Game Notes: 11/10

Portland – 106 at Orlando – 99

Brandon Roy had a big scoring night but was mediocre in the support cats he usually provides, LaMarcus Aldridge posted a simple but perfectly efficient double double, and Travis Outlaw and Rudy Fernandez both provided a spark off the bench that would help almost any fantasy roster. There were a lot of fouls on both sides in this game, and oddly enough Portland’s primary beneficiary of this was Steve Blake who finished the game with 11 FTA’s. Joel Przybilla struggled all night with fouls, and being a much worse player than Dwight Howard. Dwight and Turkoglu carried Orlando in the losing effort, Dwight posting another giant big man line of 29-19-0-1-1, including an extra special 13/20 from the line, and Turk hitting 4 threes on his way to 35-4-3-0-0. Jameer Neslon came through with some behind the scenes support, finishing with 10-6-7 but adding 4 TO’s to the mix as well, and in a rare event Rashard Lewis had more rebounds than points!

Oklahoma City – 99 at Indiana – 107

Kevin Durant had a huge night (37-8-2-0-3, 4 TO’s, 2 Threes, 13/27 FG, 9/9 FT), and even received strong support from several Thunder players (Green, Collison, Joe Smith… even Robert Swift made a decent contribution), but it wasn’t enough to overcome TJ Ford’s monster night and the hot shooting of Indy on the whole. Troy Murphy played short minutes because he left the game in the second quarter with the stomach flu (rotoworld), other than that everyone on the Pacer’s roster played to expectations with the exception of Jeff Foster who exploded for 4 blocks and 15 points.

Things to watch: Jarrett Jack has begun to do things with his ~30mpg off the bench. He won’t be consistent, but if your team could benefit from some additional assists or FT% help, he is worth a look.

Toronto – 87 at Boston – 94

Jermaine O’neal played nearly 40 minutes for some reason (Bargnani foul trouble?)… he turned in a strong line as a result, but I would be surprised if he continues to see this much PT or this many offensive opportunities. O’neal’s feast came at the expense of Chris Bosh who only hoisted 8 field goal attempts. Parker and Calderon each turned in nice, but slightly flawed performances (TO’s for Parker, FG% for Calderon), Jason Kapono turned in a surprisingly well rounded line from the bench, and JaMario Moon picked up the reigns as a competent rebounder for the second straight game. Paul Pierce exploded for Boston, providing in all offensive cats. Ray Allen and KG flanked him with strong contributions of their own as the C’s outscored Toronto 35-22 in the final quarter to snatch victory.

Things to watch: It is frustrating that Bargnani’s pattern seems to be “one game on, one game off”, but I am sure that is merely a coincidence, and that he is merely experiencing an uncharacteristic hot streak to get half of his games under the description of “good”. I fully expect this pattern to break soon enough and Andrea to return to the random player who frustrates everyone.

New Jersey – 94 at Miami – 99

Vince Carter and Keyon Dooling put together strong multi cat (but TO heavy) lines in Devin Harris’s absence, Josh Boone and Bobby Simmons hardly took advantage of their extended minutes, but Yi was the star of the evening on New Jersey’s side; playing 37 minutes and coming away with 24-10-4-0-1 with 5 threes and 2 TO’s on 7/11 FG and 5/6 FT, he had one of the strongest outings of his NBA career. Shawn Marion missed the game with a groin strain (he was a late scratch, he should return soon), and outside of Wade hitting 4 threes (on 7 attempts), there is not a lot of news on the Miami side. Chalmers has now had a few quiet games in a row, but he is still getting the bulk of the PG minutes, and until this changes it will be difficult to make a case against owning him unless performances such as tonight’s become regular enough to outweigh the benefit of his monster games.

Memphis – 102 at Phoenix – 107

Is it possible that OJ Mayo has already settled into the NBA game better than he ever did the college game? Tonight makes it 3 of the past 4 games in which he has scored 30+ and shot over 50% from the field, both very impressive for a rookie (or any player for that matter). Marc Gasol had a quiet but useful line, as did Rudy Gay (who didn’t reek in some category or another for the first time this season), and Darrell Arthur had a very fine outing with 10-7-0-2-2 and no TO’s while hitting 5/10 FG’s. Leandro Barbosa exploded for the Suns scoring 27 points in 22 minutes, Shaq apparently thought he deserved a victory lap after hanging 29 on the Bucks two days ago and promptly fouled out (22 minutes!). The remainder of the Suns ranged from decent (Amare, Barnes) to kind of awful (Nash).

Don’t read too much into: Barbosa’s line. This doesn’t mean he is turning a corner. It simply means that he got hot against a team that isn’t very good on a night when most of his team mates were cold so they gladly deferred to him. Try not to let tonight’s performance affect your opinion of him. He is definitely capable of doing this again, but predicting it is impossible, and waiting for it is foolish.