IND@ SAS: Things are not looking good for the Pacers. Without Danny Granger (knee) they inserted Sam Young into the starting five and brought Gerald Green (9 PTS, 8 REB) off the bench, but they simply couldn’t generate any offense as a team against the undefeated Spurs. Roy Hibbert was awful (2 points in 27 minutes, zero trips to the foul line, three TO) and Paul George (14 PTS in 40 minutes) was -20 for the game.
On the same day I casually dismissed him as a third-stringer, DeJuan Blair had a double-double (14 PTS, 11 REB, 4 AST, 2 STL) in 29 minutes and Gary Neal drained 17 points in under 20 minutes. Manu Ginobili played 17:03 and dished out 7 assists but wasn’t required to do much more. With such depth, and the willingness of great players to put the team ahead of their own stats, the Spurs are much better in real life than fantasy. As much as I admire the organization and coach Popovich, it’s very difficult to predict his ever-changing rotations.
November 6 Games
ORL @ CHI: The surprising Magic are about to get a reality check. With PG Jameer Nelson nursing an injury that has been described as ankle, groin and hamstring by various sources, look for E-Twaun Moore to get another start and J.J. Redick to play big minutes. Glen Davis, averaging 25.5 PTS and 9 REB in two surprise victories, will do his best against Carlos Boozer.
The Bulls are still annoyed about dropping a home game to the Hornets and should be fired up tonight. So far, Kirk Hinrich has not looked good (we know he’s battling a sore groin) and Nate Robinson has been seeing plenty of action. I’m no basketball coach, but I’d get the ball to Joakim Noah often and let him post up Nikola Vucevic.
TOR @ OKC: With The Thunder off to a 1-2 start and playing at home, we can expect them to take this game seriously. From a fantasy perspective, they are a four man team, one of whom (Serge Ibaka) has yet to have a really huge game. In reality, guys like Thabo Sefolosha and Kendrick Perkins are valuable for their defense. Thabo is a good test for DeMar DeRozan, whose last couple of games have been impressive, but I don’t like Jonas Valanciunas against big Perk.
By far the best Raptor so far, and one of the best players in the league, has been Kyle Lowry. If he can keep it up vs. Russell Westbrook, Lowry owners will be thrilled. Andrea Bargnani has not meshed well (yet) with the new PG, but it’s early. Toronto is giving Alan Anderson a much bigger role than expected, in part because Linas Kleiza is not with the team because of a family matter. Until more details emerge, I hate to cut Kleiza in deep leagues, but my trigger finger is getting itchy.
DET @ DEN: Beset by migraines, Rodney Stuckey is in a horrible shooting slump, 1-for-23 on the young season. It’s one reason — not the only one — the Pistons are winless. They need a much better team effort tonight than their early surrender to the Lakers on Sunday. Greg Monroe could have a big game and Brandon Knight can only improve on his 2-point performance.
The Nuggets are a very disappointing 0-3 and will be fired up to fix that. Really, their loss in Miami was encouraging; the normally accurate Danilo Gallinari missed 14 shots but everyone else played well. Kenneth Faried (22 PTS, 12 REB) finally played enough minutes and a short 3-man bench was very productive.