The Basketball Diaries March 6
Well another busy Wednesday NBA night is in the books and that was one of the oddest nights of the year. Studs like Love, Wall and Paul George threw up duds and guys like Al Jefferson and Greg Monroe posted great games against tough matchups. For me, it was more or less a break even night. And in all honesty, I feel lucky to even get there. Here’s how my Fanduel team looked and also a glimpse at KCChief Fan73’s squad. He is in all the big games nightly and I thought it would be good to see how he operates a little.
Overlappers
Jeff Teague
Monta Ellis
Nicolas Batum
Monta Ellis had a sweet matchup in a fast tempo game and blew it. If not for a flurry of baskets in the last minute of that game he would have been in the Paul George range. I’ve noticed the big drop-off in his game recently and have been more reluctant to take him, but he has still found a way to salvage his lines and this was a great opponent for him. I’m going to have to think long and hard about taking him anytime in the near future.
Jeff Teague has been a stud with Millsap out so it wasn’t a shock to see him so widely owned across the industry. However he disappointed also.
Hits
Carmelo Anthony
Jimmy Butler
Terrence Jones
Maurice Harkless
Carmelo is probably my favorite player to take on Fanduel. You’re not penalized for all those missed shots and there is an emphasis at FD on pure scoring. So anytime I can squeeze Melo on the roster I do. Last night’s 47.5 points was solid.
KCChiefs took a chance on Terrance Jones and it paid off with 33.7 points on a slow night. It’s not a play I would be willing to make unless it’s a 3-4 game slate. He’s had 3 solid games in a row, but I believe you’re playing with fire when rostering Jones when Harden, Howard and Parsons are all playing.
Best find of the night, in my opinion, was the guys who took Maurice Harkless. I saw the Jameer/Oladipo injury news and gravitated to Afflalo and some E’Twaun Moore on most sites. However it was Harkless and his 30 points at $4,400 who was the big beneficiary last night.
Misses
James Johnson
Trevor Booker
E’Twaun Moore
E’Twaun Moore really wasn’t that bad in hindsight. He actually outscored a few superstars. But 16.4 at $4,100 is usually a disappointment. Normally scoring at that clip would net you about a 240 total points for the night, which is awful. However 240 last night may have cashed in some double ups and H2H matches.
James Johnson is the ultimate tease. And I broke one of my own golden rules by using him. Usually in cash games I lean towards consistency and safety. Don’t take risks. James Johnson is the anti-safe pick. I, along with numerous others, fell into the trap of seeing Zach out and thinking that JJ would get the bulk of his minutes by guarding Pierce(who plays PF for Brooklyn). That didn’t happen. JJ played only 1 minute in the first half for some reason. Seemed his ankle injury had done him in. Only problem with that theory is that he ended up playing the final 6 minutes or so of a blowout game. So the ankle was fine, they just chose to NOT play him for the 1st 3 ½ Q’s? Bad coaching. He was their best shot at being competitive and that was an epic fail on the Grizz coaches part. It was also a fail for us fantasy owners for taking that big of a risk on a guy who is not an acceptable cash game play on most nights.