.  Someone exercised the SKIIIIIILES demons!  The Exorcism of Scott Skiles.  That should be the next installment of that movie franchise!  9-13 FG, 4-4 FT and 3 treys.  Wall was padding his scoring, and not playing any D!  If you have anyone cuttable at all in 10ers, I would be giving him a shot again.

Jeff Green – Only 4 guys played off the Magic bench, and they scored 73 of the Magic 124.  Green for 20/3/0/1/0, but while he’s scoring a bit, not doing much else consistently.  Not too different than like, the Six-Foot-Turkey.

Jodie Meeks – ThrAGNOF alert!  Kinda wish I had room for him in REL, I totally wish I had taken the flier here…  18/2/1 with 4 treys.

Bismack Biyombo – 14/13/2/0/3.  The Vogel method actually worked this game!  …against the Wizards…

Aaron Gordon – Look at those D stats and efficiency!  9/5/2/1/3 on 4-9 shooting with 0 TO.  I’d be more apt to getting Elfrid on my Shelfrid than going back here.

Otto Porter – Man, this guy goes on runs where he’s a Roto first-rounder, then completely disappears like Kevin Bacon.  7/3/0/0/0 with a turnover in 27 uninspiring minutes.

Reggie Jackson – Still shaking off the proverbial rust, going 7/3/7/2/0 in 18 minutes on only 2-9 shooting.  I thought he looked like the R-Jax of old though, all will be well ROS.  Might get a DNP-maintenance tonight though…

Ish Smith – Got the nice subby sub minutes, going 7/5/10.  Rubba dub dub, a dimebag in the tub!

Tobias Harris – 22/7/2/0/1/1 on 9-16 FG with no TO.  He’s just so sexy-efficient.  When I watch his game, it makes me want to blue myself!

Nikola Mirotic – Off a great game, 5/6/0/2/1 in 23 minutes.  At least gets a trey and no TO!

Dwyane Wade – Was playing well (19/3/7/1/0) and Jimmy Butler got his mammoth 32 points, but just didn’t feel like this looked like anything close to a contending team.  When you have the worst player in basketball at center, it makes things tough!

Carmelo Anthony – A lot of 30 point challenge points getting scored last night, with Melo going 35/4/2 with 3 treys.  One of those games where you hate Melo if you own Poison Goose!

Kyle O’Quinn – A lot of KOQ talk on the Podcast yesterday, and The Irishman had another good reserve game even with Joakim Noah starting (14 minutes of 10/10/2 for Joakim too), going 12/7/3/1/2 in 27 minutes.  I’d take a flier on him while getting run in leagues deeper than 12.

Brandon Jennings – I actually streamed this schmohawk in the past week here and there, as the dimes have been surprising.  Of course they’re inconsistent in a bench role, but 6/1/9 last night and 7+ in 3 of the last 4.  ASTnof!  If only his name was Isaac, then I could make some sci-fi jokes…

Goran Dragic – While the Heat are really struggling, fantasy assets there are taking off!  Well, some (cough, JRich, cough)!  29/4/7/2/0 giving him a mad strong run his last 5.  I did see somewhere he had a shoulder stinger, and with the Heat going nowhere and playing on a b2b, keep an eye on that.

Kawhi Leonard – Ugh, well there goes my 30-point challenge lead!  Stupid KAT shooting 3-16…  31/1/4/2/0 on 11-5 FG (2-3 3PTM 7-8 FT).  He was just a smidge off for a few games and not getting foul calls on contested layups, he certainly shook that off last night!  #WigginsD.

Patty Mills – Even though he didn’t start in favor of placeholder Nicolas Laprovittola, Tony Parker sat, and if you can stream up until games tip, you gotta roll Patty every time TP is DNP!  15/4/5/2/0 with 2 treys.  Really the only other Spur to do anything, which is shocking in a 105 point game…

Kris Dunn – Looked great off the bench last night, going 15/1/2, and keeping Tyus Jones from being in the rotation.  Ricky Rubio was bad, but still got his 32 minutes at least…

Zach LaVine – I’ll admit, some REL bias, but a lot of games he looks like he should be the alpha scorer.  25/3/2/0/0 on 9-16 FG (4-8 3PTM 3-4 FT).  He can create, he jumps so friggin’ high on jumpers no one can block him, and he has fantastic rates shooting from deep.  Andrew Wiggins – averaging 22.2 Pts on the season – only has 20+ twice in the past 10, and using our awesome player pages, only 18.0 Pts the past 2 weeks.  I’m a little worried if you’re depending on Wiggins for scoring.

Troy Williams – Struggling to get his offense going, but when you’re making shots like this, maybe it will jump start ya!

Still getting the D stats though, going 8/3/1/2/1, and was efficient on 4-6 shooting with no TO.  Good to see!

Troy Daniels – The other Memphis Troy finally started missing some 3s, going 10/1/1/0/0 on 4-14 FG (1-8 3PTM).  Memphis gets the Blazers, so where I streamed him I’m gonna ThrAGNOF one more night.

JaMychal Green – Shook off a bad start to the week with an awesome 13/10/3/2/1 game.  9-10 FT too!  Super Green!

Dario Saric – Playing some great ball, maybe correlated with no Robert Covington?  17/7/0/1/0 with 3 treys; it’s still rebounding-ThrAGNOF, but if boards and 3s are needs, now a strong add in 12ers until RobCo gets back (at least through this week).

Ersan Ilyasova – Speaking of rebounding-ThrAGNOF, look at the Six Foot Turkey!  23/17/4/1/2 with 4 treys.  Led the team with 19 shots!  Helps that there wasn’t the Joel Embiid usage suck as EMBIIIIIID sat on the bench to rest and be flaccid.

Rudy Gobert – For such a strong fantasy asset, I woulda thought he had a higher career-high!  22/11/0/0/4 and an absolutely gorgeous 10-11 FT.  BEEF stands for balance, MONSIEUR ELBOW!, elevation, and feet.  I think that’s what BEEF was at basketball camp!

Gordon Hayward – Awwwww, so close to ANOTHER 30-point challenge winner!  28/5/4/3/0.  He’s been phenomenal; his broken finger might be a reason why you got him at a strong value and winning your matchups lately…

Brandon Knight – 15/7/5, and that’s fine and all, but on 6-18 shooting and this is a HUGE game for him.  Ugh, so annoying.

Alex Len – 21 strong minutes off the bench, for 14/4 on 4-9 FG and 6-6 FT.  After really disappointing as a starter in the second half last year, we had seen some strong blocks over the past few weeks, but goose eggs the past two.  I think I would move on for streaming if you had some close cats by the weekend, minutes have fallen to 23, 17, and 21 the past 3 with Tyson Chandler back in the swing of things as well…

I hope everyone had a strong Tuesday, and if someone is facing Klay Thompson, Lou Williams, AND John Wall this week, that would be horrific!  Go and play the lottery and see if that luck evens out…  Catch you tomorrow morning!