Fantasy Basketball Night In Review - Sunday, May 9th News and Notes

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.

Sunday, May 9

Boston follows the Lakers steps by (virtually) locking into the play-in tournament, LAL snatches one from Phoenix as LAC drops its game against New York

Interesting nice around the Association, but not one highly impactful in the standings except for Boston's loss to Miami. The Heat have now opened a wide two-game difference between them and the Celtics and the latter are looking like a lock to finish with the 7th seed and face New Orleans for a chance to make the playoffs without having to face the winner of the Washington/Indiana no.9 vs. no. 10 game. Miami also tied Atlanta for the no. 5 seed, though the Hawks have the tiebreak and are holding onto the higher seed for now.

Out west, the Lakers won one but it's not that they improved their chances at escaping the play-in. This definitely smells like a LAL vs. GSW one-off affair for the 7th seed with Memphis and San Antonio the rival of whoever losses that first game. Utah is two games up Phoenix with four to go, most probably holding onto the no. 1 position. The only thing yet to be known is who of LAC/Denver will face who of Dallas/Portland. 68 down, 4 to go, folks.

• Anthony Davis did it all in helping the Lake Show defeat Phoenix yesterday thanks to a sound 42-12-5-3-3 performance that is closer to AD's real talent than those games he's been playing of late. This is definitely the man Los Angeles needs going forward--let alone getting LeBron James back and in full shape, which is yet to be seen though.
• One of the most up-and-down players of the L, Terry Rozier, was riding the wave yesterday and posted a ridiculous 43-5-4-1 line against NOLA in 42 minutes of playing time to finish no. 2 in DK's leaderboard. Rozier only committed 3 TOs while shooting a fantastic 62% on 26 FGA and going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.

• Ridiculous game off the pine for Jaxson Hayes, who in just 26 minutes was able to finish 18-8 with a steal and 6 (!!!) blocks facing Charlotte. The fact that Zion and Ingram were both out, and that Lonzo Ball had a down day, made Jaxon the best Pelican of the day with his 42 DKFP.
• The actual best reserve of the slate, though, was Derrick Rose. Playing a healthy 32 minutes for the Knicks in defeating the Clippers, DRose dropped 25 pops to go with 6 boards, 8 dimes, and a steal to spare while hitting 65% of his 17 FGA. Vintage Rose right there.

• I don't think Los Angeles had in mind the current version of Andre Drummond when the Lakers added him to their roster... 20 minutes on the court for Dre, but a very putrid 6-10-2 outing with a stupid 28% on just 7 FGA while committing a couple of TOs and 4 PFs are definitely not going to help the Lake Show a lot going forward.
• Quite a game for all Wolves yesterday. KAT was his best self with a 27-9-4-1-2 stuffed line, Naz Reid backed him up off the pine with a 9-8-4 super-efficient outing in 16 minutes, D'Angelo Russell started once more and put up a 27-6-8 with 5 treys, and Anthony Edwards played 29 minutes of dub-dub basketball with a 16-10-5 line. Not bad, indeed.

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