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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!
Saturday, December 11
Jokic finds a way to lead DK's slate with just three quarters of play while Philadelphia stops Steph short of reaching Ray Allen's three-point record
While there is nothing surprising in finding the Joker at the top of a fantasy leaderboard, it is always stunning to see him do it while playing fewer than 35 minutes. Jokic logged 34 for the Nugs against the Spurs, dumped 35 points and 4 treys on San Antonio, and paired that with 17 (!!!) rebounds, 8 dimes, 2 blocks, and 1 steal to round up a massive 75 DKFP tally that was by far the best of Saturday's slate of games.
Steph can't be that happy, though, as he entered yesterday's affair against Philly a large-yet-manageable 10-treys away from overtaking Ray Allen as the most-prolific three-point shooter in history... only to fall short to a measly 18 points on 3 three-pointers made shooting 20% from the floor on a bulky 20 FGA. Curry has another chance in Indy come Monday. Shout out Matisse Thybulle for short-circuiting Curry yesterday even though that seemingly drained his offensive production (6-2-1-0-2 line in 34 minutes).
- Zach LaVine, who was the second-best player of DK's slate on Saturday, was already a sizable 24 (!!!) DKFP behind Jokic in the total fantasy-point counter. Even though he put up a sound 33-7-4-1 shooting 55% on 20 FGA and going 4-for-5 on freebies, ZLV needed 38 minutes to reach his 51 DKFP and he ended eating the L against the Heat.
- Darius Garland with another excellent outing and a top-3 finish thanks to a fantastic 16-6-13-3-1 do-it-all dub-dub for the Cavs. Sucks to have Collin Sexton out for the year, but Garland has definitely taken advantage of the hole and is exploiting it with gusto.
- Hassan Whiteside with the spicy 18-14 dub-dub with 4 blocks on top of it while shooting 89% from the field!? Me likes! Whiteside keeps doing stupid stuff on a daily basis, such as putting up this line in just 20 minutes of playing time off the pine for the Jazz. Only 10-10-4 game with such baseline achieved in 20 or fewer minutes of play, let alone the first 18-14-4 (no one had done that in fewer than 34 minutes this season, mind you).
- Hassan was the most-valuable play of the slate, because of course, but what about PJ Tucker reaching 34 DKFP to the tune of a solid near-dub-dub 8-11-5-1-1 stuffed line hitting 2 treys and hitting 43% on his 7 FGA without committing a turnover nor a personal foul in 32 minutes... with a ridiculous 9.8% usage rate.
- Isaac Okoro keeps growing like hell, yet folks are still sleeping on this mane. 20 pops for IO in a night in which he went 77.8% from the floor and added a 4-3-2 rest-of-line starting at SG. Another surprisingly good outing from a starting SG in Luke Kennard's 23-3-5 with 7 treys baked into that line.
- Kudos to Dewayne Dedmon for backing up banged-up Bam at the starting C slot and dropping a dub-dub to the tune of a 20-12-2-1-1 hitting 61.5% of his 13 field goals including a couple of three-pointers, and only fumbling one rock in 29 minutes of Bulls trouncing.
- Dejounte Murray finally came down crashing to Earth with a putrid 6-5-4-2-1 stuffed-yet-low line in a day in which he also dropped 5 TOs and hit just 33.3% of his hyper-low 9 FGA. The minutes were down at 23, yes, but that game stank even on a per-minute basis with Dejo averaging just 0.95 FP/min, barely a league-average mark.
- Disappointing games from the likes of Lauri Markkanen (3-2-2-2 shooting 12.5%), De'Anthony Melton (4-2-1-1), Jae'Sean Tate (7-3-3-2), and Jakob Poeltl (6-2-4 with a block).
- Jaren Jackson Jr. missed yesterday's game with the Grizz not really missing him... Will Barton still out with a non-COVID illness for the Nuggets... Jerami Grant torn a ligament in his right thumb and will be out indefinitely... Steven Adams was forced out of yesterday's match against Houston and didn't come back (left ankle)... Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little are seemingly available for the Blazers starting this very night... Curry with high chances of resting Monday's affair with the Pacers.
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