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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Monday, April 26
The San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns maximize their efforts to halt the winning streaks of Washington and New York respectively, preventing their 9th and 10th consecutive wins
That's right, folks. The Spurs defeated Washington in an OT-thriller that finished with both teams combining for almost 300 points and finishing just three pops apart, 146-143 Spurs. While San Antonio is going to make it to the play in, it was rather surprising to find the Spurs defeating a scorching hot Wiz squad that was on an improbable eight-win streak, but here we are. The main reason for that outcome: Dejounte Murray, the Spurs point guard who got a monster 17 boards and led the slate in rebounds (to go with 25 points, 5 dimes, and 3 steals).
In the battle between the Knicks and the Suns, it was Phoenix which went away with the victory. The Suns defeated New York and prevented them from winning their 10th game straight, which Manhattan's franchise has not accomplished probably since 1985. It was a down game for the best Knicks players, and although Phoenix didn't have overly great performers (Booker finished with 41 FP, Chris Paul with 39 FP), they put together a collective effort that has them sitting no. 2 in the West now just one game behind no. 1 Utah.
- Speaking of the Jazz, they're entering a dangerous zone with that small one-game gap over the Suns. They have lost two straight and are still missing Donovan Mitchell. Rudy Gobert couldn't help the Jazz yesterday putting up a middling 18-5-2-1-3. It is just the second time since the AS break that Gob has had back-to-back games in which he didn't dub-dubbed in at least one of them.
- Westbrook couldn't do more to put the Wizards in a position to win, although Washington ultimately fell down to SAS. Russ logged another trip-dub with a 22-13-14 line (plus a steal and a block) and got the record for most triple-doubles in a month held by Wilt Chamberlain until Monday night. Bradley Beal dropped 45 pops, and is now back at the top of the PPG leaderboard, although it's a hyper-slim lead over Steph Curry as things stand.
- Daniel Theis started at the power forward position and cooked himself a 51-DKFP meal against Miami putting up a 23-12-5 line with 2 blocks to spare. The shooting was sublime at 77% and he avoided TOs entirely. That was surely fantastic, but not so much for Markkanen, who was relegated to the pine and all he could do in his 23 minutes of playing time was finish with 18 FP to the tune of a paltry 12-2-1-1 line.
- Don't look now, but what if DeMarcus Cousins ends being a good fantasy play ROS? Cousins--who had been playing on 10-day deals--just signed with the Clippers for the remainder of the season and the playoffs and perhaps that morale-boost is all he needed to unleash his inner beast: 24 minutes of playing time against New Orleans logging a 16-11-1 line with 2 blocks was nice to watch. Cousins is available in almost 80% of Yahoo leagues and might be a good flier to take by those in deeper leagues.
- John Wall won't play another game this season after getting shut down by Houston yesterday. Cold world for him, good news for the likes of Daquan Jeffries, Armoni Brooks, and Kevin Porter Jr. as they will get more chances ROS to rack up minutes and stats. With the exception of KPJ (68%), the other two players are virtually unrostered in Yahoo with rostership rates below 2% each.
- Joe Ingles went a little bit under the radar yesterday with only 21 FP starting for the Jazz and playing 34 minutes (10-5-3 with 1 block, 3 triples shooting 21% on 14 FGA), but I checked his rostership out of curiosity and he's still available in 35% of Yahoo leagues. Ingles is these days what Jordan Clarkson was to start the season: an incredible shooter racking up three-pointers and points while carrying rebounds/assists upside on top of that. You won't have it easy finding him for free in your WW, but try your luck because he might turn into a great addition for the home stretch.
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