Give Me The Rock

Day 106 of 170: Booze Cruise

Nels — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:12:41 +0000

Don’t Forget: Play GMTR’s Weekly Fantasy Game. This week it’s contest #96819. Invite code is: GMTR.

Line of the Night: Carlos Boozer (1.54) was injured? I hadn’t noticed. Boozer overfilled his red plastic cup with 34 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. The 76% from the field and 89% from the line is probably enough to get you love drunk off his humps.

Honorable Mentions: Mike Miller (1.32) had his first big game in a while with 19 points (3 threes), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. He beat out Boozer in one category by shooting 80% from the field. (Okay, yes, he also beat him in blocks)

Wilson Chandler (1.08) topped Boozer in Points with 35 points. His other numbers weren’t quite as impressive, but you can’t really argue with 2 steals and 2 blocks no matter what else is there.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Donte Green (0.78) is probably someone you should pick up. His big minutes recently haven’t translated into good games on a consistent basis, but if you look at the 24 points (4 threes), 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and the steal from last night, well, he’s probably got more potential than at least one of the guys littering your bench.

The Biggest Loser: It’s kind of hard to pick on Chris Kaman (-0.69) when he had 19 points, 7 rebounds, and a block, but when BasketballMonster says he’s 3rd from the bottom (of 228 players!) it’s hard to ignore. How did he get so far down there? Well, he shot 36% from the field (certainly not fantasy friendly for the Big Ball teams for which he usually starts) and 64% from the line (with 14 attempts), and turned the ball over like a drunken booze cruiser 6 times.

All Eyez On Me: Another solid night of games tonight before the All Star Break (which means another good Weekly Fantasy Game).

In particular: The Lakers @ Utah (More Boozing it up!), Boston @ New Orleans (How’s Peja looking these days?), and Portland @ Phoenix (potential playoff matchup!).

The Golden Ticket: Besides the Phoenix/Portland game, the Clippers hold the Golden Ticket, playing tonight in Golden State. Also, Orlando is in Chicago, and with Joakim Noah resting and Tyrus Thomas “inactive”, expect Dwight Howard to put up some big numbers against a front line of Brad Miller and Chris Richard (can we really count Taj Gibson where Dwight Howard is concerned?).

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Day 105 of 170: JET Takes Flight

Patrick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:36:07 +0000

Line of the Night: While there were only three games yesterday, the fantasy performances were strong. Jason Terry (1.27), who is quietly putting together yet another great year, led the pack by taking advantage of the Golden Ticket to score 36 points, with 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 6 threes in 42 minutes. For those of you who don’t follow the Mavs closely, Terry has actually started the last 10 games, with the disappointing Josh Howard moving more to a 6th (or sometimes 9th) man role.

Honorable Mentions: Vince Carter (1.22) busted out of his shooting slump in a major way scoring 48 points while shooting 19-27 from the field (adding 6 threes); Pau Gasol (1.14) led the Kobe-less Lakers with 21 points, 19 rebounds and 5 blocked shots; and Jason Kidd (0.88) also took advantage of the Warriors’ “defense” with 17 points, 12 assists and 4 threes.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: If there is one thing that Anthony Morrow (0.92) can do, it’s shoot the basketball. The Warriors small forward was 12-20 from the field against the Mavs, scoring 33 points while going 5-9 from three with 11 boards. With Corey Maggette expected to miss the Warriors next game as well with a dislocated finger, Morrow is a definite start on Wednesday and makes a decent long-term add in the average fantasy league.

The last time Chris Paul missed some games, Peja Stojakovic (0.79) went on a nice little scoring run. Last night was no exception, as Peja shot 11-18 against the Magic, hitting 5 threes on his way to 29 points. Peja also makes a nice short-term add if you need a SG/SF who can hit some threes; and with Erick Dampier missing the game for Dallas and Eduardo Najera picking up three fouls in a few nanoseconds to start last night’s game, Drew Gooden (0.43) got 41 minutes of run and made the most of it with 24 points and 10 boards in the Mavs win.

The Biggest Loser: Richard Jefferson (-0.5)? I don’t know, it feels like I’m beating a dead dog with Jefferson, but with only 3 games there are not many bad performances to choose from. If you still own Jefferson on your team, please slap yourself in the face and then drop him as soon as you come to your senses.

All Eyez on Me: A fairly full slate of games today, including:

Sacramento (16-34) at New York (19-31) – The Kings are playing like Betty White out there. Maybe they need a snickers bar or maybe they need someone other than Tyreke Evans to step it up a little. I’m looking directly at the disappointing, Kevin Martin, who has to be affected by all the trade rumors floating around about him. But please excuse me while I masturbate to the Kevin Martin for Ray Allen trade rumor.

Oh, and the Nate Robinson starting PG experiment is officially dead.

Chicago (24-25) at Indiana (18-33) – Brad Miller 4 lyfe. With Joakim Noah expected to miss this game with plantar fasciitis and Tyrus Thomas in the doghouse (and not the good Snoop Dogg one) Brad Miller is going to get plenty of run in this game. He’s worth a start for those of you in daily leagues.

Dallas (32-19) at Denver (34-17) – Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony are both questionable for this game, with Carmelo apparently targeting either a return today or Thursday instead of sitting out through the all-star break as is almost expected by all injury players at this point in the season. Billups is more likely to play tonight and should be put back into your lineups as soon as possible.

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Day 104 of 170: Chris Bosh Is Timing The Market

Nels — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:29:30 +0000

(Picture from NQTC)

Line of the Night: Chris Bosh (1.06) must know that he’s playing to make teams want him. Last night he had 36 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists while shooting 78% from the field.

Honorable Mentions: Rajon Rondo (0.86) flirted with a triple-double, but only had as much success as Patrick does when he flirts with his wife. Boom, roasted. Rondo had 17 points (2 threes), 8 rebounds, and 9 assists. He also had 3 steals and 0 turnovers.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Third on the night, so let’s fit him in now: Antoine Wright (0.65) – who plays for the Raptors now, FYI – had 16 points (2 threes), 4 rebounds, 5 assists with a block and a steal. He shot 86% from the field, so he’s not really worthy of the Waiver Wire LotN, but the next best choice is Spencer Hawes (0.25) who put up 14 and 11 but shot 37% from the field. Take your pick, I guess.

The Biggest Loser: Rasheed Wallace (-0.49) is back to backing up Kevin Garnett and so his minutes and stats are back to, well, let’s hope not The Biggest Loser every day… but his 2 points, 1 rebound, and 3 assists in 19 minutes is certainly worth of the title for last night.

All Eyez On Me: As Erik pointed out this week ends with All Star Weekend, so there’s a lot less games on the schedule. Tonight we do get San Antonio playing against a possibly Kobe-less Lakers, and the Not Superbowl Champion Hornets will visit the Not Superbowl Location Orlando.

The Golden Ticket: Dallas is at Golden State, so let’s see what Dirk et. al. can do…

Don’t Forget: Play GMTR’s Weekly Fantasy Game. No, really. It’s pretty awesome.

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2009-2010 Week 16 Fantasy Basketball Guide

Erik — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:38:23 +0000

Week 16 in fantasy basketball is going to get a little bit more funky than usual. Why? Well for starters, it’s the week that culminates in the NBA All-Star weekend.

This means that there are far less NBA games played in this week than any other during the season.

ONLY the Orlando Magic has THREE games scheduled this week. All the other teams have either one or two games on tap. That means players like Matt Barnes, J.J. Redick, Mickael Pietrus, and Marcin Gortat may have a little bit of extra value than normal in leagues of various depths; at least for this week. Stream in or grab those guards for an extra boost in threes and a few points. While Gortat may be able to add a few boards and a block or two to your team’s totals for the week. Study your upcoming match-up and if those cats are going to be tough, then consider these Magic players. These guys may be especially useful to you if your fantasy team is loaded with players who play for teams that have only one game this week.

Teams with TWO games: ATL, CHA, CHI, CLE, DAL, DEN, DET, GSW, LAC, LAL, MIA, MIL, MIN, NJN, NOR, PHI, POR, SAC, SAN, UTA

Teams with ONE game: BOS, HOU, IND, MEM, NYK, OKL, PHO, TOR, WAS

In spite of having only one game this week, I would still opt to start several players due to the value of the numbers they are capable of producing in one game. I would play Kevin Durant, Steve Nash, Danny Granger, Chris Bosh, David Lee, Zach Randolph

There’s a second tier of player who I would start if DID NOT have competitive replacements playing two games this week and they are: Rajon Rondo, Troy Murphy, Nate Robinson, Amar’e Stoudemire, Antawn Jamison, and maybe Aaron Brooks (but he’s pushing it).

Along with the schedule being a bit on the wonky side, this all-star week represents a long break for many players who are in need of extra rest and will be shut down by their teams for the week.

Joakim Noah is going to get his plantar-fasciitis-afflicted feet some much needed extra rest and so Brad Miller may actually be a reasonable filler at C during these two games.

Brandon Roy will remain out. This is something I saw coming. Keep him benched.

Samuel Dalembert is currently needed by his team, but since his back is sore look for his minutes to be reduced and you may want to consider benching him in favor of a lesser center who also is playing two games for the week.

Kevin Love owners got a bit of a scare during Minnesota’s game versus Memphis, when he suffered a knee injury during the game. Thankfully he came back to the game and was still able to play. I wouldn’t be surprised if his minutes are limited this week as well. Consider Ryan Hollins for some extra boards, blocks and minor FG% boosting, if you are playing in deep leagues. He will likely remain as Al Jefferson’s partner in the T-Wolves’ starting frontcourt this week.

Kobe Bryant is an interesting case this week. He’s on player-option mode on whether he feels up to playing on his sore left ankle or not. Given what KB is capable of putting up in two games, I would say that he is a worthwhile calculated risk to start for fantasy this week.

Speaking of rest-options, Chauncey Billups was allowed to take a game off by the Nuggets this week to rest a tweaked ankle. Similar to Kobe, Billups is worth a start even if he ends up playing only one game this week. One good Billups game will still odds are be statistically superior to, say, two mediocre Beno Udrih games.

Carlos Boozer is back. Bench Paull Millsap once again. It shouldn’t be much longer until Boozer is traded and Millsap can be cycled back into starting lineups once again.

That’s it for now. Enjoy the All-star game and all the other events that will comprise the weekend. Cheers!

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Day 103 of 170: New York Welcomes LeBron with Open Arms and a Lack of Defense

Patrick — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:29:01 +0000

Line of the Night: The potent combination of LeBron James (1.91) plus the New York Knicks led to some fireworks all right, as LeBron dropped 47 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 6 threes and 5 steals on the star-struck team. I’m guessing the Knicks just wanted to show him how good he can play in New York as we approach the 2010 free agency period.

Honorable Mentions: Russell Westbrook (1.17) flirted with a quadruple-double, but ultimately he couldn’t seal the deal and she left for the night with some other guy. Still, 21 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds and 8 steals isn’t as bad a consolation prize as some of stuff my friend used to go home with from the bars at the end of the night; the late, great Jermaine O’Neal (1.08) had 24 points and 16 rebounds against Brad Miller and the Chicago Bulls (oh wait, O’Neal is alive, Brad Miller is the one who died); and Nate Robinson (1.07) has gone from the Knicks’ doghouse to a de-luxe apartment in the sky. He scored 26 points against the Cavs, hitting 5-7 from three and adding 6 assists in 38 minutes on the court.

The Return of Boozer: Carlos Boozer (0.53) did not miss a beat in his return against the Nuggets, not only did he push Paul Millsap (0.28) back to the bench, but Boozer added 19 points and 13 rebounds in the Jazz win. Mission accomplished as far as he’s concerned. Millsap held his own with 16 points and 6 rebounds, but only getting 25 minutes off the bench is going to continue to put the squeeze on his stats.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: After averaging about 20 minutes a game in the month of January, Luc Mbah a Moute (0.77) now appears to be back in the ever evolving Milwaukee Bucks’ rotation. Known as a defensive specialist, Mbah a Moute scored a season high 18 points, adding 11 rebounds in 43 minutes on the court against the Pacers. It was his first double-double of the year. Considering his outburst came against the Pacers and he was 7-9 from the floor, you might want to leave him as a free agent unless he consistently gets 35+ minutes a game from now on.

Rather, a guy to take a chance on short-term is Ty Lawson (0.25), who filled in for the injured Chauncey Billups yesterday and scored 25 points in 37 minutes. Billups is day-to-day, so check up on his situation before making a play for Lawson, especially in weekly leagues.

The Biggest Loser: Monta Ellis (-0.49). The Warriors could only muster 95 points against the Thunder, and Ellis was the man to blame. He did score 15 points and dish out 6 assists, but Ellis was also 6-22 from the field (27%) and turned the ball over 7 times. Since he shot 74% from the floor in the Warriors previous game against the Mavs, consider this the universe’s way of evening itself back out.

Also, Luis Scola (-0.62) had an empty 8 points, 1 rebound, and 0 assist game in a loss to the Sixers.

All Eyez on Me: With something called the Super Bowl on tonight (you guys know what this is?), the NBA smartly throws a couple early games at us. Of course, I can’t vouch for the smartness of the teams chosen to play in the games.

Sacramento (16-33) at Toronto (27-23) – Count on Donte Greene, who scored 31 points in the Kings last game, to completely disappear in this one as one or both of Evans and Martin bounce back with good games. Jason Thompson is expected to return after missing a couple games for personal reasons. And for Toronto, expect DeMar DeRozan to return after his 5 games with an ankle injury. That means it’s time to get Sonny Weems out of your lineups, if you were desperate enough to go that route.

Orlando (33-17) at Boston (32-16) – Paul Pierce has declared himself good to go for this game, but Doc Rivers ain’t so sure. And is Vince Carter ever going to re-discovered his shot and recover from the horrible slump he’s in? Well, it wasn’t quite as bad, but last season Carter slumped right around the same time – from January 14th to February 3rd. During that stretch in 2009, Carter shot 38% from the floor, including 4 games where he shot 25% or less. He of course did recover last year and should do the same again.

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Day 102 of 170: Chauncey Billups Takes Over

Patrick — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:24:57 +0000

Line of the Night:With Carmelo missing his 7th straight game, Chauncey Billups (1.63) took over against the Lakers with a career-high 39 points, knocking down 9 of the 13 threes he took, and adding 8 assists in 41 minutes. What more can you say about Billups? Apparently, nothing.

Honorable Mentions: Steve Nash (1.21) – with a 23/8/10 and 4 threes – fell a couple rebounds short of a triple-double in a win over the Kings; Jason Kidd (1.14) fell a bunch of stuff short of a triple-double with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, but he did add 4 steals and 2 blocks, which funny enough doesn’t get him any closer to a triple-double; David Lee (1.1) had a monster of a game with 32 points on 12-18 shooting and grabbed 15 boards, but he didn’t get a lot of help from his teammates and the Knicks still lost to the Bucks 114-107; and Dwight Howard (0.99) finished with 20 points 18 boards and 3 blocks.

Ben Gordon (0.64) looked like a rust bucket full of rust in his first three games back from injury, shooting 7 of 23 from the field in those games. But last night, Gordon got some of that old Ben Gordon form back, hitting 10-17 shots from the field and finishing with 26 points in 25 minutes for the Pistons.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Donte Greene (0.72). Owned in 3% of leagues out there, Greene dropped a season high 31 points on the Suns, going 11-20 from the field, with 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Both Tyreke Evans (0.19) and Kevin Martin (-0.57) had disappointing scoring nights, and Greene was able to pick up the slack and at least keep the game… not horribly embarrassing for the Kings. Greene has started the Kings past 8 games and his previous scoring high in a game during that time was 12 points, so he remains a guy simply to keep an eye on to see if he somehow gains a whole lot more consistency.

The Biggest Loser: All the Kings with the exception of Greene and Omri Casspi had disappointing games, but the aforementioned Kevin Martin (-0.57) was the worst of the bunch. Martin only played 26 minutes of this one, but went 2-9 from the floor, scoring 5 points with 2 rebounds and 1 assist.

All Eyez on Me:

Denver (34-16) at Utah (30-18) – Anthony is again doubtful for this one, meaning we’ll get more of the Chauncey Billups’ show. Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Carlos Boozer is going to play in this game after participating in a closed practice yesterday. Speaking of Boozer, how about a Boozer/Kevin Martin trade? It’s what you call a win-win-win-win.

Los Angeles (38-13) at Portland (30-22) – Brandon Roy may return for this game and the team could certainly use him as they try to hold on to a playoff spot in a stacked Western Conference. The player to watch in this one if Roy returns is Andre Miller, who 52 point explosions aside, was actually playing better before Roy got hurt than he has in recent games.

The Golden Ticket: Oklahoma City (28-21) at Golden State (13-35) – Bad news for anyone holding onto Anthony Randolph hoping for a late season comeback. Reports are that is recovery is going slowly and that he’ll have to wear a walking boot for at least the next 30 days, meaning that it’s doubtful he’ll return at all this season.

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Fantasy Basketball Roundtable: Trade Advice

Nels — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:26:35 +0000

Our friend Erik, who still blogs at Points in the Paint while two-timing GMTR, is hosting the Roundtable this week over at his own personal little baby.

This week’s topic: The NBA trade deadline is just around the corner and soon so will be the one for most fantasy leagues, what general or specific trade advice can you give fantasy managers out there?

Joining the discussion this week are:
Ryan Lester, Lester’s Legends
Tommy Beer, Hoops World
Patrick Madden, Give Me The Rock

And here’s a link to the whole thing – including advice from Ryan, Tommy, and Erik.

This is what Patrick had to say:
My advice would depend a lot on the position of your fantasy team. For those owners currently in first or second place or those almost guaranteed a playoff spot (in H2H leagues) now is the time to make a strategic trade or two aimed at maximizing the amount of games you will get from players during the final weeks of the season. Nothing worse than having your monster first place team all season make a quick exit from the fantasy playoffs based on one bad week in April. A quick look at the GMTR schedule grid shows that the Rockets, Bucks, Thunder, Spurs, Toronto, and Wizards all play 14 games over the last 4 weeks of the season, while the Cavs, Hornets and Blazers only play 11. It may be a fools errand to trade someone like LeBron, but swapping players of similar value like Brendan Haywood for Emeka Okafor will net you three additional games over the typically fantasy playoff period. Do that with a 2-3 players and you could easily have a 5-10 game advantage over your opponents during the playoffs.

For those teams on the proverbial playoff bubble, now is the time to take stock of your team. Are you mediocre because of injuries and bad luck, or is it because your players are really just mediocre? If you problem is the latter, then now is the time to take some risks. Chances are even if your team makes the playoffs, you are not going to win it all. And if you’re not trying to win it all, then why are you playing in the first place? So, trade for Paul Millsap and hope Boozer gets traded from the Jazz, overpay in a trade for someone like Darren Collison and hope that CP3’s recovery goes badly and he misses the rest of the year. It may smell a little of desperation, but who are we kidding, it is.

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Day 101 of 170: If You Said LeBron James, You’d Be Wrong

Nels — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:03:07 +0000

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Line of the Night: While he was on the losing end of the game, Michael Beasley (1.28) was on the winning end of fantasy. Bees Knees had 21 points (1 three), 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Player Raters love defense. Especially when there’s only 2 games being played.

Honorable Mentions: Not far behind Beasley was the King, LeBron James (1.02) with 36 points (1 three), 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals. He was also a fairly awesome 81% from the line on 21 attempts. Should put you in good position in that category.

Martell Webster (0.97) is finally owned in 50% of leagues, so he’s no longer eligible for Waive Wire Line of the Night. He made it top 3 last night, nevertheless, with 21 points on 5 threes, adding 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Which brings us to Daniel Gibson (0.43) who’s tied with Taj Gibson at an 11% ownership rate. All the more amazing, because he missed the first quarter of the game because his baby mama was becoming his actual baby mama. Nothing fancy here, but he pulled numbers across the board with 12 points, 1 three, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block. The big boost looks to have been in FT% where he shot 86% on 7 attempts.

The Biggest Loser: Quentin Richardson (-0.66) almost pulled an Ofer in the Heat’s loss. Q-Rich was out on the court for 28 minutes and contributed a mere 2 rebounds. He was 0 for 7 from the field, and 0 for everything else.

All Eyez On Me: Denver rolls into LA to take on the Lakers. Will Kobe play, or will he end his streak of 234 consecutive games? I think the Lakers can afford to let him take a break for a bit. After all, the regular season is not the playoffs. Speaking of the playoffs…

Houston and Memphis are both 26-22 now. That puts them at tied for 9th and 10th place in the West (even thought it would get them 6th in the East). No offense to the Rockets, but I want to see Memphis do this. And by this, I mean make the playoffs.

And Washington @ Orlando should mean some good times for Dwight Howard.

The Golden Ticket: Milwaukee @ New York… Nate Robinson? Anyone figured that one out yet? Not me.

Phoenix @ Sacramento. I know, kind of lame… we’ll see what happens.

Friday’s Tiny Dancer: I like that the Heat are promoting the H E Double Hockey Sticks out of their dance team. They’ve already posted 11 galleries of photos on their site, and the dance team is the second story after, y’know, the actual basketball game. I’ll tell you something else, it doesn’t suck to be Omar Vega.

(Photo Credits: Omar Vega)

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Day 100 of 170: Everyone Wins When Boozer Sits

Patrick — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:36:40 +0000

Line of the Night: Stephen Jackson (1.06). With Gerald Wallace sitting out of the Bobcats/Lakers match-up with a hamstring injury, Capt. Jack almost led Charlotte to a win over destiny’s team with a 30 point, 7 rebound performance. His fantasy line was certainly helped by the fact that he was 10-16 from the field and 8-8 from the line in this one. Wallace is expected back for the Bobcats next game, but that doesn’t make Jackson any less of a stud going forward. And I mean that purely in a basketball sense.

Honorable Mentions: A lot of great fantasy performances last night, so I will attempt to be brief. Tyreke Evans (1.03) finished with a 32/7/8 against the new look run-and-gun Spurs (Kevin Martin (-0.30) and his crappy shooting night were not as lucky); Andrei Kirilenko (1.02) had a 22, 6, and 8 against the Blazers and appears to be benefiting from Boozer’s absence almost as much as Paul Millsap; Joe Johnson (0.95) scored 34 on 11-21 shooting as the Hawks downed the Clippers; Mehmet Okur (0.95) showed some signs of life with 28 points on 11-13 shooting with 8 rebounds, and appears to be benefiting from Boozer’s absence almost as much as Paul Millsap (wait a second…); and Dwyane Wade (0.93) generally had his way with the Celtics to finish with 30 points and 13 assists. Unfortunately for Wade and the Heat, the Celtics generally had their way with the Heat as well and won the game 107-102.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Marcus Thornton (0.85) is still only owned in 42% of leagues, so I guess he has to qualify here. Thornton is averaging 19.7 points per game since taking over the starting job from Devin Brown, so, yeah, you’re gonna wanna pick him up if he happens to be available, mmmmkay.

George Hill (0.70) continues to start for the injured Tony Parker and gave his best Parker impersonation in last night’s game with 23 points and 9 assists while going 9-9 from the line. Parker could be back as soon as the Spurs next game, but Hill will likely continue to start at SG like he was before Parker got injured.

The not so ageless but rejuvenated Nazr Mohammed (0.26) got 40 minutes against the Lakers and made the most of it with 23 points and 17 boards. The Bobcats center has been starting for the team since the end of December, but has been getting more like 20 minutes a game on average. The increase in minutes for Mohammed can likely be attributed to Gerald Wallace sitting out of this game and the fact that the Bobcats could not go small in this game against two guys like Bynum and Gasol. Mohammed is only worth a look in super deep leagues.

The Biggest Loser: Tough call. Maybe Lamar Odom (0.58) – not for his performance – but for stepping on Kobe Bryant’s (-0.33) foot in the second quarter last night’s game. Kobe left the game, but came back for parts of it and finished with 5 points on 2-12 shooting. Expect Kobe to play through this injury like the others, but you have to be worried how it will affect his game going forward.

Chris Duhon (-0.50) started at point for the Knicks, but played only 16 minutes and scored 2 points with 2 assists while shooting 1-6 from the field; Rasheed Wallace (-0.46) finished with 7 points on 3-10 shooting for the Celtics; and Taj Gibson (-0.55) only got 16 minutes for the Bulls, scoring no points with 1 rebound. Blame it on the plantar fasciitis, but it’s not exactly the way I’d recommend trying to keep your starting job.

All Eyez on Me: Two NBA games tonight, Miami (24-25) at Cleveland (39-11) and San Antonio (28-19) at Portland (29-22). Here are my personal fantasy recommendations for today: if you’re in a daily league play everyone and if you’re in a weekly league, there ain’t a damn thing you can do about it. But as a stats geek, I’d recommend Blazers Edge’s analysis of the curious case of Martell Webster. The Blazers and there injuries make them one of the more interesting (or confusing) fantasy teams in the NBA, so it’s fun (again, stats geek) to try and take a peek behind the curtain to understand what they are doing and why.

The GMTR FreeRoll: Congratulations to (ugh…) Nels, who won this week’s GMTR fantasy game at 365 Fantasy Sports. As you can see, his strategic use of Hawks, Jazz and DeJuan Blair overcame the power of Danilo Gallinari. Remember to play with us every week on Wednesdays and you can personally dethrone the great and all powerful Nels.

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Day 99 of 170: Durant For All Star MVP

Nels — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:58:14 +0000

Don’t Forget: Today is Wednesday, which means Give Me The Rock’s Weekly Fantasy Contest. It’s called a FreeRoll (contest #95720 – code: GMTR). I have yet to win one, but I’m not going to stop trying.

Line of the Night: You have to wonder if Kevin Durant (1.33) is thinking that he can take over Chris Paul as the future of fantasy basketball. The 33 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals (9-18 from the field, 14-14 from the line) gives him his 2nd Line of the Night in 2 games. He even beat out LeBron James’ (0.99) 22, 6, and 15 (also 50% from the field and 100% from the line). Which one do you think is going to get the All Star MVP award? You know it’s going to come down to a 3-point bombing contest if the game is close.

Honorable Mentions: Besides LeBron, Chris Bosh (0.97) had 35 and 15, but the Raptors got eaten up by the Pacers. Marcus Camby (0.96) had 11 and 9 adding 4 steals and 4 blocks. When you’re that good at it, it’s got to be pretty fun to just play defense and not have to worry about doing anything else on the court.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Courtney Lee (0.85) is owned in 45% of leagues, so technically he qualifies, but he probably won’t be available in most competitive leagues. Lee had 15 points, 3 threes, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Jason Williams (0.74) – yes, White Chocolate himself – is only owned in 8% of leagues, so he’s probably available to you if you like his 11 points, 2 threes, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Of course, that’s easily his best game in 2 weeks, so, he’s kind of a risky pick up.

The Biggest Loser: Zach Randolph (-0.45) finally had a bad game (it’s been a while – his last game in single digit points was November), and he fell hard: 8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 5 turnovers and 3-14 from the field. If you can swing a trade for him before the Grizzlies next game, get him while his value is down because I’m sure he’s going to be back to double-doubles in a second.

All Eyez On Me: To help you out with the FreeRoll contest… Here’s what I’m thinking: San Antonio @ Sacramento means big numbers for the Spurs. Chicago and Philadelphia is another game with pretty decent offenses and fairly porous defenses (though supposedly the Bulls defense is actually pretty good).

The Golden Ticket: And of course, you’ve got a whole bunch of fast-paced Golden Ticket games tonight including: Washington @ New York, Golden State @ Dallas, and Phoenix @ Denver. And supposedly, Carmelo Anthony is going to be back tonight.

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