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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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Thursday, May 13
The race for the no. 4 seed stays hot in the East with all of NY/MIA/ATL winning their games; the West gets tighter with Phoenix win over Portland
Three slates of games to go, no more than two matches for any team to be played. That's the current situation around the L, and things can't get better. Kudos to whoever came up with the play-in idea, cause it surely rocks. Atlanta was able to get the W yesterday and still holds the no. 4 seed in the East with 0.5 games of advantage over both Miami and New York. The most probable outcome is that one, as the Knicks have lost tiebreaks to the other two. A little bit down the standings, the Celtics locked into the no. 7 seed and Charlotte/Indiana will battle for the no. 8 seed as they're currently tied at 33-47 with the Hornets having the tiebreak advantage.
Out West, the Suns went just one behind Utah after defeating Portland... with the Blazers now just 0.5 games above the Lakers, which still need to go 2-0 and Portland to fall in their last match to escape the play-in. Golden State has the tiebreak over Memphis but both teams are tied for the no. 7/8 seeds at 37-33 entering Friday's slate. Denver faces Portland in the season finale, so they will have a kind of a final word in who ends where in the standings.
- Saying that Giannis Antetokounmpo finished as the best fantasy player is nothing mindblowing. Saying Raptors' Stanley Johnson finished second surely is. Johnson racked up 65 FP yesterday playing 43 (!) minutes for Toronto, hitting 35 pops (including 6 treys), and pairing that scoring outing with 10 boards, 5 dimes, and 3 thefts. Not bad, indeed.
- As far as reserves go, Alec Burks was way dominant coming off the bench for the Knicks: 34 minutes and a 30-10-2 dub-dub with 5 triples against San Antonio and a swat to spare was the line. Burks finished with a +13 plus/minus mark with a 29.2% usage rate, leading New York's second unit and hitting 11-of-20 FGA.
- Justin James, whoever that is, played for the Kings... and was the best of the bunch with a 31-4-2-1 line shooting a massive 71% from the floor on a healthy 17-FGA dose to go with three freebies on the day. Now, seriously, James is not the most famous player out there but the kid has played 36 and (to date) 35 games in his two seasons as a pro in Sacto.
- Udonis Haslem finally made his season debut for the Heat, and I can't be happier about it. It took him 2:40 minutes to get ejected from the game, in pure gritty fashion after a scuffle with Dwight Howard. I'll miss Haslem so much, man.
- Domantas Sabonis was, as always, fantastic for the Pacers. He was able to rack up as many as 13 dimes (!) by halftime, but the bad news came in the shape of an early exit after just 26 minutes of playing time. Sabonis left Thursday's game with a 10-6-14-1 line shooting a putrid 26% on 19 FGA, and Indiana better be prying to have him back come play-in time or they will have it hard to make it to the postseason--which is already a talk task facing either/or both Boston and Washington.
- Is JaVale McGee going to be Denver's X-Factor these playoffs? Judging by yesterday's outing, that could very well be the case... JaVale dropped a 12-13 dub-dub to go with 2 blocks for 33 FP against Minny in 24 minutes, becoming one of the most efficient players on the slate. Not saying it happen, but not not saying it either...
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