Game Notes: 10/28

The Celtics rings were surprisingly classy (maybe I just have terrible memories of that gaudy thing the Heat put together a few years ago?), Paul Pierce cried, and Derrick Rose was sharper than pretty much everyone aside from the aforementioned, tender bellied Truth.

The stars denote games that I watched. And in the case of tonight, the should also give you an idea of how many times I saw the feature length NBA Live commercial with the renderings of athletes that are so real... but off by just enough to be REALLY creepy. Maybe some day EA will spend more time on their game play than rendering LeBron James' tattoos.



*Cleveland – 85 at Boston – 90

Delonte started and got heavy minutes, but didn’t produce much of anything. In general though, Cleveland’s offense was just a total mess. For some reason they kept trying to use Varejao like he was KG or something (many times he would put the ball and the floor and dish or shoot… usually ending in an ugly miss or a TO, or putting the receiver in a situation that forced him into an extremely difficult shot or a TO). LeBron choked on FT’s down the stretch, and Paul Pierce had his way with him on both ends for most of the game. Boston wasn’t much sharper on offense (aside from Pierce, who was on fire in the third quarter), which led to KG and Ray being semi-invisible for most of the game.

Things to watch: Tony Allen was one of the first guys off the Celtics bench, and once he calmed down in the second half showed flashes of the player that burst onto the fantasy scene two years ago (and blew out his knee throwing one down after the whistle). If he gets a consistent 25 mpg he will be worth owning.

Fantasy Irrelevant Observation: Rajon Rondo loves to pull out that copped Pistol Pete “behind the back pass fake”, but I have not ONCE seen him begin a play with this move and end it with a made field goal. I don’t have a problem with styling things up, but at least use discretion man… I mean tonight you did it without a team mate inside of 25 feet relative to you.



Milwaukee – 95 at Chicago – 108

Charlie V and Andrew Bogut both picked up 2 quick fouls in the first, and Bogut continued to find foul trouble until late in the third quarter. While Bogut ended up with decent PT, Charlie didn’t make it back out… and while I haven’t heard anything about an injury, I have heard things about Skiles having a crush on Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (who could collect decent defensive stats if given big minutes… Which is only something to watch if Erick Dampier is not available in your league). Most of the Bulls played just about as well as anyone could have reasonably expected. Sefalosha started, but Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, and Derrick Rose each logged at least 2x as many minutes, so if I were to make a prediction after one game, it looks like Thabo’s best case situation is a ceremonial starter/good luck charm/Royal Ivey with the Hawks in 05-06 sort of role.

Things to watch: Ramon Sessions wasn’t even active for this game. Drop him for one of today’s surprises, or see if anyone jumps out tomorrow. Whatever the case, there is no reason to own him right now.

Trendspotting: The bucks committed 30 fouls, yielding 44 FT’s to a notoriously perimeter based Chicago squad. If this had more to do with Skiles than home court officiating, it will be something to take into consideration when looking at streamer match ups in the future.



*Portland – 76 at Los Angeles Lakers – 96

Greg Oden started, and within 5 minutes he had picked up two fouls and injured his right foot. He returned for a little while in the second quarter (and looked good in his scant post up opportunities, and most situations that did not require him to move quickly), but stayed in the locker room for the entire second half. x-rays were inconclusive and an MRI will be done tomorrow. Travis Outlaw was a surprise start at SF and put together a decent line (minimal peripheral stats, but a couple threes and a nice FG% aren’t bad). It’s too early to say if he will hold this role, but you could definitely do worse if you are in a situation where you need to grab a guy. Overall the Blazers seemed scared stiff until about halfway through the third quarter. Their offense in the first half consisted primarily of Steve Blake or Sergio Rodriguez dribbling out the shot clock and dumping the ball to Brandon Roy or LaMarcus Aldridge with 3 seconds left (resulting in the low FG%'s of Roy and Aldridge). Minimal ball movement… just ugly in general. The Lakers on the other hand looked amazing. Bynum came in a little short of expectations, but for now I would blame that on A) the pace of this game B) the Lakers shooting a very high % and the Blazers shooting a ton of threes. It is difficult to take much from this game (other than Rudy Fernandez not being shy at all when it comes to shooting) since it was a blow out from pretty much halfway through the first quarter on.

Things to watch: If Trevor Ariza continues to knock down 3’s he should replace Vlad Rad in the starting lineup. Regardless of his role on the team though, if he continues to log 25+ minutes he will be worth owning for hustle stats alone.