Jamal Crawford (Getty)Gregg Popovich made a late move to get rest and recuperation for Tim Duncan and Tony Parker on Tuesday, replacing them with Corey Joseph and Kawhi Leonard in the starting five for the 137-97 drubbing by the new-look Trail Blazers. Popovich ended up resting anyone fitting the combination of veteran/regular - DeJuan Blair (20 minutes), Richard Jefferson (19), Gary Neal (18), and Matt Bonner (6) all saw limited action. Leonard (43), Joseph (37), James Anderson (35), Eric Dawson (32), and Danny Green (31) saw the big minutes, but there is nothing to be read into anyone's numbers from this one.

Nothing, that is, from the Spurs' standpoint. It so happens that Jamal Crawford was making his first start as the new point guard for the Blazers, and the reduced competition paved the way for one of his best games of the season (30 minutes, 20 points, 6-8 FG, 5-7 3PT, 8 assists, 1 turnover). While you don't want to overstate the value of the stats themselves (outside of the fantasy realm), the near-flawless execution was the best possible way for Crawford to be initiated as the starter and for the Blazers to enter the All-Star break, considering how much upheaval has surrounded the team lately. Nate McMillan was able to get all 13 of his active players in the game, and even Raymond Felton got in some productive action in his first game as a reserve (21 minutes, 16 points, 6-11 FG, 4-8 3PT, 4 assists, 1 turnover). As Phan and I discussed in Roto Arcade Live on Tuesday night, there weren't many reasons to think Crawford was going to lose his starting gig any time soon before Tuesday's performance, considering the leash that Felton was given before the move was made and the team's remaining options (Elliot Williams, Nolan Smith). The good vibes from this blowout only reinforce Crawford in his new role.

Carlos Boozer - Getty Images

Tuesday marks the official launch of our new weekly LIVE show hosted by Justin Phan featuring Matt Buser. We'll be running these each and every Tuesday for the remainder of the season, so join us as we break down the latest developments around the NBA. This week's installment kicks off at 7:30 pm PT, 10:30 pm ET. We'll bring on Yahoo! Sports' own Andy Behrens at the midway point to discuss the questionable hair stylings of Carlos Boozer, the various facial expressions of Derrick Rose, and everything else Bulls-related.

Also on the docket: trade deadline possibilities involving the Lakers and Magic, the developing dynamic between Jeremy Lin and Carmelo Anthony, and the sudden emergence of former Husky Isaiah Thomas.

Ooh La La (US Presswire)

There's plenty of homework to be done as we get ready for the 2012 Fantasy Baseball Season. We study the position battles and the closer carousel, the lineup shuffling and the injury beat. Study, study, study.

Don't forget one other critical assignment: study your competing owners. Getting a sense of how they feel about the 2012 player pool is critical. It's all about leveraging the marketplace, gamer. (If you knew exactly how your opponents were planning to draft, player evaluation would hardly matter. You'd clean up like Mike McDermott at the Chesterfield.)

With that theme in mind, let's open our minds and start to consider players that are routinely panned elsewhere. Sometimes I'll find myself digging on a player's value mostly because the market isn't interested.

Say hello to the Post-Hate Sleeper.

Isaiah Thomas (Getty)Keith Smart finally got around to replacing John Salmons in his starting five, moving him to the bench on Friday and promoting Isaiah Thomas. Smart wants Thomas to keep the offense moving at a brisk pace but also hopes that his point guard skills translate to better team efficiency. The Kings lost both of the games that Thomas started over the weekend, but he was a +1 on Friday and a +11 in the one-point loss to the Cavs on Friday, totaling 36 points, four threes, 12 boards, 15 assists, and five turnovers in the two games (66 minutes). In short, Thomas has been productive whenever he's played this season [per 36s] and warrants immediate roster consideration in most formats. His size (5'9, 185) will limit his contributions in certain matchups and you shouldn't count on his shooting percentage climbing much higher than 40 percent, but there is plenty of counting stat potential here if his influence allows the Kings to more effectively push the ball in transition. Look for Smart to stick with a tight backcourt/wing rotation moving forward, meaning big minutes for Thomas, Tyreke Evans, and Marcus Thornton.

• The Spurs lost both Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter to injury on Saturday - Ginobili suffered a strained left oblique, while Splitter strained his right calf - and both players are expected to miss two weeks. The time frame means at least five games off, and the short-term fantasy gains go to Danny Green (36 minutes, 11 points, 3 threes, 2 steals on Saturday), Matt Bonner (36 minutes, 13 points, 3 threes, 6 boards, 2 steals), and Gary Neal (27 minutes, 17 points, 5 threes, 3 steals).

Some believe this might be the year Billy finally busts out (AP)

As usual, first base is an overloaded position chock full of value. In this edition of The Spin, Y! fantasy pundits Scott Pianowski and Brad Evans exchange blows over underrated mid-rounders Billy Butler (ADP: 120.9) and Paul Goldschmidt (145.8). Read. Reflect. And declare a winner in the comments section below.

The Piano Man bats for Billy: The buzzy sophomore is my sworn enemy in fantasy baseball, and with that in mind, I can't stump for Paul Goldschmidt. It's going to be a little messy getting in the way of the Billy Butler/Brad Evans love affair, but I'll take the assignment.

Goldie's power stroke gets your attention and it's nice that he clubbed eight homers when he finally made it to Arizona last year, but there's a ton of batting-average risk with this cat. A whopping 53 strikeouts over 156 at-bats? That's air conditioning. And if Goldschmidt doesn't show something against lefties (he was 6-for-37 against them with the Snakes, tiny sample and all), does Kirk Gibson go against convention and sit the righty a few times a week, force a caddy into the mix? A credible two months does not make you a bona-fide major leaguer.

Scott Machado and the Gaels will be no early-round pushover (AP)

The Bracket Big Board takes into consideration past returns, current performance and expected future gains in determining who should be included among the field of 68 (31 automatic and 37 at-large bids). Essentially, the Bracket Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for amateur bracketologists if they were filling out a Tourney Pick 'Em '12 entry today (SIGN UP NOW!). The Triple-B, the second-most accurate bracket predictor among macro-sites over the past four years, is updated every Monday until the dance card is unveiled March 11.

Wonder. Amazement. Complete insanity. That's what the ides of March produced last year.

Eleven months ago, madness enveloped the college basketball world. Unpredictable runs by mid-major darlings Butler and VCU left brackets bloodied and egos bruised. A trail of defeated favorites — Kansas, Pittsburgh, Purdue and Wisconsin — were left in the underdogs' wake.

For self-proclaimed bracket gurus the carnage was humbling.  Out of the roughly three million participants in Yahoo!'s tourney game, only a librarian from Salem, Ore. predicted the improbable Final Four field accurately. And she accomplished the feat with a rather quirky method.

In roughly three weeks, when Pick 'Em participants scrawl names on bracket lines, mid-majors will be taken more seriously.

They should.

Three Amigos (US Presswire)

It wasn't the buzziest winter in New York, but it was an effective one. General manager Brian Cashman traded for a prized young arm (Michael Pineda) and landed an affordable veteran hurler (Hiroki Kuroda), and the scapegoat of the starting rotation (Nuke LaLoosh) was shown the door.

The American League East is the big boy division, where money and intelligence meet, but the other four teams might be muttering "Damn Yankees" at the end of the season again. New York has a dynamic club on paper, and there's plenty of flexibility if and when the braintrust wants to make a major acquisition (be it before the season, or the in-season annexing that happens in July and August).

Most of the offensive pieces are the same, and that's a good thing: the Yankees ranked second, first and first in runs scored over the last three seasons. The notable newcomers are the pitchers, so let's start this thing off on the mound. Bring your own rosin bag and we'll figure it out.

Raymond Felton (Getty)There's not much else left to say about Raymond Felton's offensive game at this point. Thursday produced yet another "Felton-esque" line (24 minutes, 0 points, 0-7 FG, 2 assists, 5 turnovers), and after the game he let it be known that we should blame his poor performance on a lack of confidence from Nate McMillan:

"I know I'm struggling, but it's hard to perform the way you know how when you know they don't have confidence in you. Never in my days playing basketball, have I felt like a coach wasn't confident in my abilities. It's hard to play knowing that. Coming in and out of games is throwing my rhythm off, but it's something that I'll get through."

Of course, McMillan has stuck with Felton despite continued cries to turn to Jamal Crawford and despite Felton being one of the worst offensive performers in the league by any available metric. Crawford (30 minutes, 19 points) did play more than Felton on Thursday, but it's been a rarity to this point, and Crawford's ideal role is clearly as sixth man. McMillan would like nothing more than to not have to install Crawford as the starter, but at this point he may have no choice. Through all of his troubles, Felton is somehow still rostered in 89 percent of leagues, and that needs to change. To put his terrible fantasy impact in context, via Basketball Monster: if you punt FG%, scoring, and turnovers, he's still only delivered a seventh-round impact.