Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tuesday Night Recap


Line of the Night
Mike Bibby: 31 points (on 12-21 shooting), six assists, two rebounds, five three-pointers, and five steals.

Atlanta at Chicago
Mike Bibby had his best line of the year with setting a season-high in points and steals. The five steals were the most he had since 2004. Bibby was also the first player this season to drop 30 while making five from distance and stealing five. Bibby’s surprising season is primarily because of his stellar shooting (45.8-percent on the season). However, Bibby has cooled in January with only a 43.6-percent made from the floor. The 43-percent should be what Bibby shoots for the rest of the year and it’s highly unlikely he will continue his hot season. If you can get a top-40 guy for Bibby, then it would be a good idea to move him.
The window on buying low on Josh Smith is starting to close. J-Smoove (17 points, 14 rebounds, and three assists) has posted double-doubles in two straight, and has scored 19.3 PPG this month. Smoove hasn’t delivered his fantasy calling card with defense by only blocking 0.7 shots and stealing 1.3 balls per game this month. J-Smoove owners shouldn't be worried about bringing the D, but just a reminder that he blocked 2.6 shots per game over February and March last season. In previous years the main concern with Smith has been his shooting, and he has made 53-percent of his shots in his last 14 games.
Joe Johnson (16 points, five rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and two triples) continued his shooting struggles against the Bulls by just making 5-of-18 from the floor. Joe cool has failed to make 50-percent of his shots in 12 games straight. He should turn it around, but did have a rough January and February last year before getting hot in March and April. He’ll be fine.
Kirk Hinrich (13 points, eight assists, a steal, and a three) continues to show he will be valuable in the Bulls backcourt. The Bulls front and backcourt rotations are pretty deep and it can feel like a roulette table to try and predict which player will have a good game (better check which uniforms they are wearing before betting on red or black).
Drew Gooden did not play because of a sore groin and Tyrus Thomas (six points, one rebound, and four blocks) salvaged his day by providing four blocks. Tyrus is going to be a headache all year long, but he should provide value for the rest of the season. Joakim Noah (9 points, 11 rebounds, and a block) followed his 18-rebound game on Monday will 11 boards on Tuesday. He should only have short-term value while Gooden heals.
It appears that Larry Hughes will be dealt to the Nets in exchange for Bobby Simmons and Maurice Ager. The remaining Bulls would keep similar value since Simmons should provide the same amount of minutes as Hughes. Hughes would get a slight boost and hurt Keyon Dooling slightly.

Indiana at San Antonio
The Pacers were frigid Tuesday by shooting just 37-percent. Danny Granger’s (17 points, one rebound, one assist, and nothing else) 16-game streak of scoring 20-plus was snapped due to only making 5-of-15 from the floor. Don’t worry, even Batman has some bad showings (especially “Batman Forever”). Not many things positive happened for Indy, but Mike Dunleavy (15 points, three boards, and two threes) looked good, but Marquis Daniels (nothing but a rebound) played only six minutes and should be owned in only very deep leagues.
Tim Duncan (27 points, 10 rebounds, and a block) made 10-of-15 and looked great for the Spurs. Duncan had seven straight games where he didn’t shoot above 50-percent. Timmy dominated the paint and should stay the course for the rest of the year. The icing on the cake of his line was that he also made 7-of-8 from the line.
Manu Ginobili (26 points, eight rebounds, three assists, four treys, two steals and a block) filled the stat sheet and made 8-of-10 from the floor. Manu has been a bit sporadic so far this year, and it appears he might not be the super stud like last year. However, he should be the fourth or fifth best player on most fantasy rosters.
Matt Bonner (two points, seven rebounds, and a block) didn’t do much, but he’s still worth hanging onto in most leagues.

Sacramento at Denver
Just when you thought it was totally safe to play Brad Miller (two point, three assists, three rebounds, and two steals), he stunk it up for the Kings on Tuesday. Miller was coasting by averaging 25 points and 15.5 rebounds over his last two. He should be OK for the remainder of the year, but I don’t think he will drop 30 points again. The Kings let the game get away with horrible D, so a lot of garbage time hurt the Kings’ starters.

Linas Kleiza (27 points and six rebounds) set a season-high with 27 points and J.R. Smith (19 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and four steals) had great games for Denver. J-Ruff (We got a J. Smith as J-Smoove, why not a J.R. as J-Ruff?) scored 15 in the first half and looked like he actually cared about his shot selection. It’s fairly obvious that their value is strictly short-term, and their values should plummet when Melo returns in a couple weeks. It might be a good idea to throw them into a multi-player trade.


Minnesota at Utah
Craig Smith (six points and three rebounds) continued his inconstant ways for Minnesota, and probably should not be owned due to his lack to contribute in categories other than points and rebounds. Rodney Carney didn’t score and can’t really be counted on after back-to-back duds.
On the other hand, Ryan Gomes (19 points, five rebounds, three steals, and three treys) and Sebastian Telfair (17 points, nine dimes, three rebounds, two threes, and a steal) continued to prove they should be owned in 12-team leagues.

Paul Millsap (28 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, and two steals) reminded his owners how beastly he is by making 12-of-20 from the floor. Millsap hadn’t produced much since his knee injury on January 7th, but he should be considered a number one forward until Boozer comes back. Yeah, number one forward as in top-15 player for the next three weeks. As for when Boozer comes back, I really don’t know how much he will hurt Millsap specifically. Boozer won’t be the top-20 player he was predicted to be, but he’ll be fine and should draw minutes from Millsap, Okur, and Kirilenko fairly equally. Furthermore, it’s not a guarantee that Boozer stays healthy for the rest of the year since he couldn’t really stay on the court for Cleveland a few years ago.
Andrei Kirilenko (five points, three rebounds, one steal, and a block) sprained his ankle in the game. Kirilenko wasn’t 100-percent going into the game and it seems certain that he will miss a couple games. C.J. Miles, Kyle Korver, and Ronnie Brewer should get some more minutes while AK47 isn’t loaded into the lineup.

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