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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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Wednesday, May 12
A chalky slate ends tighter than expected with the Lakers, Hawks, and Blazers as the biggest winners of the day
In a seemingly easy game on paper for Los Angeles, all the Lakers could do was win their match against Houston by two points in the final seconds of playing time. Uh, oh. Dodged bullet... although given Portland's victory against the West-leading Jazz it was good for pretty much nothing. The Blazers were able to keep their distance to the Purple & Gold safe with just three games to go, and it is looking like LA is definitely headed to a GSW-showdown come play-in time.
On the East, Atlanta defeated a Wizards squad that didn't feature Beal for the second game straight in a night when Russ missed on trip-dubbing. The Wizards will face Indy in the play-in and probably do so as the no. 10 team, leaving the home-court advantage to the Pacers. In the most upsetting result of the day, a barren Celtics team could do nothing to get the W against a putrid Cavs team that experienced a renaissance in the shape of a Kevin Love's monster outing.
- Kevin Love was in fact fantastic for the Cavs, finishing with 59 DKFP only bested by Russ on Wednesday's slate of games. Love put up a monster 30-14-3-2 dub-dub with 6 treys and an overall 63% shooting from the floor on just 16 FGA. Good old Love showing he's still got some juice in him, I guess.
- The Nets snatched a win against San Antonio and they did so while welcoming James Harden back. Playing 26 minutes off the pine, Harden was a top-6 play on the day with his 18-7-11-2-2 stuffed line with 3 treys and shooting the rock just 8 times. It makes sense BKN is the title favorite. No matter who is out there, they seem to never skip a beat and always produce in whatever circumstances.
- Gobert came back to his top-level ways with a 15-20 dub-dub to go with 2 dimes, a steal, and a block in Donovan Mitchell's absence. The Jazz couldn't get the win, though, although J-Clark also contributed a nice 29-4-3 line with Joe Ingles adding a 14-4-4-1 outing himself. Phoenix still has a shot to snath that no. 1 seed from Utah in the remaining games.
- LeBron James didn't come back for the Lakers. Anthony Davis didn't play. And you saw what (almost) happened. Los Angeles won against Houston by a measly two points and that is not going to cut it come playoffs time, assuming LA makes it there through the play-in. Every LBJ-team is obviously a contender, as it's been the case for the past 15 years, but are getting into uncharted territory here with James' injury woes painting a more concerning picture of the perennial GOAT?
- With Kristaps Porzingis returning from injury against New Orleans on Wednesday, things couldn't look better for him to have a nice (re)debut. Far from it, though, as he could only reach 30 DKFP in 22 minutes with a 19-5-1-1 line in a rather mediocre outing. First game back, sure, but although things would (should) improve, Dallas' chances at a deep run are basically down to Luka Doncic's performance instead of KP's, I'm afraid...
- Shout-out to Talen Horton-Tucker who had to step up for the Lakers and did so with a resounding 23-2-10-2 dub-dub in 37 minutes for one of the most valuable plays of the night. Same for Payton Pritchard (15-7-3-1) and Nicolas Claxton (18-5 with a steal and 2 blocks).
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