The Wizard tackles the injury bug, a new WOW league, Kobe Bryant and more in his latest mailbag

A COUPLE OF SORE STARS

	There's a chance Dirk Nowitzki has already grabbed his last rebound this season. Icon SMI
	REACT: Send Gary your Fantasy Baskebtall questions Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Make your case:

This time of year, the injury list always grows. Many stars on teams that are out of the playoff hunt will basically take games off just for the heck of it. (Remember KG sitting out for the T-Wolves last season?) But two stars for playoff contenders went down in the past week, and figure to miss at least a week or two. Mavericks F Dirk Nowitzki ($18,600,000) is down with and ankle sprain. And Blazers G Brandon Roy ($10,850,000) is dealing with a groin injury. As with all major injuries, neither of these guys should be in your lineup for next week's games.

WOW LEAGUE CHALLENGE: HOW THE WIZARD GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

After getting knocked off in back-to-back weeks, The Fantasy Wiz jumped back on top of the WOW League with a dominant performance in Week 4. The week's standings:

1. The Fantasy Wizard
2. SANANTONIOSPURS64 (supermario64)
3. Clean Sweep (Hoopla)

Supermario64 passed on a chance to share his thoughts with us. So as this week's winner, I will give it a shot with a little bit of smack talk:

Hey down there. It's me, the Fantasy Wizard. It may be hard to hear me from the top of the WOW League standings. Is anyone going to knock me off one of these weeks? After all, there are only three weeks left in the Fantasy Basketball season!

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE WOW LEAGUE

If you want to get involved in the Wizard challenge and join the WOW League, just send a request through the question box. And be sure to include a valid email address. Then we'll send you an official invite. And all invitations go out on THURSDAY morning.

VERY IMPORTANT NEW INSTRUCTIONS: If you are already in a league, and you want to join the WOW League, you'll have to sign up using a DIFFERENT email address!!! If you use the same email address as the one you used to join your first league, our computers get confused and think you're trying to join your original league all over again. In short, you won't be allowed to join WOW.

ALSO, if you have an AOL account, your invitation might be blocked out. If you haven't received your invite within 7 days of your request, you have three choices: (1) Have your parents lower the security setting on your AOL account, (2) Have your parents help you sign up for a new account with a server like GMAIL or YAHOO, or (3) Have your parents send in your WOW League request through their email account.

And remember, we're taking week-by-week standings only. So even if you sign up late, you can still be a WOW League champion and get to tell us your two cents. Be sure to have your lineup set by 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Sunday night to play that week.

Now let's check in with our resident Ballroom Dancing Wizard/sort of Fantasy Wizard apprentice, Duane from New Jersey...

THE DUANE WAY

There's only about a dozen or so games to go before the end of the fantasy hoops season, so if you're battling it out for the lead in your respective league, there's no time for experimenting with super-cheap/streaky players if it can be avoided. For the best results, try balancing out your squad with a superstar or two, coupled with some of the less expensive/consistent LB All-Stars listed this week.

Guards
Devin Harris ($8,500,000), New Jersey Nets: Averaging 9.2 apg over the Nets' last five games, nearly double his season average (5.6).

Monta Ellis ($12,200,000), Golden State Warriors: Who's more valuable to the Warriors, Baron Davis or the super-explosive Ellis (22.4 ppg, 5.0 apg, 4.8 rpg last week)? It's closer than you think.

Forwards
Troy Murphy ($8,000,000), Indiana Pacers: He missed the Pacers' last game with strep throat, but was averaging 18.8 ppg and 11 rpg in four games prior to getting sick.

Drew Gooden ($10,700,000), Chicago Bulls: Is it something in the air? Whatever it is, Gooden's been on a tear since getting traded to the Windy City (15.6 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.2 bpg in his last five games).