Stormin Norman Rumack

Yes the majoirty of the basketball world right now is transfixed with March Madness, and rightfully so. You just can't beat the Thursday/Friday combination of nice weather and wave after wave of college basketball games. It almost makes me wish I was unemployed.
 
With so much attention on the NCAA I decided to keep an eye on what was going on in the NBA on a busy Friday night and how it may affect your fantasy basketball team:
 
(1) Let's start with the injuries. Andrew Bynum went down for the 47th time this season last night. The team is calling it a strained left Achilles tendon and that he will miss some time. This guy has become the Mr. Glass of the NBA. What should be most troubling to Bynum owners is the injury was not the result of any sort of collision, he was just running back on defense when the "injury" occurred. It's a shame since he had been putting up better numbers as of late. In deeper leagues keep an eye on Josh Powell, he may get you some cheap rebounding numbers.
 
(2) Stephen Curry's injured ankle kept him out of Friday's game and there is a good chance he won't be cleared to play on Saturday against the Grizzlies. If you own Curry be afraid the team may consider shutting him down for the season since there is nothing for the team to play for. Expect a big spike in CJ Watson's numbers.
 
(3) Don't get too excited by Raymond Felton's 25 point game against Atlanta. It was more of a blip than a sign of things to come down the stretch. The Bobcats are healthy so it wasn't like Felton was taking someone else's shots. Felton has scored more than 20 points four times this season and, to be fair, two of those games came against the Knicks, so that doesn't really count.
 
(4) Keep a close watch on the standings between the Cavaliers and the Lakers. The Cavs have won their division and soon will lock up the East but the team won't start limiting Lebron's minutes until they are guaranteed to finish with a better overall record than Los Angeles. Right now they're 55-15 while the Lakers are 51-18. Cleveland swept the regular season so the Cavs are creeping closer to the NBA's best regular season record. Of course for 99% of you, that doesn't mean you will sit Lebron, just remember his numbers will decrease. On the other hand guys like J.J. Hickson, Leon Powe and Daniel Gibson should see a bump in minutes and points once the Cavs have clinched home court throughout the playoffs.
 
(5) I am not an Amare Stoudemire fan, but to score 44 points on just 16 shots against a Jerry Sloan defense is impressive no matter how you feel about his defensive skills. Just a great line. However he ended up with the same number of rebounds as Steve Nash, no assists, five turnovers and four fouls ... see even when I start to praise Stoudemire I still can't help but rip him. Seriously has there ever been a more flawed "Super Star"????
 
(6) Was anyone else surprised that Deron Williams went 4-14 from the floor and just six assists against the Suns last night? Williams usually kills Steve Nash, who is a below average defender on most nights.
 
(7) All right this didn't happen last night but I couldn't help but include it. I feel that Raptor fans need something to be happy about. On Monday night former Raptor Joey Graham played seven minutes against the Rockets and finished with zero shots, zero free throws, zero rebounds and yes you guessed it zero assists. But he did manage to accumulate four fouls. What a waste of an NBA body! By the way he still ended up with a +/- rating of +2. Bring that up the next time someone goes on about how important the plus/minus stat is too the game.
 
(8) Kevin Durant is now just .3 points away from becoming the youngest player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring. If he could just play the Raptors four more times he would have the record, no doubt about it.
 
(9) By the way the Pittsburgh Steelers had the "Steel Curtain" and the Dallas Cowboys had "The Doomsday Defense" I think the Raptors defensive nickname should be "The Career
Highs." Every game some opponent sets a career high in either points or rebounds against them. They're fantasy gold!
 
(10) Don't forget about Brandon Jennings for Rookie of the Year. His biggest problem for his fantasy owners and his chances of winning the award was his shooting woes. Well he hit 8 of 13 three pointers last night against Sacramento and has been hitting almost 50% of his shots in his last five games.