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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Tuesday, February 23
Luka Doncic hits a near-buzzer-beater three and sinks Bostons below a .500 record; Sacramento's losing streak extends to eight games
A rollercoaster of a day for Mavs fans out there. Tuesday kicked off with Dallas reportingly looking into Kristaps Porzingis' trade market, and it closed with Luka Doncic hitting a three-point dagger that finished a Boston team that is now below a .500 record and sitting 6th in the East. Luka not only did that, but he also finished the day with the third-highest FP mark of the slate thanks to a 31-10-8 near-trip-dub in a performance that included 6 triples and a steal--with Porzingis out.
The Kings, which had quite a nice run earlier this season, are now trying to escape a never-ending streak of losses that went up to eight yesterday as Brooklyn demolished Sacto. Rookie Tyrese Haliburton was once more the best King with a 23-5-9-3-1 stuffed line off the pine, with De'Aaron Fox, Richaun Holmes, and the rest of his teammates disappointing a bit. Sacramento is already three games behind Memphis for the last play-in spot, and they better do something soon if they want to make it there.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo keeps playing limited minutes because that's the way Milwaukee operates. Not a problem for his fantasy GMs, though, as he racked up the second-most FP yesterday with a monster 37-8-8-2-2 line in just 29 minutes shooting 72% from the floor and hitting 10-of-13 freebies.
- Trae Young was snubbed from the All-Star reserves, so he went on to take 27 FGA... and hit just 33% of them. Even then, though, he was more than great for the Hawks in a 28-7-12 performance in which he also contributed a block on a stupid 42.6% (!) usage rate.
- John Collins was forced out of the Hawks game with a concussion after playing just 13 minutes. Worth keeping an eye on how this develops as any time Collins is out will bring changes to Atlanta, given JoCo starting position and the implications a period out of the court will have on the rotation.
- Saben Lee keeps doing it for Detroit. Another day, another great off-the-bench performance by Lee who put up a 21-3-4-2 stuffed line, hit 3 treys, shot 73 percent from the floor, and also scored 2-of-5 free-throws.
- Bruce Brown was the next-man-up for the Nets yesterday. With Durant still out, Brown started at PF, logged 26 minutes, and exploded for 29 pops with 4 boards and a couple of dimes to go with a steal on top of that. The space is always wide with the likes of Harden and Irving getting all of the D's attention, and that explains the sublime 85 percent shooting from the field on 13 FGA and the 95.4 true shooting percentage from Brown.
- Bryn Forbes keeps playing 25+ minutes for the Bucks, which is great for those GMs needy of warm bodies in deeper formats. Forbes has started six games this month and is averaging a 13-2-1 in the past nine games. He had his best game of the year against Minny yesterday: 23 points (5 triples), 4 boards, and 3 dimes in 25 minutes of playing time. Forbes is available in 95% of Yahoo leagues.