Howard Smith – USA Today Sports
The Philadelphia 76ers may have fallen to the streaking New Orleans Hornets at home Tuesday, but it certainly wasn’t because of Jrue Holiday.
The third-year PG out of UCLA was a stat sheet stuffer against the Hornets for fantasy basketball owners. He scored 29 points on 10-17 shooting and made four-of-five from beyond the arc, including all five of his free throw attempts. He not only scored almost at will, but he recorded a double-double with 11 assists and also added five rebounds with four steals on the night.
Holiday did all of this while in a battle with the red-hot Greivis Vasquez, who had 23 points and nine assists of his own. Both point guards led their respective teams in scoring, assists and three-pointers. Vasquez may have won the war as the Hornets recorded their fifth win in six games, but Holiday won the battle by recording more points, rebounds, steals, assists, and finished with two fewer turnovers.
Holiday’s big performance comes on the heels of 30-point game in a win against the Houston Rockets Saturday. In that game, he was again efficient from the field and also added nine assists and four steals.
He has been hot all of January with a triple-double and two double-doubles already this month. He leads the team this season in scoring (18.7 points per game) and dishing (8.8 assists per game) and has become one of the top point guards in the entire NBA. He is ranked fourth at his position in assists and fifth in scoring as the 22-year-old has improved across the board in his third season.
Rich Arleo is a fantasy sports expert for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Rarleo.
