Day 35: No Ant-Davis in 3-OT Pelicans game

(Jame Harden. Illustration courtesy of Art Mobb)

Yesterday's Bulls-Pelicans game went to triple-overtime, and in fantasy basketball, it's hard not to feel like you've won the lottery when you own a player who gets 15 extra minutes to put up stats. Although, if you don't own a player in a game like this and your opponent does, triple-overtime games are nothing short than a total nightmare. You just want the game to end, but the basketball gods keep granting your oponnent extra time to pad his stats -- no doubt in the one category that you're hoping to maintain a lead in.

Most of the fantasy-ownable players on the Pelicans and Bulls had fantastic nights as a result of the extra time. Eric Gordon played 45 minutes and had 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals; Jrue Holiday went for 19-12-8-1-1; Mike Dunleavy continued to be useful, scoring 23 points off the bench to go with 6 three's, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals; Taj Gibson had his best game of the year, going for 26 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks; Kirk Hinrich posted 13 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds.

Just about everyone in this game was awesome. Well, except for Tony Snell (6 points, 1 rebound), who you really have no business owning anyway, and Carlos Boozer, who produced only 4 points and 6 rebounds and was benched because of Taj Gibson's terrific play. And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the big guy who didn't do anything in this game: Anthony Davis, who from the looks of it might not do anything for quite a while.

Davis suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left hand on Sunday and could be out from anywhere to a few weeks to a few months. Davis is the No. 1 player in virtually all fantasy basketball player-raters, so I'm not saying anything controversial (or original) when I say he's someone owners need to hold on to, even if it means being a man down for the next couple months. Still, this is a bad blow to fantasy teams, and depending on how injury-riddled their team already is, it may require a lot of owners to make some cuts they ordinarily wouldn't want to make.

The biggest intrinsic flaw with fantasy basketball is that the schedule sometimes is completely tilted in favor of one team. Unlike in fantasy football and fantasy baseball, where everyone basically plays the same amount of games year-round, it's possible to lose a tight matchup strictly because your opponent's players got more gametime. In this week, for instance, the Lakers play only twice, so if you happen to own Pau Gasol, Steve Blake and Kobe Bryant, holy crap are you in trouble. Now let's say you also own Anthony Davis. All of a sudden, you have a tremendous disadvantage on your hand, due entirely to weird scheduling.

Truthfully, these imbalances will more often than not even themselves out, and I'm sure there'll be a week soon where the Lakers play five times. But when injuries like Davis' occur, the playing field starts to get divided. When a team gets two injuries or three injuries, all of a sudden, it can be difficult for even the best of teams to come away with a victory. So while Davis surely isn't going to be leaving any fantasy teams because of this injury, it could be the catalyst for other less-essential injured players (Jeremy Lin, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris) to get dropped.

And now, for some other players.

• Joakim Noah played 50 minutes in Monday's 3-OT game and came away with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. It's hard to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Noah is having a pretty horrific season, and to be perfectly honest, this is a rather paltry takeaway in a triple-overtime game. Noah is having a confounding season. He's healthy enough to play 50 minutes, but his numbers are way, way down -- especially in blocks, where he's only slightly more proficient than Victor Oladipo right now. I would expect him to turn around his season at some point, but it's hard not to feel tremendously disappointed in him so far if you own him.
• Luol Deng scored 37 points and added 8 rebounds and 7 assists. He's been a scoring machine since Derrick Rose went out, averaging 27 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists over his last five games. His value has skyrocketed in the past week, and it's hard not to see him maintaining a 20-point average from here on out.
• Ryan Anderson played a game-high 57 minutes yesterday and produced 36 points, 6 rebounds and a block to go with 7 three's. Anderson is by the far the biggest beneficiary of Davis' injury. He now gets to move into the starting lineup and could see close to 36 minutes a night, as the Pelicans' simply don't have any depth right now at the power forward and center positions to justify using anyone else. Owners patient enough to wait through Anderson's injury at the beginning of the year are being handsomely rewarded right now.
• Trevor Ariza was awesome on Monday, scoring 24 points on 8-9 shooting, adding 4 three's, 6 rebounds and a steal. Aside from a two-week period where he missed time because of a hamstring issue, Ariza has had a sensational season for the Wizards.
• Paul George notched a new accomplishment in his MVP-caliber season, scoring a career-high 43 points on 7 three's with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. He's a top-five fantasy player this season.
• DeMarre Carroll had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3 three's last night for the Hawks. With Kyle Korver out, Carroll is getting enough run at small forward -- and is a good enough rebounder -- that he's not a horrible play right now, though his value is likely to evaporate the instant Korver steps back onto the court.
• Lou Williams didn't do much yesterday, scoring 10 points and adding 4 assists. Williams has been incredibly quiet so far this season. He's due to pick up his play at some point, but for now, he doesn't offer much in the way of assists or steals to be all that useful right now. Because his upside isn't as high as it has been in the past, you're excused if you want to drop him/ignore him right now.
• Kawhi Leonard continues to vindicate me for pissing all over him when I did my seasonal preview. Leonard managed 4 points and 5 rebounds on Monday is averaging a mere 11 points and 6 rebounds per game on the year. Yes, his percentages and his propensity to steal the ball make him worth owning, but if you really want to know how disappointing he's been this year, take note that DeMarre Carroll is averaging 10 points and 6 rebounds this season. That's weak stuff for someone who was going in the second round of fantasy drafts just a few months ago.
• Tim Duncan had 23 points and 21 rebounds yesterday. No, Duncan's not as good as he used to be, but he's still totally productive whenever he's on the court and is still capable of putting up lines like this. The most unsung superstar of all time is averaging 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks on the year.
• With Chandler Parsons out with a sore back and Jeremy Lin sitting with a sprained knee, James Harden exploded for 37 points and 8 assists yesterday. It's stunning to think how good he is, and how incredible the Oklahoma City Thunder could be right now had they not chosen to part ways with him a year ago.
• Trey Burke posted his second straight 20-and-6 line, this time going for 21 points and 6 assists. Burke absolutely needs to be bought into in fantasy, as there's so little depth on Utah that Burke should be able to put up monster numbers on a regular basis. There's a new competitor for the Rookie of the Year award.
• Damion Lillard scored 26 points and added 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 three's against the Pacers. Lillard is relatively weak in stealing the ball and handing out assists, but he makes up for it by being an absolutely reliable source of points and a great source of three-pointers. 100 games into his NBA career, Lillard is already a fantasy beast.