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Court Report: Week 13 Dashboard

Setting the stage for Week 13 of the fantasy basketball season.

Schedule Breakdown

Four-game teams: CHA, CHI, DAL, DET, GSW, IND, LAC, LAL, MIA, MIL, MIN, NJN, NOR, OKC, ORL, PHI, PHO, POR, SAC, TOR, WAS

Three-game teams: ATL, BOS, CLE, DEN, HOU, MEM, NYK, SAS

Two-game teams: UTH

Also see: Basketball Monster’s ease rankings and Rotowire’s value meter

Pickups/Plug-ins – Players owned in fewer than 40% of Yahoo! leagues

• Matt Barnes (notes) – Barnes should be universally rostered in standard leagues. While his ups and downs as a starter have mirrored his team’s inconsistencies, his overall numbers in 17 games have been very useful for fantasy: 13 points on 51-percent shooting, 1.3 threes, 7.4 boards, and 1.6 steals-plus-blocks in 31 minutes. Week 13: @LAL, IND, SAC, @CHA

• Luke Ridnour (notes) – Ridnour has quietly put together an 11-game streak of scoring in double figures, and his averages in five games since Michael Redd (notes) was lost for the season include 13 points, 1.2 threes, 6.4 assists, 1.6 turnovers, and 1.4 steals in 29 minutes. And speaking of quietly, Ridnour’s per-game rank on the season is 83rd, despite just 23 minutes per game to this point. Week 13: @HOU, TOR, @TOR, MIN

• Francisco Garcia (notes) – Considering Garcia for a roster add at this point requires some forward thinking and is a calculated risk. He isn’t likely to return to the active roster much before the end of the month, and Omri Casspi’s (notes) emergence muddies the rotational waters. Garcia remains a key cog for the team and has never needed significant minutes to make a fantasy impact – in 29 games as a reserve last season, his averages in 26 minutes included 12 points, 1.3 threes, 1 steal, and 1 block. The forward thinking is that you’ll have to deal with an inactive player for at least the next two weeks, and the calculated risk is the over/under on 25 minutes per game once he’s back in the mix. But ask yourself what is the better gamble: taking a chance on some good numbers down the stretch from Garcia or hoping for a sustained spike in production from players like Peja Stojakovic (notes) (66% owned), Grant Hill (notes) (61%), and/or Al Thornton (notes) (43%)?

• Corey Brewer (notes) – Brewer has suddenly gotten hot from long-range, making
10 of 21 attempts over the past six games (48%). The dead-eye shooting
has helped him accumulate averages of 16.8 points on 46-percent
shooting, 1.7 threes, 4 boards, and 1.5 steals-plus-blocks in 28
minutes over that stretch. Brewer made 11 of his first 54 3-point
attempts (20%) before his recent binge, but his fantasy impact takes on
a whole new dimension with a reasonable shooting percentage and some
threes. Week 13: PHI, OKC, NOR, @MIL

• Arron Afflalo (notes) – The least mentioned aspect of Afflalo’s game when he
was acquired by the Nuggets was that he made 40 percent of his threes
during the 2008-09 season. That has carried over to Denver, where he’s
made 43 percent of his attempts during the current season. He’s been
picking up the pace on offense of late, scoring in double figures in
six of the past seven games and posting averages of 12.1 points on
50-percent shooting, 2.1 threes, and 1.4 steals-plus-blocks in 29
minutes over the past seven games. His role is very secure and
deep-leaguers should be all over this guy. Week 13: @GSW, LAC, NOR

• Kris Humphries (notes) – Humphries played 27 minutes in his second
game with the Nets (15 points, 8 boards, 2 steals, 1 block) and should
see steady minutes as the sole backup big for the Nets. Deep-leaguers should take note
here, as his per-25 minute averages over the past four seasons include
10 points, 7 boards, and 1.4 steals-plus-blocks and Yi Jianlian (notes) hasn’t
exactly been the picture of health during his three NBA seasons.

Status Updates

• Kevin Garnett (notes) – KG (knee) has been a limited participant in recent practices and his current target for a return is Friday versus Portland.

• Ben Gordon (notes) – Gordon is hopeful to return from his groin injury sometime this week.

• Chris Kaman (notes) – Kaman has missed four consecutive games because of back issues, and he recently had an epidural to help him deal with the pain. His status will be evaluated on a game-to-game basis.

• Mike Miller (notes) – Miller was expected to miss a week or so after aggravating his calf injury this past Tuesday, although the team is expected to be particularly cautious with him this time around.

• Anthony Morrow (notes) – Morrow could miss two to four weeks because of a sprained right MCL. The team is expected to announce the results of an MRI sometime Sunday.

• Jameer Nelson (notes) – Nelson has struggled since returning and admits that his knee still isn’t 100 percent, but there are no plans for him to sit any games as of yet.

• Paul Pierce (notes) – Pierce left Sunday’s practice after bumping knees with Shelden Williams (notes). It was the same knee that caused him to miss five games and the hit was "in the exact same spot" that give him problems earlier, so be looking for an update on Monday.

• Tayshaun Prince (notes) – Prince (knee) was a participant in pre-game shooting drills Saturday but sat out his fourth consecutive game. He’s day-to-day and could return sometime this week.

• Anthony Randolph (notes) – Randolph’s multiple left ankle injuries are expected to sideline him for about two months, a timeframe Don Nelson called "pretty close" to season-ending.

• Brandon Roy (notes) – Roy took the advice of Blazers’ doctors and sat Friday’s game in an effort to rest his injured right hamstring. His availability could be tenuous over the next few weeks, depending on how his hamstring responds. The team has consecutive days off just once before the All-Star break and plays four sets of back-to-backs over the same stretch.

• Al Thornton – Thornton is day-to-day after sitting out Saturday’s game with a sprained left ankle.

• Rasheed Wallace (notes) – Sheed has missed the past four games because of a foot sprain, but has returned to practice and is expected to be active Monday.

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Photos via Getty Images

January 17, 2010
‘I’m with Coco’ takes to the streets

To Mike Mitchell, Conan “Coco” O’Brien is an orange-haired, smart-alecky everyman.

Now, courtesy of Mitchell’s social networking, O’Brien’s biggest Chicago supporters will hold a rally at 4:30 p.m. Monday on NBC’s Michigan Avenue doorstep to deliver a message to the network.

“NBC, I think, has already made their mind up,” said Mitchell, 27, a Los Angeles-based freelance illustrator. “Maybe (the protest) is more of a thing to show that there’s a lot of Conan fans.”

O’Brien publicly refused to push back the start of “The Tonight Show,” which he hosts, so that NBC could rescue former host Jay Leno’s prime-time ratings bomb. It seems O’Brien will leave the network, and Mitchell said he thinks the comic’s problems have touched a nerve.

“A lot of people have really crappy bosses,” Mitchell said. “They can really relate.”

Mitchell administers the “I’m With Coco” Facebook page — at 276,000 fans and climbing — and has other rallies planned for Monday in L.A., New York and Seattle.

He also illustrated the seminal image for the “I’m With Coco” movement, a black-and-white portrait of a grim O’Brien, the only color the bright orange in his hair and in the nickname, “Coco,” which originates from a skit on the late-night show. Other Facebook users have appropriated the image for similar groups, but Mitchell’s has the most followers.

Mitchell, who lived in Chicago from 2004 to 2006, will be attending the Los Angeles rally.

About 1,400 RSVP’d yes for the California rally and, as of Sunday afternoon, about 400 promised to attend the Chicago gathering at Pioneer Court in front of the NBC building downtown. Mitchell wants rally attendees to wear orange, bring signs and be civil.

Fans will be “there to kind of have fun and support somebody who’s kind of being (dumped) on publicly,” he said.

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

January 17, 2010

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who visited Chicago today to ask churches to contribute to Haitian relief funds, took umbrage at comments by an evangelical broadcaster that the people of Haiti might have brought upon themselves the earthquake that left tens of thousands dead.

Christian televangelist Pat Robertson said last week on his TV show that slaves in Haiti “swore a pact to the devil” to obtain their freedom from French colonial authorities in the late 1700s. Robertson said the Haitians told Satan, “We will serve you,” and that “ever since (the pact), they have been cursed.”

Sharpton, at Christ Universal Temple in the South Side on Sunday, said the statements were “repulsive” and “un-Christian.”

“To bring this kind of negative and wicked spirit into a scene where we are watching children’s dead bodies stacked up is abominable to me,” said Sharpton, who also criticized radio commentator Rush Limbaugh’s musings that the tragedy would play into President Barack Obama’s political plans.

“This kind of foolishness, while people are laying in the rubble in Haiti fighting for their lives, shows a contempt some people have for the human condition.”

But Sharpton had no calls for apologies.

“I wouldn’t call on Pat Robertson to do anything. I think that the best way to deal with a glass that appears muddy is to put a clean glass next to it,” he said. “I hope the clean glass of those fair and humane-thinking religious leaders can be compared” to them.

Carlton Pearson, minister at Christ Universal Temple, told the congregation Sunday he hoped they could donate $25,000 in one day for Red Cross for Haitian relief efforts.

– Georgia Garvey