RADIO
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.
Monday, May 10
Russell Westbrook makes NBA history while Washington can beat Atlanta; Boston says goodbye to their chances as Jaylen Brown will miss the remainder of the season
First things first, because this type of thing doesn't happen every day: Russ broke an all-time record on Monday by dropping his 182nd triple-double in the Association. That means Russ has put up a trip-dub every five-and-change games, which is pretty much ridiculous and averages up to around 16 triple-doubles per season. I mean, in this 2021 years of our Lord, not even one player has reached 16 trip-dubs other than Russ, with Jokic ranking second at 15 entering Tuesday. Bonkers.
Now for the bad, the Celtics announced that Jaylen Brown has injured his wrist and will miss every game for the remainder of the season--regular and post. The Celtics dropped to the play-in places a few days ago and are locked into being part of the upcoming mini-tournament. No matter whether they scape it or not, odds are Boston still get out of the postseason as early as the first round finishes. Tough break for them. Try again next season, I guess.
- Obviously, Russ led the slate with 80 DKFP and a 28-13-21 line while shooting a good 46% from the floor on 22 FGA. The most surprising thing? He was able to limit his TOs to just 3 even though he stayed on the court 40+ minutes with Bradley Beal missing yesterday's affair with the Hawks.
- Speaking of Beal... his foe for the scoring title, Steph Curry, put up 36 pops on Monday in helping GSW defeat Utah and is still a strong candidate to get away with the PPG lead when all is said and done.
- The Jazz couldn't overcome the Warriors effort, but the true effort was that of Jordan Clarkson. Coming off the pine, J-Clark was his early-season self and 6MOY candidate with a masterful 41-7 game that included a steal to spare. Clarkson hit 5 triples and shot a massive 33 FGA on the day.
- I'm all about fading Ja Morant ROS and in the playoffs if Memphis ends making it there. The true fantasy-winning play in town is definitely Jonas Valanciunas. Another game, another 48-FP burger by JoVa, who put up a magnificent 20-11-2 dub-dub with 5 blocks against a depleted Pelicans squad that pretty much said ciao-ciao to the 2021 postseason with their defeat on Monday.
- Squeeze Cleveland Cavaliers' do-it-all man Dean Wade. The PG/PF/C played 38 minutes for the Cavs against Indy starting at PF this time and was one of the better under-the-radar plays of the day with 45 FP translated from a 19-12-2-3 stuffed line that included 3 treys and only 1 TO. Not bad for Dwayne's heir. Another great Cav: Isaac Okoro who racked up 42+ more minutes of playing time on the year with a 22-10-4-1 dub-dub too.
- Shout-out to the Rockets for breaking another record, this one as a franchise: Houston has now used the most players in a single season with 29 (!!!) different guys making it to the court for a variety of reasons throughout the year. Three games still to be played, so don't rule out the 30th name popping up at some point this last week of games!
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