Yuck! A 1-4 Monday night made it three straight losing outings since jumping into the craze that is StarStreet’s NBA Pick Five. Hey, at least it’s only cost me three bucks! Better results are sure to occur, so here’s my take on the match-ups set to go Tuesday night. Here’s to churning out at least 3 winners!
The second match-up pits a couple of teammates against one another in Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings who will both look to pick apart the Pistons 16th ranked efficiency defense. The former enters off a 30 point fantasy performance versus the Warriors, while the latter posted 32 fantasy points of his own due to a big second half. With this match-up nothing more than a coin flip, I’m gonna ride the hot hand of Jennings whose already tallied 30+ points three times this month.
The third match-up is a real tough one considering both Greg Monroe and Nicolas Batum possess the very best def EFF match-ups going tonight at their respective positions. Monroe has put together some real solid outings of late tallying double-doubles six of the L/9 times he’s taken to the hardwood, and has averaged 30.5 fantasy points in Detroit’s pair of skirmishes with the Bucks. However, I can’t help but play to the recent trend of Batum triple-doubling every other time he’s played. That’s right, the native from France has pulled that feat in each of the Blazers L/4 games, so I’ll press my luck with him in a peach of a match-up against the defenseless Mavs.
The fourth match-up has the Hornets sharpshooter Ryan Anderson squaring off against Portland big man J.J. Hickson. An odd pairing to say the least, but it’s my actual favorite one of the five listed. On top of already selecting a pair of Blazers to win their match-ups this evening, Dallas has done a decent job limiting opposing centers and Hickson has averaged just over 20 fantasy points the L/3 times these teams collided. I don’t foresee that being enough to defeat Anderson who enters off a 7-of-13 showing from downtown versus a solid Memphis defense. He also dropped 31 points on the Lakers heads in the team’s first meeting, and LA still possesses one of the worst defensive efficiencies in the league (#20).
The last match-up of the night pits the Mavericks Vince Carter up against the Lakers Metta World Peace. VC has been in a solid fantasy groove of late registering 28+ points in the Mavs L/3 games. However, he went for just 17 fantasy points in these team’s first meeting of the 2012-13 season, and has averaged just 13 FPPG the L/4 times he faced the Blazers. As for Metta, he too enters smoking hot having averaged 26.5 FPPG over his L/5, and I don’t foresee the Hornets poor defense versus small forward’s stopping him now.
