Line of the Night: Jason Kidd (2.75) took advantage of Charles Jenkins to the tune of 9 points (3 threes), 10 rebounds, 12 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. It was Kidd’s first Line of the Night, and really, I wasn’t sure that he was going to play again after his 4-game absence. I don’t think anyone missed him except maybe the Mavericks. He is still ranked #74 on the Player Rater for the season, though, so I guess for the team that can stomach his 35% shooting, you’ve gotten some decent assists, steals, and threes. I honestly didn’t think I’d see him up this high again, though. Ever.
Honorable Mentions: And of course, as soon as we tell people to drop Klay Thompson (2.58) because all he does is score, KT goes for 24 points (3 threes, 5-5 from the line), 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals. So, now I don’t know what to do. Logic says that he won’t do that again, and even if he does it won’t be consistent. Still hurts though (except that I had him in my weekly-set lineup for this week and thank the fantasy basketball gods for that because I’ve also got Bargnani and Rose in my lineup in that league, so I’m hoping I can eek out an efficiency win with percentages, threes, steals, and TOs; I’m actually only down by .004% in FG% despite the way Rose shot last night [see also: The Biggest Loser]).
Greg Monroe (2.24) returned to form after a bit of turbulence with 25 points (11-14 from the field), 11 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Brandon Knight (2.06) is hanging on to his Honorable Mention spot with 55% ownership, but it’s hard to want to increase that number because of his every-other-game style of playing, even when he does go for 21 points (3 threes, 8-12 from the field), 7 assists, and 3 steals. Not quite Bizzaro World territory, but still… out of the ordinary.
Speaking of out of the ordinary! Manu Ginobili (1.81) and Tim Duncan (1.60) both played, and both played well! Ginobili had 20 points (11-11 from the line), 6 rebounds, and 4 assists while Duncan scored 28 points (10-15 from the field) to go with 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
I’ll mention two of the Big 3 now, even though their lines are not as strong as the Waiver Wire man who defeated them (see below): Chris Bosh (1.51) had 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks while LeBron James (1.39) scored 30 points (3 threes) with 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. The Heat still lost to the Bulls, but I know that doesn’t mean anything since it was in Chicago and it was not the playoffs.
Finally, Marc Gasol (1.33) rounds things out with a nice 14 points (5-8 from the field), 10 rebounds, and an interesting 4 steals.
Injury Report: It was announced yesterday that LaMarcus Aldridge will have season-ending surgery. Obviously this makes J.J. Hickson a must add (maybe not if you’re punting rebounds, FG%, and blocks; that said, Hickson will still give you a solid contribution in Points without many turnovers and won’t totally kill your FT% because his attempts are fairly low).
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Waiver Wire Line of the Night: C.J. Watson (1.63) took the reigns of the Bulls after Derrick Rose looked like he’d been run ragged by a Matador. Watson filled in for 16 points (6-10 from the field), 9 assists, and 3 steals (7% owned). The Bulls don’t play again until Sunday, so Rose should have time to rest and I wouldn’t count on C.J. for much more fantasy-relevant action this season.
Pick Up Lines: It seems like Brandan Wright (1.55) has been threatening to become fantasy-relevant for a while with Mavericks now. This is actually the first time we at GMTR have ever tagged him in a post, though. Wright is at 0.45 on the Player Rater over the past 4 games, which would be close to Top 50 if he could do it for the whole season. If you need Big Ball categories with some bonus Steals thrown in, I’d say Wright is worth a play since he’s averaged 30 minutes per game over the last 4 and last night put up 16 points (6-8 from the field, 4-4 from the line), 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks (4% owned).
We know this cannot continue, but as a Bulls fan, I’m happy to see that Kyle Korver (1.26) is getting hot right in time for the playoffs. After hitting 3 threes on Monday, Korver went for 17 points with 5 threes, on 6-8 from the field) (18% owned). He’s a pure three-point shooter, and for that reason, I wouldn’t recommend him unless absolutely the only category you need is threes.
With Kevin Love out after his concussion, Anthony Randolph (1.09) put up another big line with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks (3% owned). Keep a very close eye on Love’s status, because it’s clear that if he doesn’t play, Randolph will get big numbers.
I’m going to file the next three guys under “Too Little, Too Late” and if this doesn’t make you a little sad, then you have missed out on the dreams and aspirations of a generation: Kenyon Martin (1.05) had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals (4% owned); Mo Williams (0.61) scored 14 points with 5 assists (44% owned); Vince Carter (0.60) scored 12 points, remarkable only because he was 5-7 from the field (33% owned). Makes you think of those bygone days of yore.
Biggest Loser: I’m tempted to do some stupid pun like “D+D Music Factory” but maybe I’ll just stick in a picture of Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger and call it good. (Also, I think I spelled Schwarzenegger right on the first time because my browser spell-checker didn’t underline it with a red squiggle. It did for DeVito, though. Sorry Danny.) Anyway…
Derrick Rose (-0.78) took the prize with 2 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 turnovers, and the ultimate killer: 1-13 from the field (7.7%). His brother from another mother (or just another player who has the same name: Derrick Williams (-0.71) showed why he cannot be trusted even with the whole Timberwolves team injured with 4 points, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 4 turnovers, and 1-7 from the field.
And actually, I’m going to let that ride for the picture for this post, because I think it kind of works with the Bizzaro theme that I tried to pull through…
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Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR H2H Player Rater (beta version). They are based on the stat Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) an estimate of the number of wins a player produces per week in H2H leagues over a replacement (waiver wire) player.
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