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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.
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Tuesday, May 4
Steph Curry can't do it all for the Warriors; the Nets erratic continuity hurts them in another loss to the Bucks
The Warriors, now on the positive side of the play-in holding the no. 8 seed in the West, dropped one to New Orleans on Tuesday. The Pelicans are still fighting to make the mini-tournament but it will take a near-miracle for them to pulling it off as San Antonio is two games ahead of them. Curry was fantastic once more, logging a great 37-9-2-3 line with 8 treys to go with it, but no other Warrior contributed more than 45 FP (Wiggins) with Draymond falling short of 40.
Even in defeat, I guess the Nets would be happy to celebrate having both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving available and playing 40 minutes each yesterday... The problem is that James Harden remains out and he'll probably play one or two games before the playoffs--if any at all. Giannis went to work and finished with a 36-12 dub-dub while Irving put up a 38-3-5-3-2 stuffed line that amounted to virtually the same fantasy tally. Jrue Holiday was the deciding factor, though, ranking as the 9th-best fantasy play of the day with another dub-dub to the tune of a 23-8-10-1-1 performance.
- Chris Paul is infinite. It's been widely discussed throughout the whole season, but while Paul has been great and elevated the Suns to the no. 1 seed in the West, he had yet to finish as the top player in any DK slate. Until yesterday, that is. Paul's 69 FP are the most he has reached this season and he did so against the lowly Cavs with a 23-6-16-4-2 packed line. Here's hoping CP3 puts on a deep playoffs run.
- Freddy Van Buckets with quite the game. No Kyle Lowry, no problem for the Rap who put up a great 27-2-13-2-1 double-double good for a top-6 finish. FVV hit 6 treys on Tuesday, though the Raptors could do nothing to stop a Clippers squad that is now back to the third seed out West and facing the Lakers on today's playoff picture.
- Hamidou Diallo has had a few great games for the Pistons since he was traded to Motown, and yesterday was one of those. Diallo played a silly 40 minutes starting at SG, dropped 35 pops on Charlotte, and paired that scoring outing with 7 boards and a block committing only one TO. Not bad for a late-season WW flier if you're managing in a super-deep league.
- Cavaliers' rookie Isaac Okoro has logged the most minutes among freshmen, and that didn't change on Tuesday as he played a ridiculous 47 minutes! Playing that much isn't going to help no player's efficiency, obviously, but it enabled Okoro to finish with a stuffed 32-3-6-1 line shooting a fantastic 63% from the floor on 16 FGA with an 80.2 TS%.
- The Kings got a W against OKC but ate an L after knowing that Tyrese Haliburton will miss the remainder of the season. This is the right move from them, though, as they are pretty much out of the postseason already, and risking Haliburton's health to make a run for the 11th or 12th seed doesn't sound very smart.
- Excellent game by Tim Hardaway Jr. in Dallas' win over Miami. Timmy played 33 minutes starting at the wing and put up a 1.44 FP/min average with a tasty 36-4-1 line that included a block... and 10 (!!!) three-pointers on the day! Hardaway is still available in 40% of Yahoo leagues, so you better check that WW if you are into your league's playoffs and investing in a winning roster.
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