Fantasy Basketball Night In Review: Friday, March 12

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.

Friday, March 12

Houston keeps sinking even with Kevin Porter putting on a show, Kevin Love comes back, and Joel Embiid gets worryingly injured

A night packed full of storylines, this last one. Starting with the most obvious outcome of all, Houston saw its losing streak grow to 15 games on the season, getting back to their last W in Feb. 1. The Rockets have just four games to play this month, and they could very well complete two consecutive months without getting a single win... which doesn't mean they aren't at least finding some light in this horrid span: Kevin Porter Jr., who Houston traded for a while ago in exchange for peanuts, had his best as a pro with a 27-3-8-1-2 line and 48 FP on the night. We stan for KPJ in this crib.

And now, the great and not-so-great news of the day: Kevin Love re-appeared in a basketball court for Cleveland logging 10 minutes of playing time after being out for 33 games. Props to the man for making it back, and wishing him a quick gear-up to have him hooping at a 100% capacity soon. Now, for the bad, JoJo was forced out of yesterday's game with just 20 minutes in his body. We're waiting for the MRI results on Embiid's knee, and Philly must be praying it is nothing serious that can affect its chances at a deep postseason run.

• While Kevin Porter Jr. was the clear surprise of the slate, Kyle Kuzma also had a top-10 fantasy performance to the tune of 46 FP himself. Kuzzy put up an impressive 24-13-1-1 line in just 31 minutes off the pine. That's the Kuzma L.A. will need for at least the next two weeks, which is the time Anthony Davis will remain out per the last update about his situation. Kuzma is still available in 44 percent of Yahoo leagues and should be a must-add in virtually every league where he's available.
• Even though you won't believe it happened in this the year 2021 of our Lord, no player topped 30 points yesterday. That's correct. Zach LaVine was the only one to reach that mark and stopped at it while leading the slate with 6 treys on top of that.

• The Pelicans trounced the Cavs in a game without much sauce to it given the gap between both teams. Anyway, Zion Williamson put up an über-efficient game thanks to a ridiculous 23-6 in 18 minutes with a block to spare. That doesn't look like much, but Zion hit 73 percent of his 11 FGA, scored all 6 FTA he attempted, didn't commit a single turnover, had a bonkers usage rate above 41%, and all things considered, put up 1.81 FP/min. Jeez.
• Rudy Gobert had himself a day: 14-13-1 with 6 blocks on the day, in just 33 minutes against a no-big-men Houston squad that just couldn't do anything to neutralize The Baguette. More impressively: Royce O'Neale (pretty much a fantasy afterthought due to his low stats) put up a dub-dub with a 10-11-3-2 line on just 11% usage. You definitely don't see that every day from Royce.

• I have been preaching the Isaac Okoro word for long. The rookie is definitely going through the growing pains of being a young freshman in a league of men, and it showed on Friday. Okoro played 29 minutes starting once more for the Cavs, but all he could do was put up a 2-0-1 line shooting 13% from the floor and adding 1 TO to that. The playing time is usually so high that he ends racking up counting stats, making him a somewhat viable fantasy option in super-deep leagues, but nights like yesterday's are also part of Isaac's equation.
• Denver better hope Jamal Murray's 3-3-5-2 game against Memphis is nothing indicative of the Jam they'll be getting for the second half. Murray was incredible leading up to the break, even surpassing his Bubble-Murray levels of play, but he's been a little bit random and I wouldn't go against trading him in fantasy leagues for some more consistent assets.

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