Anthony Morrow and Paul George have nothing on Nicolas Batum…
Line of the Night: Nicolas Batum (2.94) was a game time decision against Denver with a bruised knee that had already kept him out two games. Well, the knee is apparently fine as Batum hit a franchise record 9 threes on his way to a career-high 33 points and adding 3 steals for good measure. If you had stashed Batum on your bench until you were sure he was back on the court (like me), then it’s time to get Batum back in your lineup without getting too pissed you missed this game from him.
Honorable Mentions: Tony Parker (2.90) loses out on the line of night by the smallest margin thanks to a season-high 42 points, with 9 assists and 2 steals in a win over the Thunder. Enjoy the run if you own Parker, the numbers won’t be so gaudy once Manu returns in a couple weeks.
The Bulls cruised to an easy win over the Bucks thanks to Derrick Rose’s (2.64) 26 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists. Luol Deng (1.26) also came back from a wrist injury which kept him out seven games to score 21 points with 3 threes. Time to get him back in your lineup. Drew Gooden had the Bucks’ best fantasy line with a season-high 24 points, but he only grabbed 3 boards on the night. Wah-waah.
Someone who did grab a bunch of rebounds was Kris Humphries (2.57), who scored 20 points, filing up the box score with 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 4 blocks in a loss to the Knicks. Deron Williams (2.12) chipped in 21 points, 11 assists and 3 steals. Ten guesses on which Knick had the team’s best performance?
From the doghouse to a deluxe apartment in the sky: A game after Trevor Ariza (2.32) played so badly he was biggest loser material, Ariza bounced back against the Pistons to score 26 points on 9-12 shooting, adding 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Got to love Ariza’s consistency. The NBA’s hottest waiver wire pickup, Greivis Vasquez (1.23), added 14 points, 6 boards and 9 assists in another start for the injured Jarrett Jack. Vasquez makes a very good add if he’s available in your league, even after Jack returns to the lineup.
Greg Monroe (1.24) led the Pistons with 24 and 16 for his 13th double-double of the year.
Batum may have stolen the spotlight in the Blazers game, but LaMarcus Aldridge (2.23) put up a strong 29 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while Marcus Camby (1.37) grabbed 20 boards. Camby now has three 20 rebound games and three 5 block games with big patches of nothing in between.
Sacramento and Golden State went into overtime, which of course meant some nice stat lines for Tyreke Evans (2.23) – with 26 points and 9 assists – DeMarcus Cousins (1.51) – with 21 points and 20 boards – and Marcus Thornton (1.40) with 28 points and 4 threes. The shots weren’t falling for either Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry in the game, so Dorell Wright (2.02) actually had the best fantasy line for the Warriors with 24 points and 4 threes.
After a bad run of games, Kyle Lowry (1.85) owners must be happy to see this line: 24 points, 11 assists and a couple steals, even if it did come against the porous Wolves’ defense. Also a good sign: Lowry shot 50% from the field in this game. For Minnesota, Kevin Love (1.24) had 25 and 18, but also turned the ball over 6 times.
***
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Interested in another run with Kawhi Leonard (2.18)? No? After losing his starting job to Gary Neal for one game, Leonard was back in the starting lineup against the Thunder and finished with 15 points, 3 threes, 6 rebounds, 5 assists. His minutes and production have been all over the map lately (as Popovich also has Neal and Danny Green to throw at that spot depending on how the winds blow that day). With Manu expected back in a few weeks, leave Leonard on waivers for now.
Pick Up Lines: Reggie Williams (1.78) is back for the Bobcats after missing the first 21 games of the season with a knee injury. And his arrival couldn’t have come soon enough for the hurting Bobcats. In his third game back, Williams was inserted into the starting lineup and finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in 39 minutes. Williams gives the team a legitimate scoring option and three point threat in addition to Kemba Walker and he should make a great add while Gerald Henderson is sidelined with a hamstring injury. We’ll see if he can maintain fantasy value longer term, but he could easily become the team’s sixth man and get decent minutes off the bench.
There was a brief time when John Salmons (1.69) was a top-50 fantasy player. This season he’s barely been a top-50 player on the Kings. But Salmons is still starting for Sactown, has put together two good games in a row, including yesterday’s 14 points, 3 threes, 6 assists, and 5 steals, and is available in two-thirds of leagues. Salmons is a career 44% shooter, so he should be able to improve on his 38% shooting from the field so far this season. Consider him an ever so mild recommendation.
Jeremy Lin (1.40) came off the bench for the Knicks and scored a career-high 25 points, adding 5 boards and 7 assists in nearly 36 minutes on the court. Lin is averaging 9 minutes a game so far this season, so don’t expect this type of game to happen with any type of regularity. His extra playing time came as the result of the Knicks being on the third game of a back-to-back-to-back. Still, with Baron Davis stuck in practice purgatory, it could be worth taking a flyer on Lin in deeper leagues to see if he can carve out some more consistent minutes off the bench for New York. I just wouldn’t count on it.
Quick Hits: Klay Thompson (1.67) was 4-5 from three for the Warriors and finished with 16 points in an overtime game against the Kings. He’s minutes bounce all over the place from game-to-game and isn’t consistent enough to be worth picking up.
The Jazz backup PG, Earl Watson (1.49) finished with 8 points, 11 assists, and 2 steals in 26 minutes off the bench. For reasons that we’ll get into shortly, I think he makes a great add in deeper leagues.
Kosta Koufos (1.16) got the start for Denver because Timofey Mozgov is out with a sprained left ankle and responded with easily his best game of the season – 16 points and 12 rebounds in 34 minutes. Considering that Mozgov had to be helped off the court on Friday because he couldn’t put weight on his foot, I’d guess that he’s going to be out for at least a couple weeks, making Koufos a nice short-term add in the meantime. If he can carve out 25 minutes, Koufos will be a double-double threat with good percentages (although he won’t do much else).
With Richard Hamilton constantly injuring and reinjuring himself, it’s finally time I give due respect to Kyle Korver (1.38), who is playing well for the Bulls whether he’s been asked to start or now come off the bench with Deng back. Korver was 4-8 from three against the Bucks and finished with 18 points. If you’re on the hunt for threes, Korver is one of the best out there.
Jordan Farmar (1.08) had another nice game off the bench for the Nets with 19 points and 3 threes. Take a look at him if you need some scoring and assists.
Biggest Loser: At this point, we’re going to have to stage an intervention for everyone who still owns Devin Harris (-1.13) (and he’s still owned in 56% of Yahoo leagues). Harris returned to the court after missing one game with a hamstring injury and scored 1 point on 0-6 shooting, with no rebounds and 3 assists. He’s ranked 176 on the GMTR player rater for the season and despite the hopes of many a Devin Harris owner out there, he’s not been getting any better in recent games.
***
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.
Do not miss a day of the Fantasy NBA. Subscribe to Give Me The Rock 
right now. You can also get bonus (and easily digestible) content by following GMTR on Twitter, or become a fan of GMTR on Facebook! We are so social!
Want to see your ad in the GMTR RSS feed? Contact: givemetherock@gmail.comOther Stuff Like This:
- Day 49 of 170: It ain’t Chinese Algebra (2)
- 2010-11 Fantasy Basketball Breakout Players (7)
- 2010-11 Top 25 Fantasy Small Forwards (13)
- To Mock, or Not To Mock: 5 Reasons you should (3)
- 2009-2010 Week 15 Fantasy Basketball Guide (6)
- Day 39 of 124: Where Brandon Jennings Defies the Odds (24)
- Day 26 of 124: Durant + Westbrook 4Evar!!!!1 (32)
Original Story:
