News and Notes

• Something tells me we’re going to be hearing a lot about Stephen Curry and his ankle this year. It takes a while for an ankle injury to full heal and if Curry plays through it than it’s going to take longer. You could see Monday Night that he was doing just fine on it, having a fantastic game, but then he re-injured it in the fourth quarter and didn’t come back. Curry is questionable for tonight’s game with the Knicks, but I am sure he will go if he can go.
• The Celtics were without Paul Pierce again last night versus the Heat and his fantasy owners were as well. Pierce has also officially been ruled out for tonight’s game against the Magic. After tonight the team will be taking a wait and see approach, but there is a chance he plays Friday. This is an example of what minor injuries can do with such a tightly packed schedule like the one we have this season. The fill-ins for as long as Pierce is out are Marquis Daniels and Sasha Pavlovic, neither of which are fantasy worthy adds.
• All indications are that D.J. Augustin is going to play tonight against the Miami Heat. Augustin sprained his ankle at the very end of the game against the Bucks Monday Night, but the X-Rays came back negative. The injury came at the end of what was a very strong game from Augustin and so his fantasy owners are hoping he can continue his momentum. The ankle should be strong enough to play on, but it might limit what he can do somewhat. I think you still want to take the chance and put him in your lineup this week.
• Making his debut tonight for the New York Knicks is Mike Bibby who will play as the backup to Toney Douglas. Bibby is getting up there in age and doesn’t have a ton of upside, but he should log 20+ minutes and contribute a three-pointer or two per game and a couple of assists as well. Bibby shouldn’t even be on your radar except in very deep leagues.

Three Up

• So that Kevin Love guy is still pretty awesome this season. Love only went 6 – 18 from the field, but he still managed to muster up 31 points and 20 rebounds. Love reached the line enough to shoot a remarkable 24 free-throws, knocking down 19 of them. Love’s penchant for pulling down offensive boards will continue to get him to the line and he’s an efficient free-throw shooter, so he should take advantage of the opportunities.
• It’s looking like the Miami Heat may have struck gold in the late part of the first round by landing Norris Cole. Last night Cole came off the bench against the Celtics and earned himself 29 minutes of playing time. Cole went 8 – 16 from the field finishing with 20 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. It might not be long before Cole takes the starting job away from Mario Chalmers and you should probably try and snag him off the waiver wire just in case that happens.
• So far things in Portland are going quite well for Gerald Wallace and he’s starting to look the Gerald Wallace of a couple years ago when he was ranked in just about everyone’s top 25. After scoring 21 in the first game of the season, Wallace scored 25 last night. The scoring is just a bonus to the fact that he stuffs the stat sheets in numerous categories. If he can score 20+ points per game to go with 8 – 9 rebounds and 3 blocks+steals per game he’s going to easily crack the top 30 of all the player ranking systems.

Three Down

• We’re only two games into the season, but so far Mehmet Okur looks a little bit rusty after missing most of the season last year. In the first game of the season Okur was 0 – 3 from the field in 20 minutes. Last night Okur was 1 – 6 in 20 minutes of action. So in 40 minutes over two games Okur is 1 – 9 and has 3 points total to go along with 7 rebounds. At some point Okur might come around, he’ll get every opportunity, but right now he should be nowhere near a fantasy starting lineup.
• It’s going to take a couple more games for us to figure out whether or not John Salmons is struggling because he’s coming off an injury, or because he doesn’t fit in Sacramento. But right there is something keeping him down. Salmons was 5 – 14 shooting in the team’s first game of the season. Last night he played only 19 minutes and was 1 – 3 with 2 points, 2 rebounds and an assist while racking up five fouls. The Kings are deep at the shooting guard/small forward position and so Salmons could lose out on some playing time if things don’t pick up for him soon.
• Al Jefferson couldn’t seem to get a shot to fall, but it didn’t stop him from trying. Jefferson took 16 shots in the game against the Lakers and only made two of them. Those 16 shots came in just 24 minutes before Jefferson was sat down for the remainder of the blowout. The big man got off to a slow start last season last season as well, but the hope was that now that he was used to the Utah offense that wouldn’t happen again. It’s just one game, but it was one very bad game. Let’s hope he snaps back tonight in Denver.