NBA Daily Grind Down: Wednesday 2/20

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2013-02-20 22:06:25

The RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down article is going to give you an in-depth analysis on every game each night (3 games minimum). This article will give you defense vs. position rankings and make notes on where you can exploit these matchups. Wednesday night features 11 games on the schedule with plenty of juicy matchups including Russell Westbrook against the Rockets and Dwight Howard against the Celtics.

NOTES:

1) Defense vs. Position rankings are how well a team defends against a certain position. The ranking is for the team that it is listed under, NOT the opponent.
2) Rankings are as follows: 30 is the worst defense against a position, 1 is the best.
3) Last 10 Game Data is collected at the start of each week. It will be updated each Sunday for the upcoming week.

New Orleans vs. Cleveland – 7:00 pm EST

• New Orleans really struggles against SF’s and C’s and those numbers held true last night as we saw Luol Deng and Joakim Noah both have big games. The Cavs have some good talent on their team, but not so much at SF and C. I wouldn’t fall into the trap and take one of them. I could see Kyrie Irving having a very good night after his takeover of All-Star weekend though. This kid is a beast and has a decent matchup against Vasquez.
• The Cavs have been bad defensively across the board this season, but lately it has been against the PG and PF positions. Greivis Vasquez makes a solid play tonight and I can see him and Kyrie trying to one up each other all game. Also take a look at Anthony Davis, when this kid gets minutes, he can really put up some solid numbers and has put together 37 and 39 FP efforts in his last two games. He could be a gamble that could pay off.

New York vs. Indiana – 7:00 pm EST

• Not a lot to love looking at the Knick’s defensive rankings. The two possible matchups that pop out to me are George Hill and Paul George. The Knicks have struggled against PG’s in their last 10 games and George Hill is a guy that can have big performances. If you can get him for cheap, he could make a decent play. Also, Paul George sees time at both the SG and SF position and is playing some great basketball, but I would look at other options first.
• The Pacers are also very good defensively and this game looks like it is going to be one of those knock-down drag out type of games where the scoring ends up being in the 80’s. Unless you have to take someone from this game, look for other options and be glad that you did so.

Memphis vs. Toronto – 7:00 pm EST

• Memphis has such a solid defense, it’s really impressive how they have managed to contain every single position on the floor. None of the Raptors have a good matchup, but if you like the revenge factor than Rudy Gay might be your guy tonight. He is certainly going to want to play well, but what typically happens in these situations is the player presses too much and ends up taking bad shots.
• The Raptors are ranked 21st against PF’s and we haven’t seen one of those monster performances from Zach Randolph in quite a while. Could tonight be the 20-20 night we have been waiting for? This game will likely be low scoring too, so don’t take too many guys from it.

Detroit vs. Charlotte – 7:00 pm EST

• Sometimes you can chalk up numbers changing to coincidence, but other times, the numbers don’t lie. Take for instance the defensive rankings for the Pistons for PG and SG. They are ranked 9th against PG’s for the season, but have dropped to 13th in their last 10 games. Then against SG’s they are ranked 24th for the season, but have moved all the way up to 5th in their last 10 games. Why is this? Since the trade for Jose Calderon, Brandon Knight got moved over to the SG position and now is shutting down SG’s. Getting back to the matchups, I like Kemba Walker tonight going up against Jose Calderon.
• As far as Charlotte is concerned, you could take any player against them and they would have just as good of a chance to have a good game as anyone else. My favorite pick against them tonight is Greg Monroe. I know you have to pay a pretty penny for him, but I think he will be worth it tonight.

Miami vs. Atlanta – 8:00 pm EST

• Miami is pretty solid all around on defense with the only exceptions being at SG and C. Right now I don’t trust any of the Hawks SG’s because they always seem to be hurt and are very inconsistent. If you are going to play someone against the Heat, take a look at Al Horford. Miami is one of the worst rebounding teams in the league and are average this season at defending Centers.
• Atlanta on the other hand hasn’t been very good defensively. While they are one of the worst teams in the league at defending PG’s, you never know what you are going to get from Mario Chalmers so I would stay away from him unless you want to take a gamble in a GPP. Lebron James on the other hand looks to be a very solid play as Atlanta ranks 20th against SF’s, Lebron is on a tear, and the game should be fairly close considering that it’s in Atlanta.

Oklahoma City vs. Houston – 8:00 pm EST

• The Thunder are a pretty good team defensively but they play uptempo which tends to lower their defensive rankings. They are ranked 20th against Centers and Omer Asik could be in for a good night as he usually plays well against other Centers that are slow like himself. Last time he faced the Thunder he went for 17 and 12. Also, if you are a fan of the revenge factor, James Harden is in a spot to have a big game. Even though he hasn’t played well the first two times the team have met, he is playing at home and would like to show the Thunder what they missed out on.
• Houston gives up big fantasy numbers to every position except for Center. That takes Kendrick Perkins out of the mix and leaves you with the choice of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka. My favorite matchup of the bunch is Westbrook going up against Jeremy Lin. He is bigger, faster, and stronger than Lin and is also a much cheaper option than Durant.

Brooklyn vs. Milwaukee – 8:00 pm EST

• Even though the Nets didn’t play very good defense last night against the Bucks, they are still one of the better defending teams in the league and I expect tonight’s game against the Bucks to be a little lower scoring. That being said, Brandon Jennings seems to have D-Will’s number, last night he went for 34 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds. I like the matchup for Jennings once again tonight.
• Yesterday, we were spot on with the Joe Johnson analysis. Even though the Bucks are ranked 12th against SG’s, not many guards can use their size advantage as well as Johnson. He gets to go up against Monta again tonight so the matchup is there, however, Johnson does average 5 less FP’s per game on the road so keep that in mind. Another great matchup to consider is Brook Lopez against the second worst team in the league at defending Centers.

Philadelphia vs. Minnesota – 8:00 pm EST

• The Sixers are ranked 24th in the league for the season against Centers, but have improved that rank to 17th in their last 10 games by putting Spencer Hawes in the starting lineup. While this hurts Nikola Pekovic value a tiny bit, I still think he is a solid play tonight. Ricky Rubio also makes a great play against the Sixers who are ranked 20th against PG’s despite Jrue Holiday being a pretty good on-ball defender.
• The T-Wolves defensive numbers are a bit of a mystery. How can one team be so bad at defending 3 positions and so good at defending the other 2 positions? Jrue Holiday, Nick Young, and Lavoy Allen all get a bump in value today due to their matchups, but for my money, they only guy I would trust is Jrue.

Orlando vs. Dallas – 8:30 pm EST

• As you can see, Orlando is bad at defending both PG’s and C’s. Last night they gave up big games to both Kemba Walker and Byron Mullens. The Mavericks don’t really have a solid center right now, but Darren Collison has been playing well and deserves a look today. The numbers say O.J. Mayo also has a good matchup, but the eye test says he doesn’t as Aaron Afflalo is a really good defender.
• Dallas has been bad defensively across the board. Their one red ranking for 10th against Centers for the season doesn’t mean anything right now as Chris Kaman is still out and since he got hurt, they have really struggled against Centers. Tonight from the Magic I like Nikola Vucevic and Jameer Nelson.

Phoenix vs. Golden State – 10:30 pm EST

• The Suns struggle against all positions, but especially against PF’s as they are ranked 28th in the league against them. Look for David Lee to take full advantage of this tonight and put up a solid double double. I also like Stephen Curry matchup due to the fact that the Suns are ranked 24th against PG’s in their last 10 games and Curry always plays well at home. Just watch out for a blowout in this one.
• Their isn’t one position that Golden State is good at defending so if you like any of the Suns players tonight, feel free to use them as they all have good matchups. I think the only guy that I would trust is Mr. Goran Dragic who went for a career-high 18 assists last night against the Blazers. He should be able to back it up with another solid game tonight and is very affordable on most sites.

Boston vs. L.A.Lakers – 10:30 pm EST

• This game gives us two contrasting styles, one team makes a living playing defense, and the other team doesn’t seem to know what defense is. The Celtics have pretty good numbers all around, but the play tonight is Dwight Howard. I know how frustrating it can be to take him, but he will have a huge size advantage over anyone the Celtics can throw at him. The monstrous trio of Garnett, Bass, and Collins won’t be enough to stop Dwight tonight.
• On the other side of the ball, I like a few matchups for the Celtics tonight. First off is Paul Pierce who gets to play back in LA where he grew up. The Lakers are ranked 23rd against SF’s and Pierce went off for 37 fantasy points when these teams played a couple of weeks ago. I also like Avery Bradley in this one. He is a pesky defender that forces turnovers. He has also improved his offensive game and makes a great value play against the Lakers.