Empty the Bench

Point Guard

Of all the salty old veterans in the NBA, Allen Iverson still ranks as one of ETB’s favorites. Though we weren’t big fans of him ending up in Denver alongside Punch-and-Run Carmelo, it is what it is and we’d still like to see him succeed in the Mile High City. Unfortunately, it just ain’t happening yet for the Nugs, but they did put it together (sort of) tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies with a 111-107 win on the road. Iverson paired nicely with Carmelo Anthony—tonight’s Top Small Forward, below—scoring 25 points on 7-18 shooting with 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 3 three-points, and 8-9 from the free-throw line. AI turned the ball over four times.

Shooting Guard

We called it yesterday in our NBA Viewing Guide. Kobe Bryant makes his second straight appearance on our coveted Fantasy Performers list, anchoring his team (as usual) in a big win at Utah by the score of 102-94. Kobe came up big down the stretch to seal the game, and became the third shooting guard this season to drop more than 30 points on the Jazz (the others being Ray Allen and Vince Carter). For the night, Bryant had 35 points on 7-21 shooting, with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a high percentage from the stripe (21-24). Not too shabby.

Small Forward

While teammate Allen Iverson had a nice game, Carmelo Anthony was still needed to contribute one of his customary performances to help give the Nuggets a small final edge over the Grizzlies. Though he did commit 6 turnovers, ‘Melo made up for it with 33 points on 13-25 shooting, with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 three-pointer, and 6-7 FT. Lamar Odom of the LA Lakers gets an honorable mention here with 19 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists, 7-12 FG, and a steal. Actually, we’re going to deem it a tie.

Power Forward

Dirk Nowitzki, shown here 5 minutes before a pre-game shootaround, was his typical Great German Dirk self this evening. He ran, he jumped, he rebounded, he passed, he came just shy of a double-double in the Mavericks’ handy 110-87 win at home over the Atlanta Hawks. As the buzzer sounded, fantasy owners logged into StatTracker to find 28 points, 10-17 FG, 6-6 FT, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 1 steal awaiting them from their 1st-round pick.

Center

Tim Duncan’s game was tailor made for helping insomniacs get to sleep, but boy howdy is he one effective, methodical son-of-a-bitch. The Spurs chased the Raptors out of the building pretty much from the jump ball tonight, with Duncan leading the charge with 24 points, 16 rebounds, 11-15 FG, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 4 blocks. Overall, you can’t ask for a whole lot more out of your fantasy center than that.

Sixth Man

Ben Gordon kept the Bulls in the game against the Magic tonight, but it just wasn’t enough to stop his team from dropping their second in a row. Gordon went off though: 32 points, 10-19 FG, 4 three-pointers, 8-8 FT, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists. So, it looks like the “Ben Gordon in the starting lineup” experiment is working out rather well for Billy Goat Gruff Scott Skiles, eh?

Biggest Disappointment

Andrew Bynum was pretty bad for the Lakers (2 points, 3 rebounds), but Shane Battier really killed his team tonight as the Rockets blew a big lead to lose to the Celtics (yes, those Celtics) at home. On the night, the normally solid Battier was 1-12 FG (ouch, that’s a shitty way for his owners to start the week off in the FG PCT category) with 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist.