One milestone deserves another. One night after Kemba Walker joined Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw in being the third rookie to achieve an elusive triple-double, Kobe Bryant surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most career field goals for the Lakers. Bryant is now also on track this season (91 points behind) to surpass Shaquille O’Neal who is fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
On that note, I suppose it’s fitting if not even poetic that this season’s resurgent Kobe Bryant (2.87) comes away with GMTR’s Line of the Night with 35 points and 14 boards, that came along with five bombs from downtown and two blocks. While the Lakers’ matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves would have been a showcase battle between two of today’s top power forwards, Pau Gasol and Kevin Love, it was Bryant and his impressive performance that stole the show.
Honorable Mentions:
It was a night of guards as Chris Paul (2.73) had an almost equally admirable performance against the Denver Nuggets with 25 points (3 threes, 4-4 from the line), six rebounds, seven dimes, and two steals. His owners can rest easy as it looks like his recent injury is behind and he’s ready to get back to playing at 100 percent.
We did mention Kevin Love (2.28) and he didn’t disappoint. Let’s face it. He very rarely does. He outperformed Laker counterpart Pau Gasol (in fantasy) with yet another eye-popping double-double performance to the tune of 33 points and 13 rebounds.
After scaring owners with what was believed to be a tweaked ankle in the last game, Jeff Teague (2.21) opted to dowse any fears by going nine of eleven from the field to tally 24 points. He also added four treys and four dimes. This will give recently returned from injury, Kirk Hinrich more time to get into his back-up PG groove.
It’s time to call it quits (at least for me). No more Chris Bosh (2.20) jokes. Well, uh, not for the remainder of this month at least. Bosh took care of business for the Heat with 24 points and 12 rebounds. He was sweet from the foul line, making all eight of his shots from the charity stripe.
Technically speaking, Michael Beasley (2.18) deserves a shallow league mention in the “Pick-up lines” section with 18 points and 12 rebounds off the bench. Unfortunately, in spite of his good showing I’m a tad wary to recommend him as a shallow league grab. Let’s let him put together a reasonably consistent string of solid games before we ring the purchase bell.
Chauncey Billups (2.03) was more than a worthy backcourt partner for Chris Paul last night. He was on fire! He torched Denver with 32 points, nailing six treys from beyond the arc.
***
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: If you’ve been playing fantasy hoops as long as I have, it would feel weird to you to to call out Vince Carter (1.89) for WWLOTN. Ah but time flies. Vinsanity started at shooting guard and chipped in 21 points and two steals in Dallas’ winning effort against their Texan rivals, the San Antonio Spurs. Carter is owned in 27 percent of Yahoo leagues and is probably worth a spot add for the week (or two) while Jason Kidd is still injured.
Pick Up Lines: Marvin Williams (1.82), while owned in only 26 percent of leagues, showed some promise with his hybrid-big performance last night against the Hornets. He had 14 points (3 threes, 5-8 from the field) and 3 steals. It was against New Orleans’ paper-thin frontcourt so take it with a grain of salt and act accordingly.
George Hill (1.52) is simply one of those guys who just needs minutes in order to be a fantasy-productive asset. He made the most of a slow start by Paul George to finish the night with 16 points (6-9 from the field), six rebounds and four assists. At 43 percent ownership there are enough people who are aware of his status. The other 57 percent know all too well that those said minutes come at sometimes random intervals.
Speaking of inconsistent playing time and performances, Danny Green (1.34) and Gary Neal (1.23) each had good nights as the Spurs spread out the playing time so evenly it rivaled a gourmet-prepared peanut butter sandwich. Both of them played over 25 minutes and wound up sounding off a ping on our fantasy sonar. Green had 12 points and five rebounds with three steals, while Neal had 19 points and seven dimes. Both guys only have 10 percent ownership and are currently stream, cycle, boost (or whatever you want to call it) fodder for now
Rodrigue Beaubois (1.17) now has an opportunity to return to the world of fantasy relevance. He’s been languishing in the depth of the Mavericks’ aging backcourt, but has recently started at the point, thanks in part to injuries to both Jason Kidd and Delonte West. Roddy erupted for 14 points, seven assists, and three blocks. Expect his 23 percent to rise within the coming days as owners scramble to add him and ride his performance during Kidd’s injury-induced hiatus.
Biggest Loser:
Carl Landry (-1.13) stank things up for the few stubborn owners he still has as he suffered through the chaos of Monty Williams’ straw-grasping rotation. He finished with zero points and four boards.
Kris Humphries (-0.91) joined the fantasy-repulsive side of New Jersey’s roster last night. He had an awful performance, managing to only score a lousy trifecta of points, goind one of four from the field. He managed to snag eight rebounds but the five turnovers he committed easily overshadowed that accomplishment.
It didn’t come too much as a surprise that Danny Green and Gary Neal played so many minutes, when you look at Tony Parker (-0.77) and his mind numbing nine-point, four-assist outing. He made two of eleven shots from the field, which was likely enough for Popps to want to avoid a coronary and limit TP’s minutes.
***
Daily rankings and stats come from the GMTR 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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