Fantasy Basketball Night In Review: Thursday, March 4

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.

Thursday, March 4

Don't look now, but after pulling off the upset against the Los Angeles Clippers... are the Wizards good after all?

Look, I know the Wizards are not good by the pure meaning of the word. At the end of the day, Washington is just 14-20 on the season and sitting just a game above the Cavs and in the 12th place in the Eastern standings. That being said, though, the Wizards have closed the first half of the season winning seven of their last 10 games and are just 1.5 games behind the 10th-place Pacers for a play-in berth. Not bad, that is.

Russell Westbrook fell one rebound short of another triple-double with a 27-9-11-4 line yesterday leading the fantasy slate of games, while Bradley Beal contributed his 33-7-3-2-1 stuffed line. Kawhi Leonard (22-5-3) came back for the Clippers, but Paul George sat the game out, and LA could do nothing to secure a W they dropped by just two points. Time to rest and recharge those batteries now for everybody except those flying to Atlanta for the All-Star events.

• While odds are you won't find Enes Kanter still available in most Yahoo leagues (80% rostership), there is still a chance you can get him for free. And you better be smashing that "Add" button. Kanter had another great outing yesterday to the tune of a 55 FP translated from a 22-21-2-1-1 line. The big man shot 73% on 15 FGA because he doesn't stretch the floor at all, so you know he will be a nightly source of points, boards, and shooting percentages no matter what.
• Even in a game that had no story to it, Randle played 42 minutes for the Knicks. That's Thibs for you, folks. Randle at least took advantage of that excessively long run by putting up 60 FP and a 27-16-7 dub-dub. The Knicks are for real this season, and there won't be any sort of sale come deadline-day. We can only hope Immanuel Quickley finds a way to the starting lineup... in which case he'd turn into a bonafide must-have fantasy player (still available in 70% of Yahoo leagues!)

• While Dillon Brooks has not been a world-beater for the Grizzlies when it comes to efficiency, he keeps doing it if only because of pure volume. On Thursday he reached a ridiculous 50 FP in just 35 minutes, and although he shot only 35% from the floor, he attempted 20 (!) FGA and closed the day with a 23-4-7-3-3 stuffed line. Dillon is available in 55% of Yahoo leagues and he's definitely worth considering by fantasy GMs in almost every type of league.
• Absolutely atrocious game by Lonzo Ball yesterday, who in 31 minutes of playing time could only put up 16 FP. No wonder, considering he just hit 25% of his 16 FGA, committed 3 TOs, and only pulled down 4 boards while dishing out a single dime. Yikes. Keep an eye on Zo as New Orleans might work out a trade involving Lonzo during the break.

• Damian Lillard led the night with 8 treys to his name in a 44-pop performance. He didn't add much more to the scoring, but it is not that those 44 points didn't help him overall. Much more important from Portland's side: Gary Trent Jr. kept up his bouncy ways putting up a dud. GTJr. played 34 minutes starting at SG but all he did was get 14 FP (7-1-2-1 line, 18% on 11 FGA...). Hard to trust Trent on a daily basis, sadly.
• Don't buy a lot into Kelly Olynyk's night, but what a game for the Heat big! Olynyk dropped an 18-10 dub-dub in which he also dished out 7 assists, stole a possession, and hit 4 treys while shooting 88% from the floor overall. Olynyk is rostered in just 25% of Yahoo leagues, and while he's clearly on Bam Adebayo's shadow, mind you, he's a quite nice asset to have around in deeper leagues.

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