It's week 19 in the NBA and a lot has happened this season from Arena's gun problem, Jennings' 55 point game, to Durant's 29 straight 25 point games, the longest record in over a decade. But through all of this, it is now week 19 and there is pressing news to address. New's in this week; Chris Paul's return? When? Noah's Injury? How bad? Will Maggette return this season? What should we expect from Blatche, J.J. Hickson, Darren Collison, and Marcus Thorton? Will Curry edge out Tyreke Evan's claim to Rookie of the Year? And let's not forget this week's fantasy suggestions! This and more in the posts to come.
PS, ask me any and all fantasy questions in the comments section bellow and I will respond promptly.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
This week in the NBA--Matchups to watch
Because this post is on Thursday and not Monday most of the great match ups are in the past sadly. Still we have a few to look forward to and break down so here they are.
Friday:
The main match up to watch will the the Spurs Vs. The Hornets;
The Spurs should be the victors in this, however it will be the ultimate test for the Hornets' rookie cast. Can they handle the the spurs defense? It will be fun to see George Hill match up with Marcus Thorton. Let the youth play.
PS this game is on ESPN so watch it.
For entertainment try to catch the Hawks at Oracle Arena to play the Warriors. Look for another great performance from Stephen Curry seeing he is literally on fire. Joe Johnson should have some fun breaking down the Warriors' offense. Look for Josh Smith to have a big night in assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, and points because he is one of the few shot blockers who can keep pace with the running Warriors. Also, Jamal Crawford should play well against his former team.
Saturday:
The best game on sat should be once again the Spurs, but this time playing against Memphis. Although the Spurs the better team, coming off a back to back will make playing the lightning hot Zach Randolf all the harder. Also, Memphis is fighting with a passion for that 8th spot in the west. Look for Mayo and Gay to step it up big. With Duncan on Randolf it will be hard to tell where success will fall on that end.
Sunday:
The Lakers play the Magic on Sunday, a repeat of last year's NBA finals. Dwight is a known monster and with the added depth on Orlando, this game it won't be such a landslide. Look for a lot of production from Brandon Bass, Michael Pietrus, and Matt Barns. On the Lakers end, Pau Gasol should have a field day with Rashard Lewis and as always... expect great things from Kobe.
Also Sunday is Denver vs Portland. Both teams high contenders in the west are looking to make their mark on each other and establish dominance in what could be a future playoff match up. Look for high performance from the stars. Billups and Carmelo will work Andre Miller and Nicolas Batum while Brandon Roy, Camby, and Aldridge should have a field day with Nene, Kenyon Martin, and Afflalo. All in all it should be a great match up, but the edge goes to Denver and their high altitude home court advantage. Look for that to take a toll on the Portland lesser players who cannot quite compete at that level.
Friday:
The main match up to watch will the the Spurs Vs. The Hornets;
The Spurs should be the victors in this, however it will be the ultimate test for the Hornets' rookie cast. Can they handle the the spurs defense? It will be fun to see George Hill match up with Marcus Thorton. Let the youth play.
PS this game is on ESPN so watch it.
For entertainment try to catch the Hawks at Oracle Arena to play the Warriors. Look for another great performance from Stephen Curry seeing he is literally on fire. Joe Johnson should have some fun breaking down the Warriors' offense. Look for Josh Smith to have a big night in assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, and points because he is one of the few shot blockers who can keep pace with the running Warriors. Also, Jamal Crawford should play well against his former team.
Saturday:
The best game on sat should be once again the Spurs, but this time playing against Memphis. Although the Spurs the better team, coming off a back to back will make playing the lightning hot Zach Randolf all the harder. Also, Memphis is fighting with a passion for that 8th spot in the west. Look for Mayo and Gay to step it up big. With Duncan on Randolf it will be hard to tell where success will fall on that end.
Sunday:
The Lakers play the Magic on Sunday, a repeat of last year's NBA finals. Dwight is a known monster and with the added depth on Orlando, this game it won't be such a landslide. Look for a lot of production from Brandon Bass, Michael Pietrus, and Matt Barns. On the Lakers end, Pau Gasol should have a field day with Rashard Lewis and as always... expect great things from Kobe.
Also Sunday is Denver vs Portland. Both teams high contenders in the west are looking to make their mark on each other and establish dominance in what could be a future playoff match up. Look for high performance from the stars. Billups and Carmelo will work Andre Miller and Nicolas Batum while Brandon Roy, Camby, and Aldridge should have a field day with Nene, Kenyon Martin, and Afflalo. All in all it should be a great match up, but the edge goes to Denver and their high altitude home court advantage. Look for that to take a toll on the Portland lesser players who cannot quite compete at that level.
Youth on the rise.
As well as an abundance of injuries this season, there has been an intense increase in the youth performance, filling in or just simply stepping up to the occasion here are some projections. Darren Collison, after showing himself a consistent point guard who can help keep the Hornets afloat should be great for the next 1-2 weeks before Chris Paul's return. After the return, look for Collison to be Chris Paul's crutch, helping him rest the ailing knee for at least a couple games. He may even start along side Paul and take the ball up the court to rest Chris just a little bit during games. Marcus Thorton should not be hindered at all in the final stretch of the season unless he hits the rookie wall. Many people believe Chris Paul's return will actually hinder Thorton, but having a better point guard who is more of a three point threat who can also draw multiple guard defenders should pose Thorton for more open threes and offensive opportunities. He's earned his playing time at the shooting guard position and should hold his minutes. Andray Blatche has blown the minds of Washington fans and basketball fans around the world. Averaging 25.5 points a game over the past 8 games, and 11.4 rebounds he has literally become a monster and not to forget that the Wizards are actually .500 over those 8 games. A Major achievement for them. The questions on every ones minds right now are will it last? Is he that talented or is he just stepping into the roll do to player vacancies? And finally, what can we expect from him through the rest of the season. Will it last? For at least a while. He's shown that he can sustain it, so now the only concern is will teams figure out how to cover him? That's a possibility but not one to count on for at least another week. Yes he is a talented player, but he is not a star. Not a present one or a future one. Rudy Gay is still a better player, so is Troy Murphy, Andrew Bynum and a large cast of other players that people are considering equal to him. Let's not forget that Stucky on the Detroit Pistons was player of the week earlier in the season and what has he done since?
This week in the NBA--injury report (Edited...Again!!!)
There have been many injuries this year from The Joel Prizbilla the Vanilla Gorilla to Greg Oden to Blake Griffin and Michael Redd. Lately, however there have been a rash of major injuries affecting both east and west the foremost being Chris Paul.
Today's spotlight: CP3 is in the midst of another stand out season for him... That is if it wasn't for his seemingly constant injury. The New Orleans Hornets (Currently tied for 10th in the west to Houston) cannot help but wonder where they would be with their star? Well, all regrets aside, there is good news for the Hornets. Darren Collison and Marcus Thorton have been over exceeding expectations by miles and miles. People are starting to remember that what was said that between Collison and Westbrook on UCLA, Collison was the better guard. There has been mixed news on when Chris Paul will return. Yesterday a New Orleans reporter published that Chris Paul will be ready to return within 7-10 days and that he is eager and excited for his return. Today a new report came out stating that he has "No clue" when he is returning and that he hasn't started performing running exercises which will determine how far he actually is from returning. In other words the only definite news on Chris Paul's return is that he's going to make one for sure, and that is an improvement on what some of the speculation has been over the past two weeks.
More on injuries (there has been a rash of them lately) Joakim Noah will be sidelined for three weeks due to his plantar fasciitis. Don't expect an early return seeing plantar fasciitis has sidelined players for the entire season in the past. When Noah returns it will likely be as Taj Gibson's back up at least until the playoffs. Shaq is out for the rest of the regular season due to thumb surgery. This is probably longer than he needs to recover, but the Cavs would like to see him nice and rested come playoff time. Expect an increase in J.J. Hickson's performance seeing he will lift the bulk of those minutes. Corey Maggette is out for the Warriors' 7 game road trip. If he returns, it would be after that, however they may sideline him for the rest of the season to keep him healthy and prime for the trading block come post season. Jason Terry on the Mavs took a hard elbow to the face last night against the Timber Wolves and will have facial reconstructive surgery today that will sideline him for 7-10 weeks. Yes that does mean the rest of the regular season, so expect an increase in production from Jose Juan Barea. Jason Thompson who injured his back about a week ago is about a week from his return. In his absence Fransisco Garcia, also coming off of injury should see an increase in minutes and production. Turkgolu and Calderon are on their way back for Toronto, and the Canadians aren't sure weather to be excited or worried seeing both of them are possibly the two most disappointing players of the season.
Apparently there were some false reports so here's another update to the injury report. Chris Paul is to return in mid-march. Chris Bosh had a "stomach problem" and had to unexpectedly miss last game. He will be back for his first game in 8 games this weekend. Corey Maggette defied all reports and went with the team on their road trip and played yesterday scoring 18 points. Consider all rumors of him being held out for the rest of the season null. Jason Terry has had three different reports over the past three days. Two days ago it looked like he would be out 7-10 nights. Yesterday they said 7-10 weeks. Today a report came out stating that the surgery was a success and that we should see him back in 10-14 days. Rodney Stucky had a seizure on the bench last game. He is reported stable and breathing on his own now but may miss a couple games. This happened last season during the halftime of a game and he missed games over that as well, so assume he will be out for a few nights.
Today's spotlight: CP3 is in the midst of another stand out season for him... That is if it wasn't for his seemingly constant injury. The New Orleans Hornets (Currently tied for 10th in the west to Houston) cannot help but wonder where they would be with their star? Well, all regrets aside, there is good news for the Hornets. Darren Collison and Marcus Thorton have been over exceeding expectations by miles and miles. People are starting to remember that what was said that between Collison and Westbrook on UCLA, Collison was the better guard. There has been mixed news on when Chris Paul will return. Yesterday a New Orleans reporter published that Chris Paul will be ready to return within 7-10 days and that he is eager and excited for his return. Today a new report came out stating that he has "No clue" when he is returning and that he hasn't started performing running exercises which will determine how far he actually is from returning. In other words the only definite news on Chris Paul's return is that he's going to make one for sure, and that is an improvement on what some of the speculation has been over the past two weeks.
More on injuries (there has been a rash of them lately) Joakim Noah will be sidelined for three weeks due to his plantar fasciitis. Don't expect an early return seeing plantar fasciitis has sidelined players for the entire season in the past. When Noah returns it will likely be as Taj Gibson's back up at least until the playoffs. Shaq is out for the rest of the regular season due to thumb surgery. This is probably longer than he needs to recover, but the Cavs would like to see him nice and rested come playoff time. Expect an increase in J.J. Hickson's performance seeing he will lift the bulk of those minutes. Corey Maggette is out for the Warriors' 7 game road trip. If he returns, it would be after that, however they may sideline him for the rest of the season to keep him healthy and prime for the trading block come post season. Jason Terry on the Mavs took a hard elbow to the face last night against the Timber Wolves and will have facial reconstructive surgery today that will sideline him for 7-10 weeks. Yes that does mean the rest of the regular season, so expect an increase in production from Jose Juan Barea. Jason Thompson who injured his back about a week ago is about a week from his return. In his absence Fransisco Garcia, also coming off of injury should see an increase in minutes and production. Turkgolu and Calderon are on their way back for Toronto, and the Canadians aren't sure weather to be excited or worried seeing both of them are possibly the two most disappointing players of the season.
Apparently there were some false reports so here's another update to the injury report. Chris Paul is to return in mid-march. Chris Bosh had a "stomach problem" and had to unexpectedly miss last game. He will be back for his first game in 8 games this weekend. Corey Maggette defied all reports and went with the team on their road trip and played yesterday scoring 18 points. Consider all rumors of him being held out for the rest of the season null. Jason Terry has had three different reports over the past three days. Two days ago it looked like he would be out 7-10 nights. Yesterday they said 7-10 weeks. Today a report came out stating that the surgery was a success and that we should see him back in 10-14 days. Rodney Stucky had a seizure on the bench last game. He is reported stable and breathing on his own now but may miss a couple games. This happened last season during the halftime of a game and he missed games over that as well, so assume he will be out for a few nights.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
