Fantasy Related But Great Info..........
Yes Way, Jose
While a lot of the talk around these parts is about what player will be the next to shut it down, it seems like we could make a list of beat writers most likely to shut it down, or some who already have. At this time of year, injury news for the really bad teams becomes tougher to come by. I understand that a beat writer may think to themselves, "I'm not going to bust my butt to go find out if player X is going to play tomorrow, because the team has won 19 games and no one cares anyway." But in fantasyland, people are still very interested in what's going on – even with the Raptors, Kings and Clippers. All I'm saying is that news seems to be getting a little thin these days.
I'll be live chatting again today for Season Pass subscribers at 3 P.M.
here. I also hosted
Thursday's chat in place of Matt Stroup, and we had fun ripping the shoddy reporting of
Mike Miller's injury (which still hasn't been addressed by anyone that I know of in the Minnesota print media), and then ripping on Miller himself. It was two hours long and some good times were had.
Injury News and Notes
Jose Calderon spent yesterday at the hospital to make sure his right ring finger wasn't broken and his coach says he'll play tonight against the Thunder. Calderon misses a lot of games for injuries, but after this one and the fact he has played through a hamstring injury for much of the season, I'm impressed.
Rajon Rondo will have his ankle evaluated at some point today before a decision is made on whether he plays tonight at Atlanta. My guess is he will play, as the last thing the Celtics need is for the Hawks to gain more confidence by beating the Celtics. Of course, the C's and Rondo would never admit there's a mini-rivalry brewing between the two teams, but if you caught any of the games in Atlanta during last season's first-round series, you may disagree.
Ron Artest missed Thursday's practice with a sore heel injury, but it isn't expected to keep him out of any games.
Devin Harris sounds like a lock to return from a shoulder injury tonight and if all goes well, should be safe to get back in your lineup for next week. And obviously, this is bad news for
Keyon Dooling.
Leandro Barbosa is now targeting Wednesday as a return date from his knee injury. That will leave him with eight games this season, if he can play on Wednesday. Feel free to grab him if you want, but there will be players available on bad teams that should finish up with more value.
Rasheed Wallace is hoping to play on Saturday through his calf injury, while
Richard Hamilton is expected to return from his groin injury as well. It would be nice if they could both show up for that one so we'd have a better idea of how next week is going to look, when the Pistons play four games.
Allen Iverson won't play this week, and is still a little iffy for the regular season. And if you're waiting for the
Will Bynum take, keep reading.
Nate Robinson appeared to injure his right ankle and was unable to finish Wednesday's loss to the Clippers. I haven't heard a thing about the injury outside of an obscure mention at the bottom of a column yesterday, so hopefully he's good to go tonight.
Peja Stojakovic's back injury is a major concern and I'd actually rather own
Kyle Korver right now. Peja's return date is still unknown and he will probably come off the bench when he does return. Korver plays five times in the upcoming week and is playing pretty well.
Eddy Curry may play tonight for the second time this season. Woo hoo! Don't pick him up, regardless of how deep your league is.
It's not injury related, but it sounds like there's a pretty good chance that both
Rodney Carney and
Craig Smith will stick in the starting lineup for the Timberwolves, at least for one more game. That means that the starting five should be
Sebastian Telfair and
Randy Foye in the backcourt, with
Kevin Love, Smith and Carney up front. That means a demotion for
Ryan Gomes and
Mike Miller, but then again, I don't know for sure that this is even the lineup that Kevin McHale is looking at. It's just the one that makes the most sense to me. Carney is coming off a career night when he hit seven treys, but I'm not holding my breath for him to do it again. That said, I'll definitely have a close eye on him tonight.
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Thursday Game Notes – At Least One Bynum Is Getting It Done
Will Bynum set another career best last night in both points and assists with 25 & 11 on 9-of-14 shooting. Someone yesterday asked me if they should start Bynum of
Arron Afflalo last night, and thankfully I said Bynum. He also played very well in his previous game and is an extremely intriguing free agent. I went ahead and grabbed him in one league simply because the Pistons have four games in the upcoming week and he's hot. However, with the pending return of Rip, and the possibility that
Rodney Stuckey (2-of-8, five points last night) still knows how to play basketball, Bynum could quickly become irrelevant again. I'm going to see what happens this weekend before making a decision on Bynum, but I felt pretty good about cutting
D.J. Augustin (who also plays four) for him.
The Lakers got a near triple-double out of
Kobe Bryant, while it appears that
Lamar Odom is finally back. Odom had 12 points, 10 boards, seven assists, three steals, a block and a 3-pointer in the win.
Jermaine O'Neal played through his hip injury and had 12 points and three rebounds in a loss to the Bulls. Didn't the Heat trade for O'Neal to bolster their inside presence and rebounding? They must be really pleased to see him at 4.6 rebounds per game in March. JO has grabbed four or less rebounds in seven of his 13 games this month. Brilliant!
Derrick Rose (wrist) and
Tyrus Thomas (neck) both played in last night's win over the Heat, despite being iffy with their injuries. I'm still not convinced there was ever really anything wrong with Thomas, but who knows? He had 15 points, 12 boards, a steal and three more blocks last night, and has now double-doubled in five of his last six games. Way to show up for the five-game week, Ty! Rose was decent with nine points, five boards and seven assists off the bench. I don't understand why people seem to be freaking out about him coming off the bench, as many injured starters come off the bench in their first couple games back from injury.
Kirk Hinrich was still effective, finishing with 15 points, four treys, three assists, a steal and a block, and should finish out the week with decent minutes while Rose deals with his bruised wrist.
Matt Barnes and
Grant Hill backed up great lines with bad ones in last night's blow out loss to the Blazers. Barnes was 1-of-8 for just two points, while Hill made 3-of-6 shots to score six. Hill has played well this week and should finish up with four solid lines in five games. Barnes, however, has been disappointing outside of his one big line. The fact Hill is still even playing in the second of back-to-backs is pretty amazing. Shaq had a nice game with 20 points and seven boards, and is also still impressively playing every night for Phoenix. He screamed his head off at
Robin Lopez last night, but does anyone really care?
Rudy Fernandez hit five triples to finish with 23 points and two steals on 8-of-10 shooting in the win. Don't look now, but Rudy is averaging 18 points and four 3-pointers per game in his last three. Go ahead and grab him if you're holding a dud.
LaMarcus Aldridge's strong season continued with a season-high 29 points to go along with 12 boards and three blocks, while
Greg Oden had eight points and three blocks off the bench. Did you catch that one Oden swat? I don't think he's jumped that high since high school.
Brandon Roy, who probably doesn't get enough love around here, did what he always does with 26 points, nine boards, six assists, two steals and a block, but when you do that every single night, it stops becoming 'news' at some point.
Joel Przybilla started again, but had just two points, one rebound and one block. That's two pretty bad games in a row, as the return of Oden has obviously damaged his value.
Bob Knight, 'Jack' and Boiler Up
Are your brackets busted? I had Memphis winning it all in my secondary set of picks, but have a Final Four of Carolina, UConn, Villanova and Louisville in my main one, with Carolina beating UConn for the title.
This clip was all the rage in Indiana back in the day, but that was pre internet and even cable for most of us, so it never really made it's way into the national scene (that I recall). But I think it's still pretty funny and was thinking of it last night as I watched Matt Painter and Purdue get run out of the tournament by Villanova.
</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD class=subHead vAlign=top colSpan=3>Rondo to be same-day evaluation Fri vs. ATL </TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD class=vaLabel colSpan=3>Rajon Rondo - G - BOS - Mar. 27 </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=3>Rajon Rondo, who sprained his ankle on Wednesday but stayed in the game, will be evaluated on Friday before the Celtics' game against the Hawks.
