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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, October 28
The Bulls fall for the first time this season losing to New York by one point; Ja Morant edgest Steph Curry and the Warriors in OT
Curry was yesterday's top fantasy play thanks to a fantastic 59.8 DKFP only approached by Embiid (59.0), but not even a 37-7-8-1 (with 7 treys) line helped GSW to defeat Memphis. The main reason for that Grizzlies' victory: Ja, who else could have been? Morant dropped 30 pops on Golden State and paired that scoring outing with a fantastically stuffed 7-5-4 rest-of-line in 42 minutes of playing time.
The Bulls couldn't get things right against New York just by a nail, but that was enough for them to eat their first L of the year. LaVine, DeDe, and Vooch combined for 67 points while Randle, Kemba, and RJ did so for a lower 54, but even then the Knicks went away with the W.
- I mentioned Joel Embiid's top-2 finish above, and oh boy did he play on Thursday. Though a little banged up (only 31 minutes), Embiid gathered a ridiculous 42.7% usage rate while shooting the rock 19 times, attempting 15 free-throws, and putting up a 30-18 dub-dub to go with 3 dimes and one steal. Can't get much better than JoJo's 1.90 FP/min against the lowly Pistons.
- Dejounte Murray was already a known asset, but it looks like he has leveled up to start the year: 23-10-8-1 for the Spur in another near-trip-dub game yesterday facing in-state rival Dallas. Same thing on the other side with Jalen Brunson (get him for free, he is in your WW) as the backup point, edged Luka in DKFP, and finished the game with a 19-7-5 performance.
- Montrezl Harrell did what he hates the most in this world yesterday: start a game. No complaints, though, as Monty logged 34 minutes and got himself a tasty 25-13-5-2-1 line. Unstoppable force for the Hawks, that even throwing John Collins/Clint Caplea his way couldn't prevent his monster game.
- Hella strong game by Mavs' big man Maxi Kleber: 12-10-2-1... with 6 (!!!) blocks against San Antonio hitting 4 treys on top of everything. The amount of fantasy-viable players on Dallas' bench is something very interesting, as it already was last season--I guess some fantasy GMs never learn.
- Cannot trust Shake Milton that much on a daily basis, of course, but with Simmons somewhere not Philadelphia, he will stay on the court for a healthy amount of minutes every other day. Milton was the second-most valuable player to come off the pine yesterday (behind Kleber) and closed his night at a 13-1-5-0-1. Not the worst flier in deeper formats.
- Nice game from rookie Alperen Sengun playing 24 minutes off the bench for Houston (14-5 with 3 steals). Another interesting player to roster/stash in deeper leagues while we wait for him to start getting a larger role in the Rockets rotation.
- Not the most inspiring of days in Lonzo Ball's career, as the point finished with a low 6-6-4 (with a block) line shooting a putrid 25% on 8 FGA.
- Draymond Green saved his day with a packed line reading 4-12-7-3-5, but the shooting was dreadful as he attempted just 5 FGA, no freebies, and all of that while committing 5 turnovers... Something similar happened to Luka, who turned the ball over 7 times (!) while putting up a 25-3-5 outcome.
- Speaking of Dray, he got banged up but ultimately returned to the game yesterday. Mitchell Robinson suffered the same fate with New York, while Kevin Porter Jr. and Patrick Williams weren't as lucky as they left their respective games without getting back to the bench/court.
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