RADIO
Antonio Losada looks back at yesterday's slate of games and comments on fantasy basketball risers, fallers and takeaways from the games played then and there.
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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Sunday, February 28
It was all about the Eastern Conference on a Sunday in which Miami and Milwaukee kept their streaks up, Charlotte found gold in PJ Washington, and the Knicks went above .500 past the 35-game mark
That's a hell of a headline, but I just couldn't skip any of those events. Starting at the top of the order, Miami and Milwaukee became the only two teams in the NBA with 5+ games won in a row. The Heat are at six and already in the 5th spot at 17-17 while Milwaukee ousted the Clippers in a potential Finals showdown and carrying a five-win streak. Shout-out to Giannis for his bonkers 71 FP yesterday with an impossible 36-14-5-1-4 shooting 56% on 27 FGA and going 4-for-6 from the line.
Now, for the lesser news: PJ Washington was nothing even remotely close to his average self on Sunday. He went bananas in helping Charlotte getting a one-point W against Sacto with a massive 42 pops (5 treys) to go with a 9-2-2-2 rest-of-line and a massive 80.5% true shooting percentage. Second-most FP on the night at 66. Also on the Eastern side of the country, New York went past the .500 mark with a W against Detroit in which Julius Randle dropped a 25-8-6-2-1 stuffed line.
- Yesterday looked the part of a Revenge Tour. PJ Washington finished 2nd in fantasy points. John Collins put up a 34-10 dub-dub with 3 blocks. LaMelo kept it up with a sound 24-12 on dimes. Capela reached 20-14. And best of all...
- ...Buddy Hield hit 8 triples on a day that saw him become the fastest player ever to score 1,000 treys as a pro in the NBA, surpassing mighty Steph Curry. Hield's performance ended at 30-2-7 and as a top-10 fantasy outing on the slate. Feels like Buddy has been around forever, but this record is definitely making him look good and with quite a future still ahead for him to keep bombing treys.
- Obviously, no player was more valuable than PJ Washington yesterday, although Desmond Bane was great for the Grizz thanks to a 15-7-1-3-1 uber-efficient effort in 28 minutes. He started at SG, which actually made the best reserves two other Grizz: Brandon Clarke (16-12 in 20 minutes) and De'Anthony Melton (14-3-5-4 in 23 minutes).
- Fantasy GMs are not trusting Malik Monk yet, it seems. But he keeps thriving and I keep singing my praises to the man. Another game, another off-the-pine sublime performance with a 21-5-4 in 31 minutes of playing time. Monk is more than an average player in fantasy leagues these days, so you better check your WW because he's still available in 65% of Yahoo leagues.
- No need for the Lakers to play anyone more than 25 minutes in a Demolition Derby yesterday against Golden State. No big lines due to that, but a couple of good games from Kyle Kuzma (12-11 with a steal in 20 minutes off the bench) and Markieff Morris (13-8-4 in 24 starting at PF). Los Angeles is going to miss AD, and it's up to the role players to step up nightly. Take advantage of the situation and get yourself some Kuzzy/Markieff/Marc/THT shares for the time AD stays out.
- Victor Oladipo might get moved before the trade deadline, as Woj has reported that Vic has declined a max extension from Houston already. That could mean a larger share of touches for John Wall, who was atrocious yesterday: 27 minutes, a 35% usage rate, and all Johnny did was scoring 14 points while shooting 25 percent on 16 FGA. That's it, that's the line. 14-0-0-0-0 with 5 TOs. Yikes.
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