Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we will highlight three fantasy basketball takeaways from last night's slate of NBA games. It was another great day of NBA action with eight games on the slate for Sunday's action with five of those games being settled by five points or less. The Knicks defeated the Grizzlies by five points behind a 21-point, 26-rebound effort by Enes Kanter. The Clippers stole one on the road against the Blazers 104-100 despite Damian Lillard's stellar night with 30 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The Magic went on the road and took down LeBron James and the Lakers 108-104 behind Nikola Vucevic's 31 points and 15 rebounds. The 76ers defeated the Nets 127-125 behind a clutch Jimmy Butler three-pointer, which helped Butler finish with 31 points and 12 rebounds. Finally, the Hawks won their fourth game of the season with a 124-123 win over the Hornets behind 23 points and 11 rebounds for John Collins.
Let's take a look at the recap for NBA games on Sunday, November 25th.
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Keep an Eye on D'Angelo Russell
Although D'Angelo Russell has been inconsistent since joining the NBA, his performance on Sunday shows why he was drafted second overall in the 2015 draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Since traded to the Brooklyn Nets, Russell has continued his inconsistency, but yesterday was a peak on his wavelength of such performances.
Russell was 16-for-28 from the field en route to 38 points. He also grabbed eight rebounds and dished out eight assists, while only turning the ball over once. It wasn't enough for the Nets to defeat Jimmy Butler and the 76ers, but it was a potential turning point for a run of good games for Russell.
This season, he's playing the best basketball of his career and following Sunday's performance his per game averages are now 17.8 points, 5.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.1 steals. He's also on pace for his best field goal percentage and three-point percentage marks of his young career too.
Vintage Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade logged a season-high 34 minutes on Sunday and looked terrific against the Raptors in the Heat's 125-115 loss. Wade dropped his season-high in scoring with 35 points and added six assists and five rebounds.
Wade had missed seven games in mid-November, but returned this past week. He played 14 minutes in his first game back, 24 minutes the next game and then the 34 minutes yesterday. Although I don't see him continuing the trend and playing 44 minutes when the Heat plays the Hawks tomorrow, he should receive 25-to-30 minutes a game moving forward.
He's a potential add in 12-team leagues.
Clippers Look Legit with Tobias Harris
One of the better surprises of the season so far has been the ability for the Los Angeles Clippers to continue to rattle off win-after-win with DeAndre Jordan leaving the organization in the offseason.
A key reason they've launched themselves into a tie for first place in the Western Conference with the Golden State Warriors is due to the steady play of Tobias Harris.
On Sunday, Harris led the way to another win with 34 points and 11 rebounds on 14-for-22 shooting. He plays lockdown defense and is having a sensational season thus far.
Harris is putting up career numbers this year with per game averages of 21.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, 0.6 blocks and 0.5 steals. He's doing this while shooting 52.5 percent from the field and nearly 43 percent from behind the three-point line.