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Welcome to the RotoBaller NBA Recap. In this feature, we will highlight a few key fantasy basketball takeaways from the games played during last night's slate. These viewpoints can be both positive and negative and will hopefully help to provide insight into different roster moves you should consider making based on trends and statistical nuggets from around the Association.
Fantasy basketball has a lot of moving pieces with all the different scoring settings that are possible to play under, so I will always do my best to spotlight where players gain or lose value in certain game types. For the sake of simplicity and consistency, every time I mention Fantasy Points in these articles I will be using DraftKings' scoring system, which goes as follows: 1*PTS, 0.5*3PM, 1.25*RBD, 1.5*AST, 2*STL, 2*BLK, -0.5*TO. On top of that, bonus points are awarded for Double-Doubles (+1.5) and Triple-Doubles (+3), only one per player at a time.
Without further ado, let's get right into the latest slate of games from the 2021 season and try to figure out how to take advantage of what we saw transpire.
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Sunday, February 21
New Orleans pulls off the greatest comeback in franchise history led by Zion Williamson as Boston sinks once more
It is not surprising to find Zion at the top of fantasy leaderboards daily. What is surprising is to see the Pelicans mounting a 24-point comeback against an on-paper contender in the Boston Celtics. The Celts keep whiffing on the season, can't escape the .500 winning percentage, and yesterday's OT loss was just another bad look for a team that should be aiming to at least make the ECF come summertime.
Zion and Ingram finished with the exact same 44 FP yesterday, though they reached that mark in different ways. Williamson did so to the tune of a 28-10-4 dub-dub, while Ingram relied on 33 points and 5 triples (including 6 boards and 3 dimes) to get there. On a pure individual-greatness plane, though, the night belonged to Giannis and his impossible 38-18-4-1 dub-dub for the Milwaukee Bucks in a demolition derby against Sacramento.
- Giannis' most impressive numbers were the minutes he played (33) for the production he got (1.99 FP/min) and the incredible amount of times he went to the charity stripe: 24, scoring 19 of those freebies. It's just the 56th 24+ FTA game in history and the first one since Dec. 2019. The Greek also turned the ball over an exaggerated six times.
- In the night that saw the Wolves fire their HC, Karl-Anthony Towns found his way toward a top-5 fantasy finish with a 27-15-4-1-3 stuffed line. Keep an eye on what Minny do goes forward, and expect a lot of run for the younger guys (affordable and available in most fantasy leagues) as the franchise needs to get a top-3 pick in the next draft in order to retain the selection (it is Golden State's otherwise due to protections).
- Tyrese Haliburton had his best game as a pro coming off the bench yesterday thanks to a really nice 23-5-6-2-1 line shooting 63% from the floor and hitting 3 triples. The ROY award is virtually won by LaMelo Ball already, but Haliburton is definitely on the podium at this point...
- ...probably along with Knicks-steal Immanuel Quickley. You wouldn't think that judging by Sunday's IQ performance, though. Quickley rode the pine once more and all he could do was score five points and pull down a board in just 10 minutes of playing time. Don't be fooled and get as many shares of Quickley as you can as soon as possible, though, as he's still available in more than half of Yahoo leagues while being one of the best second-unit players of the league.
- The Celtics lack interior production; no surprises on that front. Daniel Theis played 39 minutes and finished 5-6-1-1-3... Tristan Thompson was just 14-9 in 30 minutes... and Robert Williams (go get him from waivers) was the better play with an 8-13-3 line and 4 blocks in just 21 minutes.
- Everybody knows Andre Drummond is an "empty calories" guy in real life, but also that Dru is a fantasy monster. With him sitting until some team trades for him, it's Jarrett Allen's time to shine, and his production isn't far from that of Drummond: the line sat at 26-17-2 with 3 blocks yesterday, fallen hit all of his 11 FGA, and added 4-of-7 freebies to that in a monster 42 minutes of playing time. Can't get much better.
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