It took a while for the stats to get updated last night, and I even woke up early on a Saturday to do this and then I couldn’t, so you’ll forgive me for a being a little brief… The Saturday To Do List is always the longest one…

Line of the Night: Kyle Korver ended Kevin Durant’s streak of LotNs with 27 points on 8-13 from the field and 8 threes while adding 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks (3.07 WARP). He had 2 overtimes to do it in, though, while Durant only played a regular-sized game…

Honorable Mentions: Kevin Durant still came in 2nd (out of 226), though, with 24 points, 9-9 from the line, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals (1.91 WARP).

Monta Ellis showed up for Milwaukee with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals (1.79 WARP), and he had help from Ersan Ilyasova who had 30 points, 5 threes, and 7 rebounds (1.40 WARP), but a bunch of not-that-great fantasy performances from the Cavs managed to topple the Bucks.

Kobe Bryant went into “passing Kobe” mode (sometimes known as “good teammate Kobe” mode) as he scored only 14 points on 7-10 from the field, but had 9 rebounds, 14 assists, and 3 steals (1.78 WARP).

Joakim Noah led the Bulls over the Warriors with 14 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks (1.77 WARP). I was at the game and what was more impressive than Noah’s game (or even Kirk Hinrich’s WWLotN winning game) was Nate Robinson’s absolute unconsciousness. I am certain he could not feel his face. He fell just outside the “default 7″ WW guys that we usually list below (when they don’t venture into unspeakably horrific territory). Robinson was 10-16 with 2 threes for 22 points (no free throws) along with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years of fantasy basketball, it’s: Never count Nate Robinson out. Of course, it’s often hard to know when to count him in…

Jeff Teague got a boost like Korver from the extra long game, going for 23 points, 8-11 from the field, 7 assists, and 3 steals (1.76 WARP).

Jeremy Lin bounced back from a streak of pretty bad games with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists, and 6 steals (1.63 WARP). Just when you’re trying to decide whether or not to keep him in your lineup next week, right?

Josh Smith has been in my lineup all season, and he’s finally starting to look like the second round steal I drafted him as with 17 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks (1.41 WARP).

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Kirk Hinrich (27% owned) started things off for the Bulls who jumped out to a 19 point lead in the first quarter, allowing Nate Robinson to come in and fire away at will. Hinrich was a bit better for fantasy, though, because of the 6 threes that led to his 25 points (8-11 from the field). He also had 4 assists (1.50 WARP).

Pick Up Lines: Danny Green is 46% owned, so you’re not like to be able to pick him up, but that’s only because it’s kind of hard to know when the 11 point, 3 three, 4 assist, 3 steal (1.33 WARP) nights are going to come while he’s still splitting time with Kawhi Leonard (who is 50% owned and just missed the cutoff for an Honorable Mention.

Courtney Lee (24% owned) had a good night for the Celtics with 16 points, 5-5 from the line, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals (1.21 WARP). He’s got a positive WARP over the last 16 games, so he’s definitely worth a look, but is probably owned in most of the leagues where he’s useful.

Boris Diaw (5% owned) started in place of Tim Duncan and had 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists (1.15 WARP). Duncan’s got a sore knee but he thought he’d be able to get into this game, so I wouldn’t count on Diaw in anything but a deep, deep league.

Patrick Patterson (18% owned) played the most minutes he’s had since the start of December and made good use of them with 18 points, 8-11 from the field, and 13 rebounds (1.13 WARP). I’d definitely wait to see what his next game or two look like before making a move there.

I didn’t realize how banged up the Timberwolves were until someone asked about Derrick Williams (20% owned) yesterday in the comments. Well, after another start and his 4th positive WARP game out of the last 5 in which he had 18 points, and 11 rebounds (1.06 WARP), it looks like somehow the minutes are there for Williams. I just looked at a bunch of game logs and I can’t really figure out how injuries to Nikola Pekovic (C) and Alexey Shved (PG) are suddenly opening up more time for Williams (SF/PF?) than they had before, but my guess is they’re throwing Dante Cunningham in as the backup Center now (cause who wants more than 18 minutes of Greg Stiemsma?), which means they don’t really have another F since Kirilenko is already in there. Williams might be good for the short term, but with Shved and Pekovic expected back fairly soon (another 2-3 games), he’s not going to be much more than that.

Finolly, (see what I did there?) we have Carlos Delfino (27% owned) who scored 14 points with 4 threes (1.04 WARP). Delfino was picked up in my work league (which is a pretty “laggy” league), so good luck getting him anywhere competitive (despite his low 27% ownership).

Biggest Loser: Manu Ginobili is still working himself back into the lineup, so when he is limited to 8 minutes, I guess 0 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist (-0.44 WARP) is about all you can expect. What’s interesting though, is that even without Duncan, the Spurs starters all played less than 30 minutes. The Spurs were up by 19 at the end of the 3rd quarter, but compare that to the Bulls who were up by 18 at the end of the 1st quarter, and still managed to have Kirk Hinrich play 38.5 minutes, Joakim Noah play 39 minutes, Jimmy Butler play 43.5 minutes, and Carlos Boozer play 34 minutes. Meanwhile, Nate “Totally expendable once Derrick Rose is back” Robinson plays only 21 minutes, Taj Gibson gets only 18.5 minutes and Marco Belinelli gets 17. Tom Thibodeau: You are a good coach, but you are no Gregg Poppovich. Maybe if you changed your name to Tomm Thibbodeau…?

So, our real Biggest Loser was Greivis Vasquez who should probably take most of the fault for letting the Rockets get up on the Pelicans (just practicing) by 9 points in the first quarter. Vasquez’s contribution amounted to 2 points (1-6 from the field), 1 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 turnvoers (-0.41 WARP). Vasquez is #81 on the season, though, so we can’t hound him too much for having a bad game every once in a while.

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Daily rankings and stats come from the FBC 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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