Tip-In Points: Cardiac Artest
Anyone can suggest adds and drops for the NBA fantasy fans out there, but few make those suggestions from the gut. We’ve also sprinkled in tons of helpful stats for all fantasy formats too. Because that’s the kind of fantasy help you deserve.
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Ron Artest, LAL Before the start of the current season, two things were clear: 1) The Lakers were going to be very, very good. 2) Someone’s personal stats were going to take a poundin’. Pau Gasol is the only one to publicly complain about this, but Ron Artest is the one whose value has dipped the most. Dipped enough that he’s only owned in 85 percent of most leagues and starting on only about 65 percent. Sunday, he had one of the three best games as a Laker with 14 points, five rebounds, nine assists and six steals. If you look at Artest’s eight best games of the season according to his Game Scores (GmSc), the only real pattern isn’t a pattern at all, but common sense. He does better against teams that don’t play defense. Only one of the eight teams against whom Artest had his best games had a defensive rating better than 13th in the league and that was the Thunder. They played in early November, and the Thunder weren’t as good a defensive team then as they are now. He’s had killer games against Detroit (29th in the league in Defense), Memphis (28th), Phoenix (27th), Golden State (25th), Minnesota (24th), Chicago (16th), Houston (14th and he might have had something to prove during that game) and OKC. But when he’s playing against solid defenses, Artest gets the scraps leftover from Kobe, Pau and Bynum (even Lamar Odom at times). You knew it had to happen to someone, hopefully it didn’t happen to you.
Here are a few more of Sunday’s best ( and worst), none of whom have a better hairdo than Artest (Boobie Gibson is not on this list).
Dirk Nowitzki, DAL Didn’t play due to elbow soreness. He was too busy having shrapnel from Carl Landry’s teeth removed from his elbow. Gnarly!
Tim Thomas, DAL ThimThom took over for Dirk and took over the game as a result, dropping a team-high 22 points and grabbing seven rebounds. He celebrated at Denny’s, but reportedly didn’t throw any chairs this time.
LeBron James, CLE James topped 43 minutes for just the third time this season and had a good overall line, (25/6/2 stl/2 blk). But owners can’t love the fact that he shot .391 from the field. When Ben Wallace shoots that poor, it’s because he only took three shots. When James does it, it puts a dent in owners’ FG%. He took 23 shots on Sunday, his eighth game this year with as many attempts. This was the only game out of the eight in which James didn’t shoot 46 percent or better. Then again, what’re you gonna do? Trade ‘im?
David West, NO West hasn’t been bad this season so much as inconsistent. He went 21/12 on Sunday. Yeah, that’s nice, especially on the wings of Wednesday’s dove (32/12), but then what can you say about Friday’s wangdoodle (12/8) wedged in between them? Y’see what I mean about inconsistency?
Chris Paul, NO What’s cooler than being cool?! ICE COLD! (Sorry. It’s the end of the decade and I’m feeling nostalgic). Anyway, The N’awlins PG shook like a PAULaroid picture and ended up looking like Marty McFly’s brother during the “Johnny B. Goode” scene. He made only 3-of-13 from the field. He’s missed at least 10 shots three different games this month.
Jarrett Jack, TOR Since he replaced the injured Jose Calderon eight games ago, Jack has dished out 47 dimes. In the last month, Jack has handed out 95 assists, (10th most in the league). Only 35 percent of leagues own him. C’mon, people. He’s not Chris Duhon.
Ty Lawson / Arron Afflalo, DEN Both started and combined to play almost 39 minutes, three points, one rebound, three assists on 1-for-8 shooting. Sadly, that does just about make up for Chauncey Billups lately. On another note, George Karl really, really hates J.R. Smith.
Chris Andersen, DEN Fourteen rebounds for the second straight game. That makes 39 rebounds and eight blocks in the last seven days. There are only seven other players in the league that have reached both those levels.
Carmelo Anthony, DEN Scored more than 40 points again. The Nuggets lost anyway. DRINK!
Kendrick Perkins, BOS Earned his seventh double-double of the season (seventh in his last 16 also), to go along with three blocks. He leads the league in FG%, he’s seventh in blocks and third in shoulder broadness (behind Orlando’s Dwight Howard and L.A. coach Phil Jackson).
Paul Pierce, BOS Attempted six 3-pointers and made ‘em all. ‘Dem old bones almost dropped 30. I said almost. He got 29. He’s only reached 30+ once this year. ”I really got tired of Kevin (Garnett) yelling at me,” Pierce said, before dropping his voice in an imitation of Garnett and yelling, “What’s going on with you? Pick it up!” Jrue story. If I had made it up, I’d have added a reference to Garnett’s barking.
Brandon Roy, POR How’s this for efficiency: He only missed three of his 14 shots, made all five of his three-pointers and sank every single free throw he shot … which wasn’t too difficult, because he only got to the line once. Still … he had 28 points on 14 shots. Remember what I was sayin’ about LeBron about 11 inches above? Yeah, this is the antithesis of that.
Quentin Richardson, MIA Replacing Mario Chalmers in the lineup suited Q just fine as he went 7-for-7 from beyond the arc to win the 100 percent three-point shooting contest Pierce, Roy and Richardson didn’t know they were having.
Dwyane Wade, MIA Double-double. With Chalmers chilling on the bench to start the game, Wade felt the need to be an awesome scorer and passer on Sunday. It was the third time this month and season Wade had double-digit assists.
Raymond Felton, CHA After making a career out of not going off, Felton went off on Sunday, earning 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Four of his season’s five best games have come against either the Knicks or Nets. What’s he got against bridges and tunnels? Also, why does he still go by Raymond? Shouldn’t it have been shortened to Ray by now? Who do I call about this?
Gerald Wallace, CHA Wallace didn’t play because of a headache. So don’t even think about any hanky-panky. He’s in no mood.
Jared Jeffries, NY On the floor for almost 31 minutes, didn’t take a shot. Ladies and gentlemen, your New York Knickerbockers.
Wilson Chandler, NY Game of the season for Chandler so far. Twenty-six points, five rebounds on .529 shooting from the floor and 6-for-6 shooting from the line. This is the Wilson Chandler that everybody was drafting in the middle rounds back in October. The guy that was supposed to take a full step forward this year, instead of the half-step backward.
L I N E O F T H E N I G H T
Zach Randolph, MEM .619 FG% / 1.000 FT% / 1 3ptm / 32 pts / 24 rbds / 3 asts / 1 stl / 1 blk / 2 to. The Grizz have won 12 of their first 27 games. Not good, but considering they didn’t win their 12th game until February 2 of last season (47th game), they’ll take it. I think we should prepare to take the proper steps toward crediting Mr. Randolph with a portion of the Grizz’s improvement. I know. I know. It’s unnatural to commend Mr. Randolph, but it’s our job. And yeah, we should probably put our “I TOLD you Randolph could make a bad team worse” signs in the storage basement. We could also ask if Golden State wants them.
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Top photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Getty Images
Bottom photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via AP
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