Party like it's 2003

• By: The Professor
• On: 2/20/2010 8:28:00 PM

Related: The Professor Boston Celtics Dallas Mavericks Miami Heat New York Knicks Orlando Magic San Antonio Spurs NBA 



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In one league that I'm in, I was in a close game entering tonight.  As I scrolled through the scoreboard I saw that my two guys (Caron Butler and Andray Blatche) had played decently (combined for 67 points in my points-based league) and I had a moment to hope I'd closed the gap a bit .  Then, I scrolled down to my opponent's team and the first thing I saw:

Jason Kidd: 63 fantasy points (21 points, 11 assists, five boards, three steals, three treys and a blocked shot).

The next thing I saw:

Jermaine O'Neal: 40.5 fantasy points (18 points, 13 boards, two blocks and an assist).

Wait a minute...what?

Then, I went to my other league and saw this line:

Tracy McGrady:  26 points, four boards, five assists, 59% shooting from the field.

Finally, I went through a few blogs and saw this gem: Ainge pulls off time warp blockbuster, trading 2010 Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen for their 2008 counterparts.  A quick look at the box scores showed that Allen has gone 19-for-28 and averaged 23 points and four treys in his last two games, while Garnett has scored 29 points with 15 boards and five blocks over his last 48 minutes played (spread over two games, but still).

There are more examples out there...Tim Duncan pulling down 26 boards in a game this week, Vince Carter inexplicably going for 48 last week...I mean, all of a sudden the old heads are balling.

It was only two weeks ago that I was pointing out that it was the old dog days of the season, where the vets were coasting and throwing up small numbers on a regular basis while the young guys shined.  I mentioned in that blog that "down the stretch" the old-heads would probably pick it up once they could see the end of the season and wanted to ramp up for the playoffs.  Well, the All-Star break has past, there are only six weeks left...it looks like the dog days are over and the vets might just be ready to pop the clutch a few times and see what's left in the tank.  Some of them could still be decent buy-low candidates, if you believe that their bodies will be able to sustain this pace for the next two months without breaking down.  Risky, but by this point in the season sometimes you have to take a chance.