Fantasy Basketball Night In Review: Thursday, April 8

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.

Thursday, April 8

Andre Drummond comes back for the Lakers as L.A. unveils their newest toy in Ben McLemore... and eats an L against the Miami Heat

Nothing new in talking about Los Angeles' free fall of late. The Lake Show isn't so much it these days with both LeBron James and Anthony Davis out, so the Lakers have been forced into creative thinking to solve their issues. The plan of action? Signing bought-out Andre Drummond--who went down injured just minutes into his debut a few days ago and came back yesterday--and acquiring Ben McLemore--who last played for the Rockets and debuted for the Purple & Gold on Thursday.

Drummond was relatively good against Miami with a 15-12-3-2 dub-dub, but the fact that his 39 FP led all Lakers along with KCP tells you all you need to know about the talent of this squad these days... Miami, on the other hand, got to enjoy a great night by Jimmy Butler, whose 28-7-5-3 line, paired with a 73% shooting on 11 FGA and 92% on 12 FTA made for a rather slate-leading 86 true shooting percentage.

• Chris Boucher can do it on defense, and he can be an offensive beast to as he proved yesterday with the Raps. Chris logged the highest fantasy points of the day with a 38-19-1-1-1 performance in just 36 minutes for an impossible 1.89 FP/min mark.
• Another--former--Raptor was quite good yesterday, only this time as part of the Detroit Pistons squad: Cory Joseph scored 24 pops while filling his stat line with 3 boards, 7 dimes, a steal, and a block. Cory started at SG, shot 71% from the floor on a more than healthy 14-FGA diet, and is one of my favorite WW targets these days (rostered in just 7% of Yahoo leagues).

• Do you know which other Pistons is a rather nice player to go after these days? Rookie Isaiah Stewart, who starting at C yesterday for Motown put up a sound 16-13-4-1-1 stuffed line in his 33 minutes of playing time. Doesn't get much better than fishing in tanking/bad teams, as many fantasy GMs just don't want any single share from them. Their loss is our gain.
• Shout-out to the off-the-piner of the day, Cleveland Cavalier Taurean Prince! The Prince is no more in Brooklyn's confines, but at least he can rack up numbers in Cleveland, I guess. He logged 28 minutes yesterday and his 22-3-6-1 performance was the best of all eligible reserves from Thursday's slate.

• Speaking of Cavs... Kevin Love had himself a game against OKC yesterday. He played 23 minutes, sure, but he made the most of those ticks with an 18-11 dub-dub to which he added a couple of boards and dimes for the third-highest FP/min mark (1.70) of the day among players with 20+ minutes only behind Boucher and Rajon Rondo.
• All of the good Boucher did, Gary Trent Jr. did not. Trent put up a dud as he couldn't top 8 FP even though he was on the court for a freaking 39 minutes while starting at the SG position for Tampa Bay. Six points, a rebound, a dime, and a very putrid 14% accuracy from the floor on 14 FGA adorned his forgettable line. Ugh.

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