Caption: This is the haircut that happens when you come from Medford, Oregon and are good enough at basketball that no one wants to tell you that it’s ridiculous.
Or: Thanks for 7 great seasons Kenneth.

Line of the Night: Steve Nash had 17 points, 6-9 from the field, 3 threes, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks (2.16 WARP) to help lead the Lakers over Minnesota (no great feat there, but the Lakers did win, so that’s something).

I’m tempted to just skip over all the Honorable Mentions, because I’m pretty sure with everything that’s going on that no is really coming here for that section… Maybe if you do come here for the Honorable Mentions, leave a comment and let us know that you actually still appreciate this section… I’ll just make it quickie for today. That’s what she said. (Side note: have you ever noticed how you can say “That’s what she said” after pretty much anything anyone says in the course of normal conversation and it’s still funny? I’d try to show you, but it doesn’t work as well for stuff as highly technical as fantasy basketball statistics. Just try it sometime for yourself)

Honorable Mentions: David West put up 30 points, going an impressive 12-15 from the field, and 6-6 from the line, with 7 rebounds, and 5 assists (2.04 WARP) as the Pacers shut down Miami. It was easily his best performance of the season, though he has snuck a few other good ones in there. (That’s what she said)

Andre Iguodala had 24 points on 10-14 from the field with 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals (1.99 WARP) as Denver pulled away from the Hornets in the 4th quarter for the W. Ty Lawson was just behind Iguodala with his 21 points, 8-8 from the line, 13 assists, and 2 steals (1.91 WARP).

Pau Gasol (still on the Lakers as far as I know) helped Nash with 22 points, 5-5 from the line, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks (1.96 WARP).

Ersan Ilyasova had 19 points, 7-11 from the field, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals (1.94 WARP) in a losing effort against the Knicks. No Honorable Mentions for NYC though…

Brandon Knight finished ahead of his WWLotN teammate with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists, and 2 steals (1.83 WARP) as the Pistons rolled over the Cavs. No surprise there. Jose Calderon did not play. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Thaddeus Young put together another excellent fantasy line, leading the 76ers over some other team who must marginally still exist, akin to a lame duck president, (although, I guess a team gets to keep all it’s players when it moves, so it would be more like a lame duck president who gets to keep all his cabinet members in place after he leaves. Awkward!) with 23 points, 11-17 from the field, 15 rebounds, and 2 steals (1.72 WARP). I might have said this in an earlier post, but I think Thaddeus has got to be up there for Sleeper of the Year. He was drafted at 92 on average and is currently #40 YTD. That’s some good value there.

Injuries of the Night: Jameer Nelson left the game with a left arm injury. He’s listed as day-to-day, but if they Magic lost him for any amount of time, E’Twaun Moore becomes an immediate must-add. Moore has shown that he can do some Small Ball type stuff when given the minutes, so keep an eye on that.

Jared Sullinger finally made good on the pre-draft reports of back problems. I suppose he figured that with Rondo out, there was no better time than now to have some back surgery, so he’s going to do that and miss the rest of the season. At least he’ll have a rehab buddy. I know a lot of people were asking if Bass or Jeff Green was the better add… Well, Bass had 26 minutes and went for 6 and 7 while Green came off the bench for 29 minutes, shooting 8-14 for 17 points with 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal, and 3 blocks. So, I think that answers that question. At least until the next game where Green craps out and Bass goes off.

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Kyle Singler (12% owned) for the win! No, literally. Singler had 20 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks (1.40 WARP) in the win. Again, this was Cleveland the Pistons were playing, but Singler had 36.5 minutes. And who else do the Pistons have at the SF position now? Charlie Villanueva? Not likely. WNBA sensation Kim English? No. How about Kim Kardashian and Kate Middleton’s lesbian love child Khris Middleton? Yeah, probably not. Corey Maggette? Hahaha. No, now I’m just making stuff up.

Pick Up Lines: Mentioning Amir Johnson (47% owned) at this point feels like I’m a pot shouting “Hey kettle! You’re black!” (Although I actually have a white kettle with Parisian landscapes on it. My wife is a French teacher. My parents bought it for her) Anyway, Johnson had 19 points (7-9 from the field) and 16 rebounds (1.21 WARP) as the Raptors just blew up the Clippers… And here’s where I’m going start throwing in the random Rudy Gay follow out stuff (as if Kyle Singler hadn’t already started that part of the post).

Rudy Gay came off the bench for the Raptors but played almost 33 minutes rendering Landry Fields once again irrelevant. In that time, Gay put up 20 points on a season high 50% from the field (just kidding – that was just me making fun of his 41% shooting for the season). He had 3 threes, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, and 2 turnovers. We’ll call it an auspicious start.

Meanwhile, at the end of the bench, Jonas Valanciunas returned from injury to play 13 minutes. He had 5 fouls in those 13 minutes, but that’s about par for the JV. (I’m trying to imply Junior Varsity there, but I couldn’t figure out a better way to word it) That as it were, Aaron Gray’s run as Premier of the Canadian League is over. Combine that with the fact that Andrea Bargnani is basically day-to-day now, and you’ve got the most gunningest team I think I’ve ever seen. Look at this lineup (career FG% in parentheses): Kyle Lowry (42%), DeMar DeRozan (45.4%), Rudy Gay (45.2%), Andrea Bargnani (43.8%) and the JV (52.1% on only 5.8 shots per game). Okay, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Though, getting 43.8% at the PF position has got to be one of the worst from a starter in the league.

How did Memphis look with their new spare parts? Well, they somehow played all of their starters more than 30 minutes (nearly more than 35 each) while giving Tayshaun Prince 32 minutes of his own. Austin Daye got only 5. Prince, for his part, went 7-11 to end up with 14 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, and 1 block. Makes me wonder if they are really going to keep going with Conley and Bayless in the backcourt and Tony Allen at the 3. Maybe they’re just waiting to work Tayshaun in there… or maybe it’s going to be a 6-man rotation for the rest of the year…? It certainly deosn’t seem to be a positive outlook for Ed Davis who went from 30+ minutes on the Raptors to 5 minutes for the Grizz. Maybe he just hasn’t learned the offense or something, but if Zach Randolph can go 3-10 in 36 minutes, certainly Ed Davis can do no worse…

Then there’s the opposite story where Marreese Speights (9% owned) was sent from Memphis to Cleveland and last night he scored 17 points, 4-4 from the line, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks (1.11 WARP) in 29 minutes off the bench. I’m sure if they could start him at Center over Tyler Zeller, they would do that. It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried Tristan Thompson at Center at some point to get Speights in at PF.

Somehow another Cavalier makes the WW list: C.J. Miles (8% owned) shot only 4-10 but made a three to end with 12 points, and 2 steals (1.00 WARP).

Shannon Brown (16% owned) continues to look like a good WW option with 20 points on 7-11 from the field (0.99 WARP).

Is there anyone more frustrating to try to figure out than Antawn Jamison (23% owned)? Granted, the Lakers were without Dwight Howard last night while he had something called a Platlet Rich Plasma procedure to recover faster. (Sounds like something Lance Armstrong might have done, no?) Meanwhile, Jamison went for 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals (0.90 WARP). As soon as Howard gets back he’ll probably be back to 12 minutes a game. If he can put up those kinds of numbers, shouldn’t Mike D at least try to figure out how to get him in there more?

Finally, Nick Young (23% owned) actually shot well (6-12 and 7-7) to end up with 20 points, 4 rebounds, a steal and a block (0.89 WARP). Young is up to #52 on the Player Rater over the last 2 weeks, and while he certainly won’t be good for a Big Ball team, he does seem like a perfect WW pick-up for a small ball team that wants good FT shooting, some threes, steals, points, and even a spot of rebounding. (Note to self: make all of your teams next season Small Ball teams. It seems like it’s going to be harder to find assists and threes, and while that may be true for the assists, the threes are so much easier)

Biggest Loser: Dion Waiters is not doing much to lure LeBron back to Cleveland with his 6 points (2-7 from the field), 3 rebounds, 1 assists, and 4 turnovers (-1.23 WARP). Of course, if he was playing with LeBron, he’d probably get 3 threes a game.

Eric Gordon had a pretty poor performance with 9 points (3-8 from the field), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 5 turnovers (-1.14 WARP).

***

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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