Daily Notes for Thursday: Foye, McCants returning to form

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Time	Visitors		Opp. PPG	Opp. FGP	RPG Diff.		Home		Opp. PPG	Opp. FGP	RPG Diff.
8:00 p.m.		Miami Heat	100.4	.466	-3.6	@		Houston Rockets	92.6	.436	+3.8
8:00 p.m.		San Antonio Spurs	91.0	.451	+1.8	@		Minnesota Timberwolves	100.8	.463	+0.4
10:30 p.m.		Seattle SuperSonics	104.0	.448	+0.7	@		Portland Trail Blazers	95.8	.443	-2.2

Out
Udonis Haslem, PF, Heat (ankle)

Day-to-day
Tony Parker, PG, Spurs (heel)

Home cooking should result in some tasty fantasy treats Thursday, as the Rockets (16-9 at home) host the Heat (4-21 on the road) and the Trail Blazers (20-6 at home) entertain the SuperSonics (5-20 on the road). For the Rockets, prepare to launch Yao Ming (92.3 percent from the line his past five games), Tracy McGrady (three straight games with 40-plus minutes), Rafer Alston (23 and 22 points in consecutive games) and Shane Battier. For Miami, Shawn Marion and Dwyane Wade are automatic. Consider Dorell Wright (14.0 points and 7.8 rebounds his past five games), but Jason Williams could lose minutes to newly acquired Marcus Banks. … For the Trail Blazers, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge are due for big games at home. Aldridge will want to redeem his season-low two-point game against Seattle on Christmas Day. Seattle's Kevin Durant missed Tuesday's game with the flu but hopefully will be back by Thursday. Earl Watson has secured his hold on the point guard job, averaging 13.7 points, 9.0 assists, 1.7 3-pointers and 1.3 steals his past six games. In that span, Chris Wilcox scored (14.5) and rebounded (7.7), but his lack of blocks limits his fantasy upside. … The Spurs-Timberwolves game offers few fantasy options. Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili (34 and 46 points in his last two games before the break) have been carrying the offensive load lately, but Tony Parker could possibly return Thursday. Al Jefferson is the lone sure-fire start for the Timberwolves.

Luis Scola is starting at power forward for Houston and is worth a look at home against the Heat, especially given the Rockets' sizable rebounding advantage. Scola averaged 11.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and a 64.9 field goal percentage in 25.0 minutes his past five games. … Minnesota's Randy Foye and Rashad McCants are owned in less than half of ESPN leagues, but both are showing signs of returning to form. Foye scored a season-high 18 points in his last game before the break and followed up with 13 points and five assists in Tuesday's win over the 76ers. McCants is coming off a 20-point game Tuesday. … Steve Blake has been getting the majority of minutes at point guard for Portland, averaging 9.4 points, 4.9 assists and 1.4 3-pointers in 32.9 minutes in February. … Mark Blount has been a popular pickup now that he is Miami's only option at center. Blount averaged 15.0 points and 8.0 rebounds in 38.4 minutes his past five games, and he blocked four shots his past three games. (Before you get too excited, that matched his total blocks from his previous 16 games.)

Tony Targan is a fantasy basketball analyst for ESPN.com.

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