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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Friday, December 3
Golden State halts Phoenix's 18-game winning streak... and it's now Houston with the longest one at five Ws in a row after defeating Orlando on Friday
It just had to happen. Such is the Warriors inevitability, folks. Golden State faced Phoenix for the second time this week and of course, the Suns could do absolutely nothing to stop GSW. The Warriors were led by Draymond Green on Friday as he finished with a frustrating but tasty 9-9-9-6-3 packed line shooting 66.7% from the floor and only committing 2 TOs in 31 minutes in which he logged a ridiculous 11.1% usage rate. Curry added his customary dosage of triples (6 on the day) for a final 23-5-5 line while barely any Sun made the top-30 in DK's slate of games (Ayton finished 29th with a 23-6-2-0-2 line).
Staying West, Houston pulled off the win against Orlando after Eric Gordon dropped a layup with the time nearly expiring to hand the Magic a nice L while keeping the Rockets' ongoing winning streak up and reaching five Ws straight after yesterday's game. Shouts out to Christian Wood (20-14-4-1-1), Jae'Sean Tate (15-7-4-2-1), and Gordon (24-2-3-1-1) for finishing inside the top-32 while all were able to log 15-1-1-1-1 baselines on the day.
- Darius Garland keeps taking advantage of Collin Sexton's season-ending injury as he topped DK's leaderboard on Friday with a fantastic 32-8-10-1 outing in just 34 minutes of playing time against the Wiz. Garland hit 5 treys, connected on almost 65% of his 17 shots, went a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line... and the explosion could have been actually staggering had he not committed 7 TOs and 6 PFs.
- Without Zion around, Brandon Ingram carried the Pels all the way to the W against Dallas. Ingram logged 38 minutes and although he could only hit one trey and score 7 FGM he still was good for a 24-8-12-2 line with 8-of-11 FGA baked into it.
- Joel Embiid and Jarrett Allen excelled at big-men things with 28-12-4-1-2 and 28-13-2-1-2 respective lines each one on similar 36/37 minutes played.
- Out of the blue contribution by a couple of Warriors yesterday to edge Phoenix. Juan Toscano-Anderson dumped a 17-5-5-1-1 line with a triple and a poster dunk on TaMale McGee for the ages, while Gary Payton II was good for a 19-5-0-1-1 outcome with 3 treys on the night.
- Naz Reid was the most valuable starter as he played 35 minutes at the Wolves C spot to reach a solid 19-7-1 line shooting 50% on 14 FGA and committing zero turnovers.
- Fantastic game by Mike Conley in a bulky win for the Utah Jazz over Boston. Mikey hit a slate-leading 7 triples for 29 points while adding 4 boards, 7 dimes, and a steal to put the cherry on top of everything.
- Sucked to watch Russell Westbrook putting up a 10-2-9-1 dud in the Lakers' loss to intracity rival Clippers. The minutes were high at 36 but the Lake Show wasn't such and Russ didn't help the effort just one bit...
- Day off for Bradley Beal whose 14-3-1-0-1 outcome was rather paltry though he did it in just 27 minutes on the court. More concerning was Clint Capela's low 6-11 shooting 25% on 8 FGA in 30 minutes with the Hawks in their defeat to Philly.
- Wizards C Thomas Bryant will start to practice in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye on him if you need a big man... Andre Iguodala stayed out yesterday and will probably miss tonight's game too... Marvin Bagley III is off the injury report and should be out there on the court against the Clips on Saturday... Kevin Porter Jr. got banged up a few days ago and had to leave early yesterday after re-aggravating his left thigh concussion... Mikal Bridges with the scare of the day, though he was able to come back for Phoenix.