News
- It still looks like a December return for Andrew Bynum as everything is going according to schedule right now. If this continues you should look for him to come back the week of Christmas.
- Things continue to get worse in the Troy Murphy saga. Apparently now Avery Johnson and Murphy aren’t talking to one another and Murphy continues to ride the bench for all but about 10 minutes per game.
- Hakim Warrick got the start at power forward last night for the Suns, a move that has been rumored recently. Hedo Turkoglu did well coming off the bench and the move could become permanent if Warrick continues to play as he has been.
Game Notes
- Josh Smith stole the show for the Hawks in Toronto with his triple-double and continued steady play. But Marvin Williams quietly put together his second nice game in a row. Williams posted 17 points and 12 rebounds on the heels of a 13 point, 8 rebound game the other night. He has struggled ever since missing time with an injury earlier this month, but this might mean he’s coming out of that funk and could be start worthy once again.
- It took a couple of overtimes worth of basketball , but Tayshaun Prince put up some of the best numbers of his career scoring 31 with 8 rebounds and 7 assists. With 58 minutes of basketball having been played there were plenty of guys worth mentioning from this game, but Tayshaun continues to fly under the radar apart from making the news for near fist fights with his coach. He is putting up his typical stats with around 13 points and 5 rebounds, per night, but he’s only owned in 30% of leagues. He won’t win you a league, but he can provide consistent contributions worth a spot in all formats.
- At this point George Hill is probably worth owning in more than 14% of the leagues out there. Unless of course the other 86% of the people play in 8 team or fewer leagues. He is consistently logging 25 – 30 minutes per game as the chief backup to both guard spots and is starting to score in double figures almost every night. Last night Hill had 14 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds along with a block and a steal. This guy is one of the best kept secrets out there right now.
- This Spur isn’t as much of a secret, but Manu Ginobli deserves a mention just based on how he has played thus far. He scored 23 yesterday with 8 assists and 7 rebounds and he has been one of the best and yet least talked about guys in fantasy basketball this season.
- It looks like Paul Millsap might be coming back to earth a little bit. It’s now been seven games since he scored 20 points and it’s been six games since he hit double figures in rebounds. He’s still a great player, but I think you’re going to see something closer to 15 – 16 points and 8 rebounds per game than the 21 points and 10 rebounds we were seeing earlier.
- One of the reasons Millsap’s point totals are going down is because more Jazz players are stepping up to share the load, one of them is C.J. Miles. Miles scored 16 more points last night and added a couple of steals as well. Miles is virtually unowned in ESPN leagues and if you need some help in points, steals and threes he could be a solid pickup.
- It shouldn’t be to much longer before Aaron Brooks is back on the court, but in the meantime Kyle Lowry should be on your team, or someone’s team, just not the waiver wire. He had 14 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds last night. Over his last 5 games he is averaging 11.6 points, 8.8 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 2.4 steals. That’s pretty good.
- With Carmelo Anthony ill, J.R. Smith as well as others got some extended minutes and in a run and gun fest, it led to some solid stats. Smith scored 30 and also grabbed 8 boards as the Nuggets racked up 138 as a team, and no the game didn’t go to overtime. There is no question about Smith’s talent, but he can’t seem to stay out of George Karl’s doghouse and it makes his minutes difficult to predict. The Nuggets also sport a very nice bench group with Al Harrington, Chris Anderson, Gary Forbes and Ty Lawson, giving the team a true 10 man rotation and making playing time even more unpredictable.
- On the Suns side it was Jason Richardson who took advantage of the high scoring game and scored 39 points with 10 rebounds. Right not Richardson is the man in the Suns offense averaging 28.5 the last four games.
- With Wesley Matthews playing so well in Brandon Roy’s absence recently it was going to be interesting to see how much he played with Roy back. Last night he played 34 minutes and didn’t miss a beat scoring 25 points. He has clearly separated himself from Rudy Fernandez in the minutes competition and is really the first man off the bench no matter who is coming off the floor as the Blazers have a lot of flexibility in their starting 5. Don’t be too quick to dump Matthews just because Roy is back.
- After being slowed down for a couple games due to headaches and foul troubles, Roy Hibbert seems back on track and he posted 24 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists last night to prove it. Let the coming out party for Roy Hibbert continue.
- Not a whole lot to say about Kobe Bryant’s performance other than it’s a nice reminder that he is still capable of having monster games like this from time to time. We have yet to see the fall off that some were projecting from Kobe this season.
