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.
Featured Promo: Get any full-season NBA Premium Pass for 50% off. Win big with our exclusive DFS lineup tools, matchup rating projections, powerful Research Station, Lineup Optimizer, daily DFS lineup picks/cheat sheets and more! Sign Up Now!
Wednesday, November 10
Packed 13-game night yields interesting results as the Lakers edge the Heat in OT, Denver defeats Indiana without Jokic, the Thunder get another win, and the Hornets come back to the W column with a victory over Memphis
Other than the team-wise results from yesterday's slate of games, the most interesting thing happened in Houston as the top-2 rookies of the 2021 class of freshmen faced each other for the first time in their respective pro careers: Cade Cunningham and the Pistons won their matchup against the Rockets with the rook putting up a 20-4-3-2-1 line in 31 minutes. Jalen Green was good for a very similar 23-5-2 outcome, though he did so in a much bulkier 38 minutes of playing time shooting the rock 20 times.
After the massive slate of games from Wednesday closed its curtains, it's now the Wizards (yes, the Wizards) at the top of the Eastern Conference with an 8-3 record and the longest winning streak in the East with three straight wins. Out West, there is W/L-streak galore with the no. 1 Warriors and no. 3 Suns at six consecutive wins while no. 13 Minnesota, no. 14 Houston, and no. 15 New Orleans all have lost at least six straight.
- As it will be the case all year long, Russell Westbrook took advantage of LeBron James missing another game and led the slate to the tune of a 69-FP tally in an OT game against Miami in which he put up a ridiculous 25-12-14-1-2 stuffed line... accompanied by some not-worrying-anymore 8 TOs... It looks like Russ just does everything in bunches, no matter if it's positive or negative.
- The Wolves dropped one to Golden State, but Anthony Edwards couldn't do more to try and help Minny on the night Andrew Wiggins murdered his former team. Edwards put up almost half of the Wolves points with a 48-point outing (7 treys) to go with 5 boards, 5 dimes, and 2 steals while shooting 59.3% from the field. Wiggins, though, got away with the W putting up 35 pops himself.
- You know the game has changed when you realize as many as four players hit 7 triples in a single slate: Edwards, Kelly Oubre, Pat Connaughton, and Lonzo Ball. Even more impressive: Karl-Anthony Towns (a bonafide center) hit 5 long-range shots while getting a 17-12 dub-dub, while Kyle Kuzma put Washington above Cleveland with a sweet 22-5-1-1-1 performance.
- Shouts out to Kevon Looney, Warriors' only center in play, who scored 11 points and grabbed 17 boards (to go with a 1-2-1) rest-of-line in just 29 minutes starting at C to become the ROI King of the slate yesterday given his ground-level salary in DK but otherwise fantastic 1.41 PF/min efficiency.
- Malik Monk played off the pine for the Lake Show and was the man ultimately handing Portland another loss on Wednesday: the line ended at a tasty 27-6-3 with a block, and the shooting was bonkers with a 76.9% from the field on 13 FGA while hitting 4 treys in slashing the Blazers.
- Pat Connaughton was perhaps the most out-of-left-fieldish player of the day, dumping a 23-9-5 line and scoring a joint slate-leading 7 triples for Milly in their win over New York. All he needed was a warm bench and 31 minutes of playing time to finish the day with a sound 1.43 FP/min average in production/efficiency.
- The Nets basically ran Orlando out of the court by halftime, so neither Kevin Durant nor James Harden had massively great games against them due to low playing time (29 and 30 minutes respectively). Nothing to worry about, though, as they still finished the game with 30-5-2 and 17-11-11-2 lines against the lowly Magic.
- More worrying: Jimmy Butler's 12 minutes of playing time for a 7-0-1-2 outcome. Not because of the line, mind you, but because he had to leave the court early with an ankle sprain. Keep an eye on this because it could impact the Heat big time going forward if he's forced to miss time.
- Now, for real stinkers, what about Pascal Siakam's 8-7-3-2 with 4 TOs day? Not liking that just one bit, much less his dumb-low usage rate below 20 percent at just 18.5%. You can do much better, Toronto.
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy basketball mobile app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, lineup notifications & DFS articles. All free!
