Jose Calderon failed to get a trip to the line, but otherwise had a nice outing, pairing 6/10 FG and three with 7 assists and zero TO’s. Chris Bosh carried the bulk of the scoring responsibility on his way to a nice double double with 30-16, and Andrea Bargnani had a good shooting game and turned in 18 points of his own (and more importantly 3 blocks, Bargnani has been a surprisingly consistent source of blocks early this season). On the Bobcats side… wow, everyone was ugly. DJ Augustin put together a decent line in 25 minutes off the bench, but Sean May must have raided the pre-game buffet, forcing his team mates to play on empty stomachs, as they were out done in nearly every statistical category (but somehow hung tight to the end).
Ronnie Brewer had a great line, with 12-4-7-7-0 and two threes, muddied slightly by 4 TO’s, but spectacular none the less. AK and Boozer had strong nights as well, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the suddenly deadly combo of Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph who both exploded in their own ways (Z-Bo even hit a couple of threes!). Wilson Chandler started for David Lee again, and while neither of them put up particularly breathtaking stats, neither of them were awful. Chris Duhon had one of his up nights (I am still trying to find a pattern to these so I can start using him in roto), Q played a lot but didn’t do much, and Nate Robinson had a quiet night to wrap up his big week.
Gerald Green put up a double double filling in for injured Josh Howard (wrist), Dirk was great in the scoring cats and mediocre in the others, Jason Terry had his first cold night as a starter (and somehow out rebounded Jason Kidd), and Jason Kidd put up another quiet but spectacular line. Baron Davis turned in a strong performance, and was complemented by the Clips front court who gobbled boards and shot high %’s… except for Al Thornton, who did a Thad Young impersonation (and looks as though he had some foul trouble at some point in the game).
Don’t read too much into: Gerald Green. Josh should be back soon. And by soon I mean one of the next two games. Even if he isn’t 100%, he has a history of playing through injuries and this one does not sound as though it is very severe. Definitely keep an eye on Green’s role once he returns to the bench though. If he gets 25ish mpg he can put up numbers that would be worth owning.
Things to watch: Eric Gordon received significant playing time for the first time tonight and responded by canning 3 threes and grabbing 2 steals. Much like Green, if he becomes a regular rotation player he could offer some numbers that you may be interested in (and by that I mean it is always nice to find SG’s with PG eligibility)
The Celtics gave their bench a lead and Tony Allen closed the deal. Exploding for 23 points on 11/16 from the field, Allen enjoyed his longest outing of the year and led the C’s in scoring. Ray Allen tarnished a nice line with 3 TO’s, KG collected 12 board but joined Paul Pierce at the bi-monthly International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) meeting, and honestly… looking at the C’s side of the box score I never would have guessed they won this game. But then you see
Things to watch: Amir had a nice line tonight (7-5-0-2-3, zero TO’s, 3/7 FG, 1/1 FT) in 22 minutes. Not worth picking up yet, but if he puts a few 2+ block games together, he is definitely a guy to look into. There is a reason everyone got excited when he was named the starter.
Joe Johnson scored 25 points on 25 FGA’s… which should be enough to tell you that he didn’t have a very efficient night (although the 4 steals and 1 block are nice). Marvin Williams had a nice line (his %’s are beginning to stabilize, and he is shooting and making 3’s this year, which is a pleasant surprise) but added 3 TO’s to it *sigh*, and Al Horford put up 12 boards and 5 blocks but only managed 8 points (still a very nice line though). Kevin Durant put up 20 points, but the rest of his line is too ugly to look at, Jeff Green fouled out in 37 minutes and struggled with his shot but forgiving that had a decent line, Russell Westbrook, Joe Smith and Desmond Mason each put up nice numbers coming off the bench, and most important of all… Robert Swift made his season debut!
Lineup shuffle: Due to Josh Smith’s injury, Al Horford shifted down from C to PF, and Zaza Pachulia stepped into the starting lineup. However, Zaza either got into early foul trouble, or was just plain awful (given his history, I would guess some of both), and only managed 9 minutes while back up Solomon Jones enjoyed 22 minutes and contributed a solid 3-10-1-0-2… which isn’t anything spectacular, but enough to leap frog the likes of Jeff Foster on your list of streamer C’s. Flip Murray (and not Mo Evans) was the primary back court back up, logging 27 minutes to Mo’s 17.
Injury Note: Chris Wilcox left the game with a knee injury that is reported as “not serious”. This should give Nick Collison’s value a slight bump. Joe Smith put up a nice line tonight, but I would be surprised if he got to the line 10 times (as he did tonight) in every game for the rest of the month combined.
OJ Mayo took the best pieces of his games against the Warriors and the Kings and put them together for a beautiful line of 31-8-3-0-0 with 3 TO’s and 4 threes on 11/21 from the field and 5/6 from the line. Marc Gasol was on the floor for 39 minutes but delivered a paltry 6-8-1-1-1, Rudy Gay represented the western division of the BAC and turned it over 6 times but otherwise had a very fine line, and the vaunted Mike Conley was one assists away from a 3x5. Chauncey Billups reclaimed his scoring numbers by shooting 10/11 from the line, Nene had another huge game, and Melo rounded out the Nuggets scoring in a game that saw 61 fouls called and 83 free throws attempted. JR Smith’s production was constricted by his constant foul trouble tonight.
Injury Note: Kenyon Martin missed this game with a wrist injury, and the Birdman left in the third quarter to put more gel in his hair I mean because of a broken rib. This opened a lot of PF playing time. Linas Kleiza got the start and turned in a decent line that would have been a lot better had he shot his regular FT%. Renaldo Balkman filled in as well, collecting 25 minutes off the bench. I’m not sure if this will do anything other than give Kleiza owners (both of us… yes, I still haven’t given up on him) a reason to hold onto him for another game or two, but if you need 3’s from a guy who normally helps your FT%, keep an eye on K-Mart’s status and consider Kleiza if K-Mart ends up missing more time.
The Kings ran away with this one in the third, which means the Warriors current “big 3” (Jackson, Biedrins, Azubuike) all played short minutes. If you don’t mind stinky efficiency though, Biedrins had an awesome double double. Jackson and Azubuike were more efficient in collecting nice short minute lines. Brandan Wright started again and once again collected 3 blocks and not a lot else. The only noteworthy things from the Warriors bench (which aren’t that noteworthy, seeing as this was a blowout) are Anthony Randolph’s 13 minutes, and Ronny Turiaf’s 1 minute. I wouldn’t spend too much time pondering these things, but OMG do I love Anthony Randolph. Kevin Martin put in 27 points and very little else in his 27 minutes, and Brad Miller had a beautiful all around line while Salmons and Udrih made themselves useful on shortened minutes. Spencer Hawes is continuing to kill it from the bench, with his lines that are essentially Bargnani +15 rebounds (yes, I am saying that Andrea is usually good for about -5 rebounds).
Interesting note: The Kings are undefeated since Miller’s return. Now… I know we are talking about games against
This game was closer than the score indicates, and by that I mean the Lakers were only up by 7 going into the fourth (where they proceeded to outscore the Rockets 39-17). Pau Gasol put up a stellar line, Bynum put up a quiet but still very nice line,
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