Game Notes: 11/4

All the road teams won... and I was going to draw a parallel to the election with that, but I think Barry O'Bomber (I use this in reference to his standing as the first basketball president, not to mean spirited propaganda) stopped being the metaphorical "road team" in this race to the white house like... 6 months ago?

Phoenix – 114 at New Jersey – 86

New Jersey hung close early by getting to the line, but were ultimately unable to slow down Phoenix, as the Suns shot an obscene 63.2% on the night. All of the Phoenix starters saw limited minutes, but for the most part produced quality lines given their minutes. Raja Bell and Matt Barnes had strong games in the same contest for the first time, but as with all blowouts… I wouldn’t expect any trends to form out of this game (this includes Leandro’s nice 16-6-4 off the bench). The Nets in general were a mess tonight, but Vince Carter performed well in the scoring cats and collected three steals, while Devin Harris put up useful numbers in FT% and AST (nasty 2/11 from the field though). Yi was the featured big man tonight… but I am going to leave that situation alone for awhile now, it’s just too random.

Injury Note: For the second straight game Vince Carter had to be removed for some period of time due to injury. The other night it was his hand, tonight it was an ankle… or maybe it was just the Nets getting blown out and Vince not wanting to play in the third quarter.

Boston – 103 at Houston – 99

The NBATV viewer’s choice game turned out to be a pretty good contest. Both teams put up big numbers in the first half, and then slowed things down to the pace that I imagined this game would flow upon hearing this matchup beat out Mavs/Spurs for the NBATV slot. Ray Allen had a vintage Ray Ray line (29-5-5, 11/15 FG, 5/5 FT, 2 threes), Rajon Rondo flirted with a triple double, KG and PP didn’t score much but had nice peripherals. Kendrick Perkins had a monster (for him) game, registering 15-7 with 4 blocks. The Celtic’s bench didn’t see a lot of time in the close game though. Houston didn’t produce on the fantasy side like the C’s did, but they were in the game right to the end. Yao only played 26 minutes and I have been unable to find a reason for this (no foul trouble, no injury). T-Mac continued his streak of very un-T-Mac-ish %’s, and put together a nice line, while Alston and Artest let the good in with the bad. Much like the Celtics, the Rocket’s bench didn’t get enough PT to do anything notable.

*Dallas – 98 at San Antonio – 81

All of the Mavs shooters were hot from the get go, and never really cooled down. In the third different starting lineup Carlisle has used this season, Jason Terry stepped into the starting SG slot and lit it up (29-3-6, 13/21 from the field, 1 3ptm). I don’t know if he will retain this role, but regardless of him coming off the bench or starting, he does very well next to Kidd. For the fourth straight game Jason Kidd turned the ball over only once (and for the third time in four outings, came very close to a triple double), he was kind enough to add some threes this time though, and overall has looked pretty amazing this year. Dirk rebounded from last night with a big game (30-7-3, 13/24 FG, no TO’s, 2 threes) with the only real down side of his line being a meager 2FTA’s. Josh Howard turned in a quiet, but nice performance as well. Tim Duncan put up a big double double with 19-15, and Tony Parker collected 22 points to extend his streak of 20+ point games to 8 (dating back to the end of the regular season last year… I didn’t look this up, it was on the broadcast). However, the Spurs once again failed to get consistent scoring from anyone other than Duncan and Parker (Roger Mason looked very good, once again, though).

Things to watch: Fabricio Oberto returned tonight, and rookie George Hill made his professional debut. These guys won’t be fantasy relevant on their own, but they could cut into the minutes of guys who could be (Bonner and Mason primarily).