Washington is ideal as they play four games, only one of which is against a formidable defense. John Wall should have a nice week exposing his speed and explosiveness against a hurting Kryie Irving, small Brandon Jennings, and the slow-footed Greivis Vasquez and Goran Dragic. San Antonio also has a nice schedule as they face only one playoff team in four games. Expect them to be dominant this week.
The Thunder also have a four game schedule this week that outside San Antonio is against inferior competition. Dallas lacks the defensive stopper it needs alongside Dirk, Utah has a plethora of bigs but still disappoints defensively and Orlando is like a talented high school team with a couple of nice future college prospects going against Duke every night.
Somehow, Miami also has a very soft schedule this week as well. Only Chris Bosh is facing defensive counterparts such as Josh Smith and Larry Sanders. I fully expect the rest of the roster to play with a scorching hot efficiency.
Avoid Sacramento this week. The Kings play only two games and one is against arguably the league’s best defense. DeMarcus Cousins has seemed particularly unmotivated of late and outside of that the roster is limited in talent as well as consistency. Portland has three games this week, one against he stingy Memphis defense, on against Detroit and one against a feisty New York team that should go back to their early-season defensive ways. Play the Blazers at your own risk.
The Clippers are another good team to avoid playing this week. Chris Paul is easily the best point guard in the league but he faces some of the premier perimeter defenders in Tony Allen, Iman Shumpert and Mike Conely. Blake Griffin also has been playing out of his mind lately but faces reigning Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler, former defensive ace and teammate Kenyon Martin and Marc Gasol. Add a light schedule to the week and there are without question better plays to be had.
To those who followed my advice and played Stephen Curry all week, there were mixed results. Curry’s field goal percentage left many wanting, but his assists were huge. Blame me or thank me, he was still was a very good play last week. Goran Dragic on the other hand had one awful game, a solid game (with one measly assist) and a great game (dishing out 16 assists). Overall, he was just an OK play who left me wanting more most nights.
Wilson Chandler on the other hand, hardly panned out at all. Chandler saw a dip in minutes (two games last week he barely player over 20 minutes), had no blocks for the week, averaged only a steal a game, and shot a shade under forty percent. Fantasy hoops is tough to predict, sometimes even the safest of picks under-perform.