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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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Monday, March 1
James Harden takes advantage of an OT win to beat a trio of Euro hoopers in the fantasy leaderboard
Yesterday's night, when it comes to fantasy basketball terms, was truly insane and a vivid reflection of the current status of the NBA. Starting at the top, James Harden and the Nets had to endure another Big-Two game in which Kevin Durant wes out of commission. No problem, though, even less now that Kyrie has handed Harden the point duties. Not to take from Irving, who put up a 27-6-7 line himself, but James' 30-14-15-2 performance was one to behold. This one is the 22nd 30-14-15 game in the history of the NBA. Only the fourth time it's happened since 1987 (!!!)...
...and most interestingly, the second in Harden's career (already did it in 2016) in a group that includes Luka Doncid (x2) and Nikola Jokic. Those two Euros, along with Nikola Vucevic, closed the top-4 performers from yesterday's slate. Speak of a multi-cultural league, folks. None of these three were able to trip-dub yesterday, but they all fell this short of it: Joker put up a 39-14-9-1-2, Vuc a 29-15-8, and Luka a 33-10-9. Another Euro, Bojan Bogdanovic, also finished as a top-10 player on Monday.
- Speaking of the Utah Jazz... The no. 1 team in the NBA lost a game to New Orleans yesterday in which Zion Williamson was, once more, unstoppable. 26-10-5 dub-dub for him on 59 percent shooting from the floor. Top-15 in FP, and that is factoring in his high 6 TOs on the day. Yikes.
- LaMelo is for real, and I'm wondering if any or the two of Golden State and Minnesota are regretting passing on him. Fifth-best player of the slate to the tune of a stunning 30-6-8-4-1 stuffed line with 5 triples to his name. And the kid "didn't know how to shoot the rock". #thosetakes
- The other Melo, the OG one, balled for the Blazers yesterday off the bench and is rostered in fewer than half of Yahoo leagues. He closed his game at a nicely rounded 29-3-2-5-2 line hitting 6 treys and putting up 1.55 FP/min (32 minutes played). Definitely a great WW-target if you can still find him sitting there and add him for free.
- Buyers beware: Robert Covington had himself a game with a 21-10-2-2-2 performance shooting 73 percent from the floor including 5 triples. Don't get too high on RoCo, though, has he's been rather disappointing on the year overall. This is the second time since the start of the season he's been able to top 40 FP and score 20+ points. His 0.74 FP/min are way below average (0.9 league-wide) so if you can swing a trade today, go for it selling high.
- Another one-game-wonder-gone-wrong: PJ Washington, who helped Charlotte defeat Sacto a couple of days ago, had a stinker yesterday. All of 30 minutes for a putrid 3-3-2 line with a block shooting 13% on 8 FGA and hitting 1-of-2 freebies to go with 4 TOs.
- We will have to keep an eye on the Hawks. Atlanta fired its head coach yesterday, and we'll need to see if there are any changes in roles/style/etc going forward before proceding to make fantasy moves. The big dogs (Trae Young, Clint Capela, etc...) will keep eating, but the rotation might see some changes in usage that might affect our squads.
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