The nine games on the NBA schedule last night had a significant effect on Head-to-Head leagues. With only one game tonight because of the cancellation in Brooklyn, and just three more days in an abbreviated Week 1, quite a few categories have been already been won or lost.
Last night was also our $1,000 Tournament at FanDuel. Congratulations to “mistercrown” for winning the $200 first prize. His well-balanced team scored 299 fantasy points, led by Joakim Noah with 50 (23 PTS, 10 REB, 5 STL, 3 BLK, 3 AST, 2 TO) while the best my three teams could do was 255, for 112th place out of 555 entries. Thanks to everyone who entered; hope it was fun even if you didn’t win a prize. We’ll have more special events — including Freerolls — throughout the season.
October 31 Games:
HOU @ DET: 24 hours ago, I was concerned about James Harden being distracted, or unhappy. Today, he’s a fantasy superstar. Playing 44 minutes in his Rockets debut, he torched the Pistons for 37 points and thrilled his fantasy owners with 12 assists, six rebounds, four steals and a block. He hit 4-of-10 from deep and shot 14-25 on the night.
Jeremy Lin (12 PTS, 8 AST) played the role of Robin to Harden’s Batman. With Patrick Patterson (quad) unable to play, Marcus Morris (6 PTS in 25:36) was a surprise starter and ‘hot’ rookie Terrence Jones never got off the bench. Carlos Delfino (15) and Greg Smith (10) were the best reserves.
The Pistons scored only 15 points in the decisive fourth quarter and Rodney Stuckey had a terrible 1-10 shooting night. Three Detroit rookies played with the second unit: Kyle Singler (10) and Kim English (8) were effective and Andre Drummond didn’t look out of place in his 12 minutes. They should all improve if they stay in the rotation.
DEN@ PHI: The most obvious “excuse” for Denver was that Danilo Gallinari (ankle) didn’t play and Jordan Hamilton (4 PTS in 12:51) started at SF. But the Nuggets had other problems, as the Sixers were in command throughout. I was disappointed in Andre Iguodala, who missed all four 3-point attempts, turned it over four times and finished -19 in his homecoming. The Philly bench, led by Spencer Hawes (16 PTS, 12 REB, 5 BLK) and Dorell Wright (14 PTS, 7 REB) kept up the pressure.
Bidding only against himself, the man who wears hand-made $1,200 shirts came up with a ridiculous $38 million for DeMar DeRozan yesterday. Doug Smith in the Toronto Star calls it “an unnecessary gamble” and Bruce Arthur in the National Post pulls no punches: “…he’s a wing who can’t shoot threes, doesn’t really rebound or pass well, and whose advanced numbers have either held steady or dropped since he was drafted.”
But DMDR *is* twice as good as Fields, so why not?
“Landry Fields (scoreless in 26 minutes) was a $20,000,000 mistake by overrated Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo.”
Who overrates Colangelo, Kent? Clearly not anyone with a rudimentary understanding of statistical analysis. I guess the idiot braintrust of MLSE are the only ones who overrate him, unless the metric is best dressed GM.