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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.
Editor's Note: Our incredible team of writers received five total writing awards and 13 award nominations by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, tops in the industry! Congrats to all the award winners and nominees including NBA Writer of the Year, Best NFL Series, MLB Series, PGA Writer and Player Notes writer of the year. Be sure to follow their analysis, rankings and advice all year long, and win big with RotoBaller! Read More!
Friday, April 2
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Golden State Warriors make history, only in completely opposite ways
Let's start with the bad news, so we can celebrate later. Golden State faced the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, and the affair turned into an ugly one for the Westsiders. We all know this season isn't been any grateful for Toronto, which isn't even playing in their country due to COVID-19, but the script flipped yesterday as they demolished Golden State in a 130-77 game that was this close to setting all-time records. Just reading the final score, you already know it was a stupid 53-point loss. Ugh. On top of that, as reported by ESPN, "the Warriors became the fourth team in the past 25 seasons to trail by at least 60 points in a game. [...] The Raptors' 53-point margin of victory is also tied for the third-largest in league history by a team that is 10 or more games below .500." Cold world, Warriors.
On much brighter news, Giannis was a true game-bender for the Bucks on Friday and put up a historic performance in Milwaukee's trouncing of the Blazers. Antetokounmpo had the 16th game in the history of the Association with at least 20 FGA and a field goal percentage of at least 85%. This is only the fifth such game since 1995, with the other four belonging to Gordon Hayward, Klay Thompson, Carlos Boozer, and Eddy Curry. Giannis closed yesterday's showdown with a nutty 47-12-2-1-3 stuffed line (for a slate-leading 73 FP), added 11-of-13 freebies, and he did it all without hitting a single triple. Bananas.
- Karl-Anthony Towns is as goods as anyone in this league. That's far from a secret, but is Minny the place he wants to spend his career at given how bad the team has looked ever since he arrived? Another game, another L, another great performance by KAT: 30-16 dub-dub with a 2-1-1 rest-of-line and 59 FP on the night, only behind Giannis.
- Since he finally became a staple of Atlanta's starting lineups, Bogdan Bogdanovic has been excellent for the Hawks. He had a top-5 slate game yesterday to the tune of 51 FP translated from an impressive 26-7-7-1-1 stuffed line in a match in which he also dropped 7 treys for 21 of those pops, adding 2 from the charity stripe. Make or miss league, as they say, with BogBog on the former side of things more often than not.
- Since the deadline and with Daniel Theis out of town, the Celtics have relied on Robert Williams to man the paint. You know we're RoWill stans over here, and there is a reason for that. In just 26 minutes of playing time against Houston on Friday RW put up a 20-9-8-1-2 near-trip-dub line for the most efficient game of the slate thanks to his 1.89 FP/min. And there are still people out there saying Boston should let him hit free agency this summer!
- Kudos to Miles Bridges, who isn't benefiting from playing next to LaMelo Ball these days but is still producing from the Hornets bench. Dub-dub performance yesterday against Indy with a 23-10 line in just 31 minutes on the court. Bridges is a sound WW-target only rostered in 48% of Yahoo leagues.
- Josh Hart, my dear Josh Hart, and my favorite WW addition all year long got screwed for good on Friday. Turned out he has a torn UCL in his right thumb (injured against Orlando) and he could be facing a potential months-long absence from basketball courts, as reported yesterday. It really stinks, because there have been not a lot of players available in as many leagues as Hart while producing tons of fantasy goodies. It's time to focus on the likes of James Johnson, Naji Marshall, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker ROS, folks.
- Another injured player worth tracking: Malik Monk. Coach Borrego said that he could miss 2+ weeks recovering, and that opens the door to larger runs by both Graham and Rozier as the starters, with Miles Bridges, the Martin twins, and Brad Wanamaker as the main beneficent off Charlotte's pine.
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