RADIO
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, April 25
Brooklyn welcomes Durant back, defeats Phoenix, and keeps the no. 1 seed in the East as Boston gets demolished by Charlotte; Stephen Curry makes history with 85 triples in April, the most scored in a single month
The Nets could count on featuring Kevin Durant once again, and they took advantage of it by deploying KD off the bench through 28 minutes in which he was able to put together a top-6 fantasy performance. Durant's 33 pops (with a 6-4-2-1 rest-of-line) combined with Kyrie Irving's own 34 points were more than half of Brooklyn's total tally and enough to beat the Suns in a collision of top-tier squads in their respective conferences.
In the west, the Warriors and Kings faced each other on Sunday in an in-state matchup that saw Steph Curry make history--once more. Curry has been scorching hot this month, in which he's been able to overtake Bradley Beal for the lead in the PPG leaderboard. Thanks to his 7 triples against Sacramento, Curry can also now call him the highest three-point scorer in the span of a month, having hit 85 (and counting) already this April. James Harden held the previous record having scored 82 in November of 2019 to kick that season off with a bang.
- Irving's no. 1 finish in yesterday's leaderboard (34-6-12 for 62 DKFP) and Brooklyn's win against the Suns have the Nets 1.5 games above Philly for the no. 1 seed in the East, thus giving them the home-court advantage for the whole postseason. It's going to be an uphill for the Sixers to clear that distance, even more, if they opt to manage health issues concerning both Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
- The Blazers dropped one to Memphis on Saturday but they can't blame Jusuf Nurkic for it... The big man put up another double-double in his 29 minutes on the court with a 16-19-5-1-2 stuffed contribution. Lillard wasn't bad finishing with 43 FP and a 23-6-5-1-1 line himself, but his 29% shooting from the floor on a monster 27 FGA just didn't cut it.
- Torrey Craig was, well, Torrid Craig yesterday and one of the main reasons why Phoenix made it a tight one against Brooklyn. Craig put up a 20-14 dub-dub coming off the pine and playing 32 minutes. He added a block and shot a great 67% on a low 9 FGA, committing just 1 TO. Craig is virtually unrostered in Yahoo leagues (1%) although it must also be said that this game was a true outlier in his season, as he had never played more than 23 minutes or topped 27 FP in any single match. Worth keep an eye on his usage for the home stretch, though.
- Another revelation of late: Washington Wizards' Daniel Gafford. The Wiz acquired Gafford before the trade deadline, and although he wasn't superb in the first few days in the capital and was out for a span of games, he came back on Apr. 10 and has topped 25 FP in four of his last six games. He comes off his best game this season thanks to a 12-6-2-4-4 performance on Sunday against the Cavs. Gafford is still available in more than 65% of Yahoo leagues and could be a good addition to deep-league rosters with 10+ games yet to be played.
- Wendell Carter Jr. missed one game earlier on the week, but he came back on Sunday playing 21 restricted minutes. Not that much of a problem for him, though, as he was still able to put up a nice 10-13-1 line with a block to spare for a great 1.49 FP/min mark on the day. This will most probably mean that Mo Bamba will hit the pine (as he already did yesterday) and see his minutes and opportunities go down a bit as Carter Jr. gears up to end the season strong for a Magic squad fighting for nothing more than a good draft pick.
- If you're part of a deep league and hurting for some big-man help, maybe you can throw a dart toward Larry Nance Jr. and hope he gets it right asap. There aren't many games left on the schedule, and Nance has truly been on the low of late with six consecutive games below 25 DKFP and averaging a 6-5-2-1 line with horrid shooting percentages. That being said, if can get back to the level we know he can play at, he might be a life-saver for those banking on him to close the year. Nance is available in 45% of Yahoo leagues these days.
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