In a nationally-televised game, sophomore Evan Turner scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to help the 76ers beat New York. Lou Williams poured in 28 in as many minutes. Can a bench player be a keeper in a 12-team league? Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 22 and Tyson Chandler returned, but Amare Stoudemire was quiet and Jeremy Lin off-target. The Garden crowd did not sound happy. Elsewhere MIL @ TOR: An ankle injury to Jose Calderon made Jerryd Bayless (16 & 6) the starting
One man started the rumor of a Pau Gasol trade on Twitter in the afternoon and it had swept the globe by tipoff. Possibly distracted, Gasol had 12 points and 11 boards in the Lakers win, though Andrew Bynum (26 & 10) did the heavy lifting and Kobe Bryant scored 34. Kevin Love was a very late scratch with a sore back, but the return of Nikola Pekovic (25 & 13) and a great effort by rookie Derrick Williams (22
The 2011-12 NBA season not only will be labeled as lockout-shortened, but as a season in which injuries destroyed many teams—fantasy teams, that is. The first significant injury (Brook Lopez) was sustained before the season commenced. Since games tipped off Christmas Day, the list of impact fantasy players missing at least 20 percent of their team’s games due to injury has been epidemic, frustrating helpless fantasy owners to no end and reducing their chances of finishing “in the money.” By my count, 15
When it comes to running franchises, David Stern is doing a great impersonation of Ted Stepien. Stepien owned the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early 1980s and spent most of his time firing coaches, overpaying mediocre players and trading away so many draft picks that the NBA instituted the “Ted Stepien Rule,” which now prevents teams from trading first-round picks in consecutive years. Stepien’s mismanagement of the Cavaliers had to be fixed by the NBA. But the NBA – led by Stern –
Accruing talent for your fantasy hoops squad is a threefold process: draft, trades and free agent acquisitions. A combination of guile (waiting on that player you covet to drop in the draft; buying low, selling high with trades) and good fortune (grabbing Ricky Rubio in the 13th round) is necessary in each. Hopefully you spent ample time preparing for and had a successful draft, as it is the foundation for an owner with hopes of finishing “in the money.” Don’t hold your
By Chris Sheridan KAUNAS, Lithuania — He had said it so many times over the course of EuroBasket, Spanish coach Sergio Scariolo was starting to sound like a broken record: “The 3-point shooting will come. It can come at any time, and it will come.” It certainly did, and it came in such a quick blast that a surprisingly close game became a blowout in an instant. Spain made seven 3-pointers on 10 attempts in the third quarter, starting with one by Rudy Fernandez