Fantasy Basketball Night In Review: Friday, October 29

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.

Friday, October 29

LeBron James comes back to lift the Lakers past his former Cavs; Paul George excels but can help the Clippers in their fourth loss of the early season against Portland

After missing two games due to an ankle injury--nothing important, of more of a precautionary approach--LeBron James was finally back on Friday to host his former team in the Cleveland Cavs and he was good enough for a top-8 finish in DK's main slate. LBJ wasn't ridiculously great (26-3-8-3-1) but he filled the line and along with Anthony Davis and an overperforming Carmelo Anthony the Lake Show was able to put up a balanced 3-3 record through one week of games.

The other side of the Los Angeles coin wasn't that bright, though. The Clippers visited Portland and were demolished to the tune of a 19-point defeat in which Paul George clearly dominated (Friday's best line at 42-8-2-1-1 with 6 treys and a massive usage rate of 42.6%). That was cool, but the Blazers seemed to finally find a good outing from Damian Lillard (23-4-6-1) after a slow start to the season while Jusuf Nurkic contributed an impressive (1.99 FP/min) 14-17-3-2-1 dub-dubbing line in just 23 minutes of playing time.

• Speaking of Dame getting his game together, the same happened to James Harden's levels of play against Indy yesterday: Harden went to the line as in good old times (19 FTA, 84.2%) and finished with a bulky 29-8-8-1-2 stuffed line that could have been even better had he shot more than his 11 FGA or hit more than three triples on the day.
• Good news for Nikola Jokic's GMs, as the reigning MVP came back after a scare the last time we watched him, played 25 minutes, and contributed a near-trip-dub of 11-16-8-1 helping Denver to defeat Dallas on Friday. No other Nuggets player finished even inside the top-30, so the Rockies can thank their big man for the effort.
• Carmelo Anthony, as mentioned above, had a very nice outing scoring 24 pops (18 of those on 6 treys) while adding 5 boards and a dime in 25 minutes. Special mention to another reserve, LaMarcus Aldridge, whose 21-8 was enough to see him reach the 20,000-mark in career points scored, becoming just the 48th player getting there in the history of the L.

• Absolute out-of-left-field performance from Torrey Craig as the backup guard of the Pacers. Craig played 34 minutes off the pine, finished as the 7th-best DK play, and dropped a 28-11-3 spicy line on Brooklyn leading the second unit with a 25.8% usage rate.
• Mo Bamba was even better with a top-5 finish to the tune of a 14-18-5 that included an impressive 2 triples and 3 blocks. If this is the new daily Bamba (one with long-range prowess and massive rebounding upside) then you'd be losing your time reading my words instead of rushing to the WW to land him in your roster right now assuming he's still available (85% rostership in Yahoo leagues).
• If you have never heard of Dalano Banton, I can't blame you. We are here to highlight big-time sleepers, and Banton was the one yesterday thanks to a nice 10-5-2-2 line shooting 66% and finishing with no turnovers in his 23 minutes for the Raps off the pine. Not a safe pick or addition, obviously, but one with upside playing for a team in Toronto that somehow always find a way to get production out of every living soul.

• The minute LBJ was confirmed in, Russ was confirmed to be on his way to a dud. It is what it is. Russ finished with a "good" 19-6-5 but that translated to a measly 32.5 DKFP that are probably half of Westbrook's true fantasy ceiling.
• LaMelo keeps struggling, and it's now been two games in a row finishing with no more than 7 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists... and shooting a combined 18% from the floor (5-of-28). Similar bad outings by all of C.J. McCollum (14-1-1-1-2), Kyle Lowry (4-6-5-1-1 shooting 20%), Tim Hardaway Jr. (14% and a 3--3-2-2 line), Collin Sexton, and Michael Porter Jr.
• T.J. McConnell started for Indiana while Malcolm Brogdon recovers from injury, rookie Scottie Barnes got banged up but ended coming back minutes later... and Patrick Williams is done for the year after tearing his left wrist ligaments. Ugh.

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