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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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Sunday, April 11
Denver melts and hands Boston a win while Jonas Valanciunas has a top-10 efficient performance over the season to date
The Nuggets couldn't hold their lead on Sunday allowing the Celtics to go on a ridiculous 31-3 run and a 31-8 fourth-quarter score. Yikes. Nikola Jokic was his usual self adding another trip-dub to his season-log thanks to a 17-10-11 line, but all of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker, and company combined for a resounding comeback that didn't include any true-booming performance from a single Celtic, but was a collective effort that helped them reach that W.
At the top of the fantasy leaderboard, someone not entirely expected to be found there: Grizzlies' center Jonas Valanciunas. It is not just that he racked up the most fantasy goodies, but also how JoVa did it. Valanciunas dropped 34 pops on Indy to go with 22 boards, 2 dimes, and a couple of blocks while shooting 64% from the floor, hitting his two freebies, and committing just one turnover. The most impressive thing, though, is that he finished with 70 FP in only 32 minutes of playing time for a stupid 2.11 FP/min mark that ranks in the top-10 so far this season. Quite a game for the Euro.
- Sunday brought more than a few surprises on top of Valanciunas'. Malcolm Brogdon finished second in the fantasy slate (29-9-11) falling just short of trip-dubbing, while the likes of Caris Levert, DeMar DeRozan, Cory Joseph, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Dejounte Murray, and Marcus Morris all made it to the top-20 in the slate.
- While BogBog was the best Hawk yesterday... what about mighty Brandon Goodwin!? Backing up Trae Young, Goodwin started at the point and dropped a great 17-5-8 line going 7-of-10 from the floor on a low 15% usage rate for 36 FP on the day. It's the first time Goodwin played more than 28 minutes logging 38 against Charlotte yesterday, and of course his best game of the year with season-high marks in every statistical category other than steals.
- Nicolas Batum put on a show from the Clippers pine, becoming the best reserve of the day thanks to a 14-9-3-1-3 stuffed line that included 4 treys on a blistering shooting night for him on low volume (5-of-6 from the floor, pretty much all threes). D'Angelo Russell, who still has to start for the Wolves since coming back from injury, finished second in the pine-riders leaderboard.
- The Bucks stomped Orlando with a silly 124-87 win on Sunday, which cut the upside of all Milwaukee's players due to the huge difference in the scoreboard. No Buck was on the court for more than 29 minutes, and only Khris Middleton reached more than 35 FP on the day. Oh, and Milwaukee did all of this without Giannis available. Talk about a lowly Magic squad.
- Speaking of Orlando and in case you've missed it: Cole Anthony is back for the first time since he got injured all the way back on Feb. 9 and has now played three games for the Magic. He's coming off the bench but logging a good 26 MPG while he's been able to put up 25, 28, and 32 FP in those three matches with an average 11-6-6 line. His shooting has improved one bit, but he's definitely a great WW target ROS given Orlando's tanking status and its need to test the young waters.
- Moving on to the other side of the coin... James Wiseman is most probably done for the year barring an improbable deep postseason run by Golden State. We will see how the Warriors deal with Wiseman's in the near future, and if they don't actually deal him away in exchange for more mature players with win-now prowess such as Bradley Beal this offseason. Wiseman is in such a weird position these days, as his future is nothing but murky, and nobody has a freaking idea of where/how he will be used and playing next season.
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