The Cheat Sheet # 12: Championship Week

By Eric Yearian

Recent News/Revelations: You know, the NBA may have given itself the slogan “where amazing happens” but it just as easily could have gone by the moniker “where unexpected happens.” This past week the NBA seemingly took a page out of the NCAA tournament’s book and gave the fans some compelling games between teams that, to be honest, shouldn’t be giving us compelling games. To demonstrate this, I’ll give you a little logic test. In NBA action earlier this week, Cleveland handed Miami a loss (that you know Dan Gilbert and company enjoyed, but that’s besides the point). A few days later, the HEAT defeated the Washington Wizards (in a game that featured John Wall and Zydrunas Ilgauskas igniting a skirmish that saw Washington lose their best player). A few days after that (with John Wall missing the game due to a suspension stemming from the fight) Washington was set to take on the Cavaliers. So, logic tells us that A) Cleveland beats Washington or B) Washington beats Cleveland. If you answered A, well congratulations, you are far more logical than the NBA has been of late.

That’s not the only craziness taking place around the association, though. San Antonio, the team that’s spend the vast majority of the season being pretty close to unbeatable, has suddenly not only stumbled, but fallen on their face, suffering the team’s longest losing streak since 1997. This opened the door for the Lakers to catch up to them, but it’s hard to tell what’s more important to LA, catching the Spurs, or getting in senseless fights with the Mavericks. No, I don’t know why the NBA has suddenly gone all Fight Night on us, maybe it’s a cry for attention with so many people focused on their college counterparts, I don’t know. Oh, and a guy that might sound familiar if you read last week’s Cheat sheet went ham this week, and probably won a lot of fantasy owners some games with outstanding play, thanks in part to the aforementioned suspension of Wall (more on that in full disclosure, though). So now that you know what you missed while you were busy focusing on UCONN and Kentucky being upstaged by mid-major Butler and the cinderella Rams of VCU, let’s help you close out your fantasy season strong. You’ll notice a change this week. Because virtually everyone reading this should be into their playoffs already (my championship game is this week) you probably aren’t in a position where a waiver wire pickup will help you. Instead, this week we’re focusing on guys you should look to start if their on your team that might just be the difference in a championship or a second place finish. With that said, good luck in your leagues, and the Cheat Sheet will be back in two weeks to handout the fantasy awards for the 2010-2011 season!

Players you should look to start:
Kris Humphries: Humphries missed some action due to an ankle injury, so owners will justifiably weary of starting him at such a critical point in the season. I would give him a strong endorsement this scoring period though, as he not only appears good to go, but has some fantastic matchups coming up. His remaining games are against Minnesota, Detroit, New York, Toronto, Charlotte and Chicago. The toughest matchup for him there would be Minnesota, where Kevin Love may steal some rebounds for him, but he should absolutely tear the other teams apart in the rebounding department, especially if Chicago rests some players if they can lock themselves into the top seed in the conference.
Carl Landry
Carl Landry: Something you may have missed if you weren’t paying close attention to the association lately, is that New Orleans’ top scoring option, David West suffered a major knee injury and is done for the season. Suddenly, the trade that shipped out Marcus Thornton, well I won’t say it looks good cause come on, have you seen him play lately, but it looks less dumb now. Landry can step in and he’s shown that he can play well in West’s absence. He would be well worth the start as Paul is much better and the Hornets are much better as a team, when CP3 is looked upon to get others involved, and they could lean heavily on Landry to fill the void left by West’s injury.

Jrue Holiday: I’ll make no secret of the fact that I’m not fully sold on Holiday as a starting option, especially on a playoff team, at this stage in his career. He’s shown the ability to be a very good player, as well as the ability to lay an egg just when fantasy owners need him most. However, I’m going to suggest that you ride with him this week, even though it starts off with a tough game against the Celtics. The other matchups are pretty good, and coach Doug Collins had changed the offense so the Andre Iguodala plays more of a facilitator role, which lessens the pressure on Holiday. This simplifies the game for Holiday and allows him to concentrate on the parts of his game that he is best at, and that should make all the difference and allow him to help lead you to a fantasy championship.

Marcin Gortat: Gortat broke his nose a few games ago, and as odd as it may seem, I think it somehow helped his game. The Polish Hammer has averaged 15 points and 12 rebounds since sustaining the injury and has a pair of games against the Timberwolves, a date with the Hornets, and a struggling Spurs team coming up, which should allow him to keep producing double-doubles. That kind of production should be good enough to start for a lot of teams out there. If yours happens to be one of those lucky enough to have him on the roster, don’t hesitate to throw him to (at?) the Wolves in this scoring period, he’ll likely give you some quality outings.

Gerald Wallace: This one, I would think, would be obvious, but I’ve heard/seen people taking him out of their lineups lately. This is a reminder that you should rely on your heavy hitters, and that includes sometimes when they don’t have the best matchups. The thing with Wallace is, he has pretty good matchups the rest of the way, meaning you get the best of both worlds with him. With two games against the Warriors, and one game each against a Jazz team that is watching their season crumble around them, as well as the Lakers and Grizzlies (who are still without Rudy Gay) Wallace could flourish. It’s always a good idea to look at matchups, but don’t over think and cost yourself a championship (as I did a few years ago when I passed on Ramon Sessions and his 24 point, 24 assist game because I didn’t like his matchups.) Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way, as I did then.  

Full Disclosure from last column:

Players you should avoid:
Tyrus Thomas: Thomas can’t seem to get healthy. He played one game before heading right back to the sideline, and he was only good for 7 points and 6 rebounds. Hardly the things fantasy wins are made of. Final verdict: Correct

Players you should look to pick up:
Marcus Thornton: I think that we all keep waiting for Thornton to falter now that Tyreke Evans is back and playing more and more minutes each game. The thing is, it hasn’t happened. He’s continued to look dominant as a scorer while producing a fantastic number of rebounds for a 6’4” guard. Thornton is showing that he has not only a future in this league, but a bright future that could just put your team over the top in fantasy play. Final verdict: Correct.

Samardo Samuels:  Samuels hasn’t lived up to the promise he showed when he first took over the center spot for Cleveland. First his play leveled off, and then he got injured and had to miss games, which simply compounded the issue. Let’s face it, if you’re using him this late in the year, one of three things is happening, you’ve already lost your league, your league is absolutely terrible , or you have a guard and forward corps that is something fierce and you could start Eddy Curry at center and it not matter.Final verdict: A swing, and a miss.

Jordan Crawford: When Washington traded Kirk Hinrich for Jordan Crawford and the right to pay Mike Bibby to go away, people shook their heads at how poorly the Wizards did in the trade. Turns out, they knew what they were doing, or got lucky, I’m not quite sure which. So let’s look at what the rookie has done lately. I suggest that you waste no time in going out and picking him up and what’s he do? He goes out and drops 25 points on Utah. Then, in a loss to Miami, he erupts for 39 points. The only thing nit pickers could complain about is that he was exclusively a scorer, which could hurt players in a rotisserie league. To remedy this, he goes out and records his first career triple-double. John Wall’s absence did play a role in his putting up enormous stat lines, but he showed that he can be counted on. Final verdict: Hit the nail on the head, big time.

Don’t forget to check out the Cheat Sheet in two weeks to see who wins the Hoopsdaily.com Cheat Sheet Fantasy Awards and best of luck capping off your fantasy season with a win!