Line of the Night: Leading into the All-Star Break, the NBA decided to schedule things for maximum hypeage by sending the Heat to OKC to play the Thunder. Well, LeBron James and the Heat jumped out to a 15 point lead in the first quarter to spoil things a bit until OKC tried to rally in the 4th. LeBron ended with 39 points, 4 threes, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals (2.54 WARP), but shot below 60% for the first time in 6 games. I’m sure he cares. And I bet there’s a similar record for scoring 30+ points while shooting over 50% (which LeBron has done 9 times now).

Honorable Mentions: While LeBron has taken over 1st place for the last 2 weeks, he still trails Kevin Durant by quite a bit for the season. And if KD can continue to turn out lines like this: 40 points, 15-15 from the line, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks (2.44 WARP) despite falling flat on his back (literally – quite scary), I don’t think LBJ will be able to catch him.

Chris Bosh helped LeBron out with 20 points, 10-14 from the field, 12 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks (2.07 WARP), while Russell Westbrook did his best to help Durant with 26 points, 12-13 from the line, 5 rebounds, 10 assists, but left me 1 steal short of tying that category in my work league (0.83 WARP). At least his 37% shooting wasn’t enough to drag me down in that category.

In the Battle of LA, Chris Paul led the Clippers to a 14 point first quarter lead, which they just continued to expand on, winning by 24. Which is also the number of points that CP3 had, going 5-5 from the line, with 3 threes, 13 assists, and 2 steals (1.97 WARP). Fellow Clipper Blake Griffin had 22 points, going 11-15 from the field, with 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks (1.24 WARP). On the other side of the ball, Kobe Bryant scored 20 points, including 6-6 from the line, 5 rebounds, and 11 assists (0.51 WARP).

Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Chauncey Billups (26% owned) is still playing limited minutes, but with CP3 and the Sword of Gryffindor out there, you have a lot of opportunities to be “the efficient guy.” Billups is good at that as he played only 16 minutes but had 21 points, 7-10 from the field, 5 threes, and 4 steals (2.03 WARP). (And I made a pop culture reference that wasn’t 10 years old! And I haven’t even read those books or seen more than 3 of the movies!)

Pick Up Lines: Jodie Meeks (9% owned) continues to be very up and down (mostly down) and when his up looks like: 13 points, 5-5 from the line, and 6 rebounds (0.96 WARP) you’re probably safe just leaving be.

Caron Butler (17% owned) on the other hand, can be a very good fantasy player (or at least above average), and while his season hasn’t been stellar, his recent games are looking a lot like last night’s 13 points, 3 threes, and 8 rebounds (0.58 WARP).
Antawn Jamison (33% owned) just had another good 2-game stretch with his 17 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 three (0.29 WARP). No, it’s not great, nor is it consistent… but… well… I don’t know.

CP3 is back (as we all know), which means that Matt Barnes (27% owned) is also playing basketball like a professional basketball player who gets paid money to play basketball professionally. Last night Barnes scored 11 points on 3 threes with 4 rebounds and a block (0.24 WARP). He’s still only #213 over the last 2 weeks, but hanging on to Top 100 for the season. He was worth owning before, so he’s worth owning again.

Biggest Loser: Luckily for the Heat, they can pretty much absorb and off night from anyone not named LeBron because their starting Point Guard, Mario Chalmers, only had 6 points on 2-7 from the field, with 2 rebounds, and 1 assist in nearly 28 minutes (-0.80 WARP).

Unfortunately, the Lakers don’t have LeBron James, so when their starting PG goes 3-9 from the field for 7 points with 1 rebound and 5 assists, as Steve Nash did last night (-0.78 WARP), they’re probably in trouble.

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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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