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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Thursday, November 4
Oklahoma City (2-7) defeats the Lakers for the second time this season; Boston puts the clamps on Miami and limit the Heat to a measly 78 points while dropping 95 on them
Are we witnessing, once for all, LeBron's decline in terms of health and availability? LeBron James missed a couple of games last week (one against OKC, coincidentally) and he is now out again with an abdominal injury expected to leave him out for a week at least. Without LBJ out, the Lake Show wasn't so much that and dropped another one to the OKC, a team that even on its best-tanking efforts just don't know how to lose against Los Angeles. Kudos to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for his top-5 finish in DK and 28-3-6-1-1 stuffed line.
On the East, Boston appears to have righted its wrongs after winning back-to-back games in Florida against Orlando and now Miami, limiting those two squads to just 79 and 78 points against. Stout defensive outings, yes, but very middling offensive performances with Dennis Schroeder of all men finishing atop the DK leaderboard thanks to a rather low 32.3 FP contribution in 30 minutes. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum played 29 and 30 minutes respectively and none of the two topped 17 points nor 8 boards. Soft night from the shot-hogging pair.
- Nothing surprising in finding Anthony Davis leading yesterday's fantasy leaderboard as LBJ missed the game entirely. Large 38-minute outing for AD, who put up a silly 29-18-5-1-2 line shooting 55% on 20 shots from the field. He was a net negative overall, though, as his -14 +/- was the worst among starters with more than 30 MP. Russell Westbrook, of course, also find a way to a top-7 finish with a 27-6-5 hitting 3 triples and turning the ball over 4 times.
- Shouts out to reigning 6MOY Jordan Clarkson and soon-to-be 6MOY Carmelo Anthony. Clarkson dropped a fantastic 30 pops on Atlanta's forehead with 4 triples, 4 boards, and three dimes shooting an impressive 52.6% on a more than healthy 19 FGA off the pine. Melo kept up his early-season exploits with 5 triples and 21 total points on a night in which he also contributed 6 rebounds, 2 dimes, 2 steals, and one block. What about early-aughts Melo balling in Hollywood, folks?
- The Sixers were limited to using an eight-man roster yesterday on the second leg of a back-to-back. They snatched the win with all of Tyrese Maxey, Shake Milton, and Joel Embiid finishing the day as top-16 players. Most impressively, Maxey played 45 minutes, and just on pure brute force he bullied his way to a 20-4-5-2 line shooting 66.7% on 12 FGA and going 2-for-2 from the free-throw line.
- Finally, Cade Cunningham delivered. Against a depleted Sixers squad, Cade could finally put up a nice game with an 18-10-4-1 double-double performance in 32 minutes... though he still shot a putrid 23.5% on his 17 FGA from the field. Thank god the 9-of-10 FT saved his day because the shooting is still looking as bad as humanly possible.
- The Thunder needed everything to defeat the Lakers, and OKC surely got it: Kenrich Williams and Ty Jerome excelled from the pine (13-8-2-1 and 14-3-3-1 respectively) while Derrick Favors manned the paint and put up a 10-11 dub-dub hitting all of his 5 FGA on the day.
- The Phoenix backcourt was on a mission yesterday facing Houston. Devin Booker and Chris Paul were always going to finish high up the leaderboard because they're that good, but Landry Shamet surprised everyone with a fantastic 19-1-4-1 line in a game that saw him play 19 minutes, hit 4 triples on 9 FGA total (55.6%), and score 5-for-5 freebies. Not bad for a reserve.
- Nothing to like about Boston and its ongoing pass-the-ball drama. It was to predict such an off-night from the Heat, and that surely helped, but Tatum disappointed fantasy GMs more than a bit with his low 10-8-2-1 line shooting a ridiculous 23.1% on 13 FGA... Not what you like to see from a top-dollar play, definitely.
- Related to Tatum on yesterday's slate: Miami players. Butler, Adebayo, Lowry, and Tyler Herro were absolutely disastrous and definitely off their prices/availabilities with performances that seemed to be fighting against each other to see which could end at a lower total-FP tally.
- Jaylen Brown and Kyle Lowry left yesterday's game without returning, so keep an eye on that as the game had no story (good) but the injuries might be for real (bad). Anthony Davis played through an injured thumb, so we'll see if he makes it to the court on Saturday.
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