Beast of the Night: Goran Dragic finished with 22 points, two rebounds, seven assists, three steals and four three-pointers. He shot 57 percent (8-14) from the floor and 67 percent (2-3) from the free-throw line, and had two turnovers. Since becoming a starter exactly a month ago, Dragic has averaged 18.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.1 threes per game, while shooting 52 percent from the field and 82 percent from the free-throw line. Those are top five numbers. Kyle Lowry‘s return shouldn’t damage Dragic’s fantasy value too much the rest of the way. Read More »

Oklahoma City should show some love to Russell Westbrook for getting them back into first place in the West. The Thunder rolled on Milwaukee by 20 behind their superstar point guard. Westbrook destroyed the new look Buck backcourt, going for 26 easy points and seven rebounds in only 26 minutes. Kevin Durant added 19 and Thabo Sefolosha had a reverse dunk that even Kobe would’ve enjoyed … Who caught the Mike Dunleavy and Serge Ibaka tussle? Ibaka reached out to grab him by the shoulder, and Jr. busted out the most epic karate chop we’ve ever seen in an NBA game … The Thunder are back in first because Devin Harris got revenge, and Paul Millsap got freaky in the fourth. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: Kevin Durant averaged 33.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 steal, 2.0 blocks and 3.5 threes in two games over the weekend. He shot 58 percent from the field and 89 percent from the free-throw line, and averaged 2.5 turnovers per game in that stretch. He continues to hold onto that crown as the most valuable fantasy basketball player of the 2011-12 NBA season. Read More »

We had a joke all lined up. With Big Baby rumbling to 23 points and 12 rebounds, and with Dwight Howard in an injury/depressed/look at me funk, Orlando was setting themselves up. In his last three games before last night, Davis was averaging 21.3 points, 11 rebounds and 50 percent from the floor. For once, he WAS more useful than Howard. But somehow after hurting his lower back enough to be stretched out by the team’s physical therapist at midcourt before the third quarter, and with his shot not falling, Dwight didn’t give up. He did work. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Luol Deng finished his big night with 26 points, six rebounds, three assists, four steals and one block. He shot 43 percent (9-21) from the floor and 100 percent (8-8) from the free-throw line, and had one turnover. For the season, Deng has admirably produced top 50 averages for his fantasy basketball owners. His production shouldn’t be too damaged once Derrick Rose returns this weekend. Read More »

Beast of the Night: LeBron James put up 41 points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals, a block and a three-pointer last night in a start at shooting guard for the Heat. He shot 60 percent (15-25) from the floor and 77 percent (10-13) from the free-throw line, and had four turnovers. James’ recent slip in production dropped him to No. 2 overall in fantasy basketball, but he’s still a monster. Read More »

You can’t disrespect a Derrick Rose-less Chicago team that’s still leading the East despite him being gone for 20 games now this season with injury. The Heat couldn’t stop the Bulls without their MVP a couple weeks back, remember? This is to say that when West-leading Oklahoma City met East beast Chicago on Sunday in OKC, you knew the Thunder were going to give the Bulls a full run no matter what. That run turned out to be a 14-point win that came with serious style points. Read More »

Lost amongst the Eastern contenders and pretenders is Boston. No one’s quiet sure what to make of them, especially now that they’re 13-5 since the All-Star Break and are threatening to overtake Philly in the standings. Kevin Garnett (23 points, 10 rebounds) has apparently found the fountain of youth, and last night he mugged the Jazz hard enough that the Celtics survived a monster third quarter from Al Jefferson, winning 94-82 … Read More »

Don’t hurt ‘em LeBron. We guess all it took for James to deliver a near-perfect performance was the possibility of being swept this year by Milwaukee because he unleashed fury on the Bucks in the second half. The NBA’s MVP at this point tried to tear apart the rims three or four different times, forget if anyone was in his way. To cap the end of the third, LeBron had one dunk where he split a double-team and flushed it (he covered 30 feet with one dribble) faster than a fat man going over a waterfall. That could’ve been expected. What wasn’t was his post game, scoring every…single…time against Carlos Delfino in the post. Read More »

All hail Jeremy Lin. That’s now two games in a row that the seldom-used backup has torched opponents and lit the Garden on fire as if he was John Starks. Lin dropped 28 and eight in New York’s 99-88 win over Utah. Beast? Lin seems to finish every three point play, make all the right decisions out of the pick-n-roll and has even shown off his deep ball. At one point in the second half, he dropped a high-arching shot and then trotted back on defense with a swag unlimited smirk before sticking his tongue out (It looked like he had been sucking on some blue lollipops during the quarter break). Read More »