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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Wednesday, December 15
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Devonte' Graham hit back-to-back heaves in New Orleans' victory; Anthony Edwards hit a slate-leading, career-high 10 (!!!) treys to put Minny above Denver
Although SGA finished as a top-13 fantasy play and Graham didn't almost reach a top-50 finish in DK's Wednesday slate, the back-to-back three-point shots they hit to close their matchup yesterday were insane. Go watch it if you haven't, as describing it here is falling quite short of showcasing its incredibleness. On that game and for what interests us the most, Brandon Ingram was an absolute scoring threat with 34 pops to his name while adding an 8-4-1 rest-of-line carrying the Pels.
Staying West, Anthony Edwards had one of his best games ever (ever, like, in his one-and-change years as a pro) hitting 10 triples against a Nugs squad that had no answer to stop the sophomore on Wednesday. Ant hit 10 treys on 21 shots from the field, was able to sustain a silly 66.7% shooting percent on the night, and added a packed 5-1-1-1 to his 38 total pops. Only Gordon Hayward topped that outing with 41 buckets, but nobody cares about Gordo so it's alright.
- Nikola Jokic with his sixth triple-double of the season in another match in which efficiency was the name of his game. Joker put up a 27-10-11 in just 35 minutes of play for an average of 1.76 FP/min. And fools are trying to make the MVP race a two-man competition between just Steph and KD... Man.
- Jrue Holiday carried the Bucks to a W with both Giannis and Khris out. All the point did was finish with a sound 26-4-14-1 on a day in which Milly was somehow able to achieve a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter to blast Indiana's chances at an upset. Perhaps the Pacers are right in thinking they should put on rebuilding efforts asap.
- Shout-out Rudy Gobert for his stupid 20-17-3 with a couple of swats to put the cherry on top of a super low maintenance 27-minute performance in which he absolutely bested Jokic's per-minute efficiency with a 1.86 FP/min mark. Jeez.
- The Rockets have yet to complete any sort of trade--they eventually will, because #tankszn--and one of the names in the rumor mill is that of Christian Wood. I'm saying that because rookie Alperen Sengun is the real deal, folks. Best value play of yesterday's full slate thanks to a ridiculous 19-11-5-2-1 packed-full-of-goodies line.
- Vets Night happening yesterday with Terrence Ross and Eric Bledsoe both having terrific 40+ DKFP games for the Magic and the Clips. T-Ross put up 18 points to go with 7 boars, 8 dimes, and 2 stocks; and EB dumped 21 pops (4 treys) and a 5-8-1 rest-of line with an 80% shooting on 10 FGA on the Jazz forehead.
- Mo Wagner and not the Good Wagner with the fantastic 19-6-1 outing in just 18 minutes of playing time off Orlando's pine bo complement partner-in-crime T-Ross... in the Magic's losing effort against the Hawks.
- Son of a Greg Cole Anthony couldn't catch a break yesterday finishing with a low 7-5-5 line shooting a putrid 21% on 14 FGA and turning the ball over 4 times for the Magic in a bulky 34 minutes on the court. Anthony has been fantastic this season, though, so don't get into suicide watch yet because he's been good more often than not.
- Jarret Allen and Kelly Oubre played fewer than 18 minutes each but their lines couldn't have been worse for their price/availability. Afro A with the 6-9-4-0-2 and Kelly with a stinky 3-1-1-1 and just 5 shots on the day. Yikes.
- Paul George missed another game for the Clips, same as teammate Nico Batum... Kuza and Dinwiddie came back for the Wizards but sucked... Speaking of Wiz Kiz, Thomas Bryant's return from his long torn-ACL recovery should happen at some point in January... Trae Young, Chris Duarte, Daniel Gafford, and Reggie Jackson with multiple scares on the day but ultimately made it back to the court... Not so lucky was Markus Howard, leaving early with a knee issue and never coming back to the court--the Nuggets are definitely cursed, boy.
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