Line of the Night/Waiver Wire Line of the Night: With the 36-year-old Kevin Garnett sitting out with Boston playing it’s 3rd game in 4 nights, Jeff Green (24% owned) started for the Celtics and led them to a dominating victory over the Suns with 31 points, 11-14 from the field, 3 threes, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 5 blocks (3.56 WARP). I’m not saying the Celtics should blow up the team and start rebuilding around Green, but the guy did show some flashes of brilliance in his time at OKC (once again proving how awesome Seattle/OKC was/has been at drafting really well). What I am saying is that if he’s somehow still on the wire in your league, then he should not be. Sure, he’s not going to put up a line like that every night, but he’s up to 31 minutes a game in the 10 games in February, at #50 on the Player Rater over the last 14 games, and #9 overall over the last 6 games.

Honorable Mentions: Russell Westbrook led OKC to a high-scoring 127 point total in a win over Minnesota thanks to his 37 points, 9-9 from the line, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists (2.45 WARP). Similarly, Jeff Teague led the Hawks to a 122 point total with 20 points, 12 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks (2.30 WARP). Al Horford helped out with a very efficient 24 points, on 11-14 from the field, adding 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocks (1.71 WARP). On the losing side of the Hawk-Kings brief history of time was Isaiah Thomas, who is still owned in 67% of leagues thanks to his recent run of that were not quite as good as his 30 points, 4 threes, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists from last night (1.84 WARP).

Kobe Bryant‘s Lakers didn’t hit 120 despite his 40 points, 15-23 from the field, 9-9 from the line, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals (2.16 WARP), but they did get the win, which is more important to them, but not so much to us.

Dallas just edged New Orleans thanks to the combo of Vince Carter‘s 22 points, 5 threes, 9 rebounds, and 2 steals (1.91 WARP), and Dirk Nowitzki‘s 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists (1.66 WARP). I’m not sure if Dirk owners are still disappointed about his season so far, but over the last 5 games, he is up to #7 overall on the Player Rater, just head of Jeff Green and Chris Paul.

Arron Afflalo played 44 minutes in what was a 7 man rotation for the Magic. Given those kind of minutes, you’d kind of expect more than 20 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks (1.86 WARP), but that’s what you’d get. I do feel bad for Magic fans… Not only did they lost Dwight (though some were probably saying ‘Good Riddance’), then they lost pretty much everyone else of value on the team to injury before trading away JJ Redick.

And in the sleeves: Jarrett Jack scored 30 points with 10 assists (1.72 WARP) for the Warriors.

Obviously there are two sides to the sleeves (literally and figuratively): either you like them or you don’t. Maybe we can all discuss more in the comments, but I am in the Like camp. Facebook thumbs up Like. Sure, on first glance they’re unconventional, weird, and kind of dumb. But I’ve got some shirts like that which I wear to work out and while my body doesn’t look quite as good as Jack’s when I’m throwing up my 3-pointer fingers after my workouts, I like the look. I also think it’s a pretty smart marketing move because teams already produce the “jersey t-shirt” looks for people who don’t want to figure out how they can wear a jersey without looking like an idiot, so if the “official jersey” is already a t-shirt, then the teams can make (and my guess is: sell) more t-shirts than they would traditional jerseys. Yes, it’s all about business. By changing the design, they’ll also just sell more period since there’s another available option. The NBA already does this with their throwbacks and alternate road colors and Latin Night jerseys… might as well as a t-shirt in there… then when a fan wears a “jersey t-shirt” it’s going to more like a real jersey.

Okay, enough about that…

Pick Up Lines: Carlos Delfino (18% owned) started at PF for the 3rd straight game and racked up 22 points, 6 threes, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists (1.87 WARP). According to Rotowire, Kevin McHale said he won’t even play Thomas Robinson until he practices with the team, so if you’ve got a daily changes league, grab Delfino and watch him like the Mob Doctor… which is to say, short run, average numbers, and then done before May. (Yes! Current pop culture reference! Although if “pop” means “popular” then I guess it’s just a current culture reference… Boom, roasted.)

Andre Miller (43% owned) is probably not available but I can’t not mention his 19 points, 7-11 from the field, 4-4 from the line, 7 assists, and 3 steals (1.62 WARP).

Bernard James (0% owned) is evidently someone who plays for the Mavericks and recorded 7 blocks in 15 minutes (1.32 WARP). Chris Kaman has been out for almost a month with a concussion so this is probably the first and last we’ll hear of Bernard James (at least for fantasy purposes in 2012-13).

DeShawn Stevenson (1% owned) started his 2nd straight game for the Hawks, played 34 minutes and scored 17 points with 5 threes (1.31 WARP). He was 5-6 and all of them were threes… So, he’s their new Kyle Korver? Fear not. Korver came off the bench, but still played 32 minutes and had 10 points (2 threes), 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Even with his 36% shooting, I’d still probably take him over Stevenson for the long haul (though I wouldn’t want either of them as an ice road trucker).

So, Greg Stiemsma (1% owned) got some extra time off the bench as Minnesota tried to do something to hold back the crash of Thunder. Stiemsma ended up with 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 blocks (1.24 WARP), but his value is about as short-lived as the lightning that came just before the 16 point loss.

Speaking of blowouts: The Bulls beat down Charlotte, ending the game up by 30 points, and leading by double-digits for pretty much the whole thing. I’m not mentioning that because I’m a Bulls fan, but rather because Joakim Noah still played 38 minutes. 38 MINUTES! I know that the Bulls only other big men are Nazr Mohammed and Vladimir Radmanovic, but if those two can’t handle Bismack Biyombo and Byron Mullens in order to give Jo No some rest, then the Bulls are going to be screwed by the time they get to the playoffs.

Biggest Loser: Want to know why Charlotte struggled so much? Ramon Sessions went 5-8 from the line and 0-9 from the field for 5 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists (-1.40 WARP) while Byron Mullens made only 1-12 from the field for 2 points, with his 6 rebounds, and 3 assists (-1.23 WARP). Kemba Walker did his best, going 9-17 for 27 points, but Gerald Henderson went 3-11 and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist shot 2-8. As a team, the Bobcats ended up at 33% from the field.

Having more of a fantasy impact, though, was the 90% owned Jeremy Lin who managed just 9 points on 4-11 from the field, with 2 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers (-0.99 WARP).

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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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