By Jon Loomer

So I dedicated significant ribbing to Bill Simmons’ acquisition of Yi Jianlian last week, suggesting that the karma gods would not approve of his transaction. Yi may have blown up in his face (a mere 48.16 fantasy points in five games), but the gods were indeed smiling on the top four last week. Let’s take a closer look…

Bill Simmons defeated Samuel L. Jackson by 72.68 points. Jackson suffered injuries to Raymond Felton, Michael Redd and Chris Kaman during the final two days of the match-up. Those three players average a combined 87.60 fantasy points per game, which would have been more than enough to secure a victory.

Tony Potts defeated Kenny Smith by 38.25 points. Kenny lost three games from Ben Gordon and another game from Mike Conley due to injury. That’s 80.2 points that easily would have knocked off Potts.

Donald Faison suffered similar luck in his loss to George Lopez, losing his two best players — Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett — for a combined four games. Granted, Faison got destroyed and those players would have had to average 60 fantasy points per game to win, but the gods again intervened to assure Lopez a win. Sorta.

Zach Gilford downed Bernie Mac by 2.95 fantasy points. One more steal for Bernie (or one fewer for Gilford), and this one is going the other way. No major injuries here. Just admire the close score. Gilford has now won his last two match-ups by a combined four points.

I have to give a shout out to Adam McKay, who defeated James Denton in the Futility Bowl. It’s clear that McKay’s bipolar managerial style contributed to his success. On January 26, McKay ripped his players for a lack of effort, claiming he had lost his team. A day later after a victory was assured, McKay bellowed that he had never lost hope:Throughout this tumultuous season our team has never lost hope. We’ve played hard and we’ve stuck together and even when the wins aren’t there I’m proud of this team, except for one player who shall remain nameless.Congrats on your second win, McKay. Considering your roster consists of Anthony Carter, DeShawn Stevenson, Travis Outlaw, Brendan Haywood, Nazr Mohammed, Larry Hughes, Grant Hill and Joe Smith, I think we’re all curious to know the identity of the unnamed slacker.

Let’s get to this week’s predictions, which will inevitably look silly in retrospect…

Surprisingly, Bill never dumped Yi on waiver day. He is benched this week, however. Simmons gets 27 games, including only two for Paul Pierce. Bernie gets 30 games and four from Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer. It should be noted that Simmons does have Mike Bibby back, which should help him keep this one close despite a three game disadvantage.For maybe the sixth time this season, I say… “This is big!” Let’s assume for a minute that Simmons loses, as predicted. If George Lopez wins this game, he is the new league leader. Of course, I expected him to become the league leader last week as well. Games like this one will be important for playoff seeding as head-to-head performance is the first tie-breaker. This one appears to favor Potts, who has a one-game advantage and a healthy roster. Lopez is banged up, facing an uncertain week for Jamaal Tinsley (isn’t he always day-to-day?) and Pau Gasol.Don’t let the records fool you, this could be a nail-biter. Gilford has only 25 games this week, including two from the Andres (Miller and Iguodala) and LaMarcus Aldridge. Denton’s unimpressive squad has a three-game advantage. Gilford averages 758 points per week (remind me how he’s 9-4?) while Denton averages 706. That three game advantage could be all that Denton needs to squeak this one out.Feel for Sam. Lost two weeks ago by a point. Lost last week due to three late-week injuries. Can he rebound with a banged up team against Kenny’s Kids, a team that shared similar injury luck a week ago? Jackson has benched two of his injury question marks (Michael Redd and Raymond Felton), but is resting his hopes on a quick return from Chris Kaman. The injuries even the talent pool in this one, but Jackson still has a two-game advantage.After winning four of his first five match-ups, Faison dropped five of his next eight. Will Ferrell dropped seven of eight prior to winning his last three and busting 981 fantasy points on Spike Lee. Faison is dealing with a banged up Carmelo while Ferrell rolls out a respiratorily questionable Yao and a one-game advantage.Can he do it? Can McKay string together a two-game winning streak? And can you really use the words “string together” when referring to two consecutive wins? Amazingly enough, McKay’s team has more fantasy points this season than does Spike Lee’s. I say McKay does it. He has a three game advantage, and Spike will only get two games out of Ray Allen and Steve Nash.