Big Night Wednesday

11 games on the schedule Wednesday night and there were some exciting news and notes.

- Early on in the night, there were a couple of upsets. Atlanta beat Cleveland at home as Joe Johnson was clutch down the stretch with a total of 29 pts. Boston lost to Charlotte at home as Ray Allen missed this one with a pinched nerve. Tony Allen started in his place and was relatively unproductive. Jason Richardson kept up his hot streak burning the Celts with 34 pts and 9 rebounds. Nazr Mohammed seems to have figured it out off the bench, posting his second solid performance with 18 pts, 10 rebs.

- The Rockets won again without T-Mac, riding Yao Ming's season high 36 pts. T-Mac should be back soon though and Luther Head and Luis Scola figure to take the biggest hits in their stats.

- Toronto beat the Sixers as neither team is really struggling with injuries, but there were a couple of young players to take a look at. On the Raptors' side, Andrea Bargnani continues to start games and do nearly nothing. He's been in what seems like a season-long slump with a great shooting performance every blue moon. If you drafted him in the 6th or 7th round, which is where he went in most leagues, you can only be patient and keep him stashed on your bench until he starts producing or put him in a trade as a filler. Thaddeus Young, the Sixer rookie, has shown flashes of scoring talent with double digit scoring performances off Philly's bench. It's something to keep an eye on, but at this point he's not really a reliable fantasy option.

- The Nets beat the Supes at home. The main note of this game was Kevin Durant, he started and played 30+ minutes, posting 15 pts. He shot 5-14, but you can't really attribute that to his ankle as he's been shooting a bad percentage all season. Johan Petro, however, came out of nowhere to score 22 pts and grab 9 rebs off the bench for the young Sonics. I don't think he'll challenge for a starting spot yet, but this is definitely intriguing since the Sonics aren't contending for anything this season and they might check out some of their young bigs. Jeff Green has been awful from the field the last 3 games, going a combined 7-24. This angers me, but I will be patient with him. He is a rookie, but I believe he's a rookie who can play out of it. He just needs to focus on more than just shooting because he is an all-around player.

- The Lakers killed the Hornets in New Orleans after a long layoff for the home squad. Chris Paul was brilliant again and David West returned after missing just one game to injury. The Lakers are just on a roll and you really can't attribute their success to any one player, but the rest of the west needs to be watching as they've won their last 4 games by at least 16 pts after losing by 19 to the Celtics.

- Miami lost their 9th consecutive contest in Milwaukee. This is just ugly now. They now have to be in the category only Minnesota was associated with, which is WORST in the league. Dwyane Wade did everything he could with 34 pts, but Mo Williams was unstoppable down the stretch, hitting clutch shots from everywhere, whether 3's or free throws. Shaq is probably going to be absent until Miami's current road trip ends, which means Mark Blount may have a bit of scoring value at the center position. Michael Redd was absent again, with Royal Ivey starting in his place. Ivey's not going to be a fantasy contributor, but Charlie Bell could. He only had 11 pts in this one, but he posted 27 and 21 in back-to-back games. Also, although he only shot 5-15, Bobby Simmons could once again be a viable option since he rebounds pretty well for a G-F. Keep him on your watch list at the very least.

- In Dallas, Detroit got smacked after losing a close one to Boston over the weekend. This game might be a big loss too since the Pistons travel to San Antonio to take on the defending champs next. Both these teams and healthy and well so not much happened out of the ordinary fantasy-wise.

- Jermaine O'Neal missed the Pacer's game with a "painful left knee". I'm not sure what that means, but either way, Jermaine's been rather injury-prone the past few seasons and on top of those issues, has been a pretty big disappointment from what you would expect out of him. His 15-7 numbers are nowhere near the 20-10 you expected when drafting him. If you try to trade him, you could use him as a secondary piece, but if not, hope for the best in the second half of the season and that he stays healthy.

- This game was a great one. Phoenix pushed it into OT late without Steve Nash. He left the game in the second half and I'm not sure on his situation yet. Kareem Rush was inserted in the starting lineup at SG, which pushed Mike Dunleavy Jr. into the forward spot, opposite Danny Granger. Shawne Williams got extended minute off the bench and played well with 22 pts, although fouling out in overtime. Troy Murphy came off the bench in this one after starting the last few contests in favor of Jeff Foster. It's probably not a big deal, but against a Suns team, you would think O'Brien would start the 3 point threat, Murphy. Who knows though, monitor that situation.

- Scary Moment in the 2nd quarter of the Warrior/Blazer game when Brandon Roy went down in his 1st game back from the hip injury. He landed awkwardly on a drive right before the half. He returned in the 2nd half, however, so I guess he should be fine. Lots of disappointment on both sides, fantasy-wise, in this game since the Blazers had the game in hand before the fourth quarter even started. Not much can be taken from this game since much of the benches' production was during garbage-time.

- In the Magic/Clipper game, the Clippers lost again (shooting under 50%). It was close at the end, but Hedo Turkoglu has emerged as a great clutch player down the 4th quarter stretch for the Magic. Maurice Evans got the start over normal SG, Keith Bogans. Bogans was really only ownable for his ability to knock down threes, but if he's coming off the bench, he''s nearly useless to you. Evans has a better all-around game as a starter and can help in scoring and rebounding. He could be useful in deep leagues. Jameer Nelson got his starting job back, after Carlos Arroyo had been starting at PG lately even when Jameer first returned from injury. Arroyo struggle the past couple of games though so Nelson probably has his starting gig back. Al Thornton got the start again over Tim Thomas and played well, 4-8 for 11 pts, but so did Thomas, 8-12 and 20 pts. This will be an interesting battle, as Tim Thomas got the minutes toward the end of the game. Thomas is good for scoring and rebounding to a lesser degree, but if Thornton can win over the starting job, he's got a lot of potential with his scoring ability and athletic ability.