Everyone has their favorite fast-food burger and no one can agree on which one is best. Here on the East Coast, the “Big Three” are McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Burger King. Everyone has their preference. None of them are the best burger you’ll ever have, but when at 1 AM there are limited options. James Borrego had limited options last night with Cody Zeller out and he decided to give Bismack Biyombo the start to try and match up with Nikola Jokic. It didn’t really work out, but he ended up getting 30 minutes and putting up a decent line going 16-12-0-2-2-2 on 7-of-10 shooting and 2-for-3 FTs. Who knows if he’ll continue to get minutes, but Zeller is slated to miss at least four weeks so he could be worth a speculative add. Side note: Borrego is Lamb in Spanish. Jeremy Lamb plays for the Hornets, but was out last night. Illuminati confirmed. Here’s what else went down in the NBA last night:
Devonte’ Graham– 2-10-3-8-0-0-0 on 3-of-9 shooting and 2-for-2 FTs. He’s been pretty consistent over the last four, but he’s nothing more than a short-term add.
Nikola Jokic– 3-39-12-6-3-1-2 on 16-of-29 shooting and 4-for-5 from the stripe. So as you can see, no one could really stop Jokic last night. He’s been absolutely studly over his last four, and he’s putting up late first round value, right around where you drafted him.
Paul Millsap– 1-18-6-3-4-0-2 on 7-of-14 shooting and 3-of-4 FTs. He’s rounding back into form and the buy-low window may be closing. This was his fourth game back from a long injury-absence, so like Sinatra said, “The Best is Yet to Come.” Have a JD on the rocks and live it up.
Gary Harris– 3-17-6-5-1-0-0 on 7-of-15 shooting and missed his lone free throw in 26 minutes off the bench. The Nuggets are getting healthy and Will Barton should be back any day now. The fact that they’ve stayed the number one seed in the West with all their injuries speaks to their depth. Unfortunately, guys like Juancho Hernangomez, Malik Beasley, and Monte Morris who were all putting up nice numbers, are now pretty much irrelevant again.
Ricky Rubio– 1-18-2-4-1-0-4 on 6-of-13 shooting and 5-for-5 FTs. The Ravishing Ricky Rube has had an up and down year, but he’s a solid source of assists, steals, and FT%.
Donovan Mitchell– 1-26-5-5-3-1-2 on 10-of-21 shooting and 5-for-6 FTs. If you don’t believe in the Sophomore Slump, here’s Exhibit A. He still has a lot of time to turn it around though.
Dante Exum– 4-2-5-0-0-0 on 1-for-1 shooting and 2-for-2 FTs. Came off the bench and only played 8 minutes. He left with an injury in the second quarter, but he had been playing well. He’s still young and has some potential, so hopefully, he finds minutes at some point.
Blake Griffin– 3-34-10-5-2-0-3 on 13-of-21 shooting and 5-for-6 from the line. Blake Superior!
Andre Drummond– 15-18-0-3-1-3 on 7-of-10 shooting and 1-for-4 from the line. You wouldn’t expect him to be 18th in the league in steals, but he’s really a D-stat Maestro.
Reggie Bullock– 5-19-3-2-0-0-2 on 7-of-14 shooting. Definitely worth an add if you need 3’s, but he doesn’t offer much else.
Bruce Brown– 12-3-7-0-0-4 on 3-of-7 shooting and 6-for-6 FTs. Started and got 35 minutes. I had to look up who this guy was, and after checking I’m gonna take a hard pass. Okay, I reread this and I feel bad now. This guy’s just out there trying to make it and we’re deeming his worth. I feel like this guy: https://cdn.dopl3r.com/memes_files/professional-basketball-player-misses-free-throw-me-what-a-fucking-idiot-goHcQ.jpg
Dennis Smith Jr.– 2-1-4-0-0-1 on 1-of-5 shooting. This game was not as close as the final score would indicate, and Smith Jr. got only 22 minutes. Another guy who’s brimming with potential, but I can’t really say where he’ll end up.
Luka Doncic– 1-14-8-4-2-0-0- on 4-of-16 shooting and 5-of-10 FTs. I love his game, but for fantasy, he has bad percentages, doesn’t get many D stats, and turns it over way too much. Am I developing into a Doncic hater? Slowly, yes.
Ben Simmons– 20-14-11-0-0-4 on 9-of-17 shooting and 2-of-6 FTs. Another day, another triple-double for the Aussie. No D stats suck, but the poor FTs are expected.
J. J. Redick– 2-20-2-2-2-0-1 on 8-of-14 shooting and 2-of-3 from the line. If you want consistency, JJ is your guy. I would guess he’s traded a lot for higher risk players. That being said he’s averaging a career-high 18.3 points per game in his 13th season.
Anthony Davis– 20-10-3-4-2-1 on 6-of-12 shooting and 8-of-10 from the line. If this was against a real team, the line could have been way bigger, but Cleveland just couldn’t put up enough of a fight and lost by 35.
Julius Randle– 1-22-12-8-1-0-2 on 8-of-14 shooting and 5-for-5 FTs. Julius off the Randle! Again, against the Cavs…
Jrue Holiday– 4-22-5-3-2-1-0 on 9-of-13 shooting. Some doubted he’d be worth a second round pick (me), but he’s been all that and a bag of chips.
Tristan Thompson– 10-11-2-2-1-1 on 4-of-8 shooting and made both FTs. TT’s second and third seasons were fairly useful for fantasy, then he went into a four year lull, but now he’s back to being useful. Odd career trajectory, but hopefully you added him.
Patrick McCaw– 0-1-0-1-0-0 on 0-of-2 shooting in 17 minutes off the bench. Are you telling me it’s easier to look good on the Warriors than the Cavs? The Real McCaw has scored five points in three games in Cleveland.
Pascal Siakam– 3-30-4-3-0-2-0 on 11-of-15 shooting and 5-of-7 FTs. Steal of the Draft.
Kawhi Leonard– 2-30-6-6-5-0-2 on 8-of-16 shooting and 12-of-15 FTs. The Raptors hardly used their bench in this one so the starters all had big games.
Fred VanVleet– 5-21-5-8-0-1-0 on 6-of-12 shooting and 4-for-4 from the line. Fred VV got Very Very hot from downtown and had one of his best games of the year.
Serge Ibaka– 1-25-9-5-0-1-3 on 11-of-17 shooting and 2-for-3 from the line. After three quiet games Serge reemerged. He does it all (besides assist) with great percentages.
Giannis Antetoukunmpo– 3-43-18-4-1-0-6 on 16-of-25 shooting and 8-of-11 FTs. The three-pointers are starting to trickle into the box score. Just don’t forget the D… G.
Eric Bledsoe– 2-14-3-8-2-0-3 on 4-of-9 shooting and 4-for-5 from the line. Eric the Bled won’t wow you on most nights, but he’s a nice mid-tier PG.
Malcolm Brogdon– 1-15-3-5-1-2-0- on 5-of-11 shooting and 4-for-4 from the line. Speaking of… Malcolm’s made a nice jump this year and his numbers are fairly similar to Bledsoe’s, but with way better efficiency, but about half the steals and blocks.
Jaren Jackson Jr.- 1-15-7-1-4-0-2 on 5-of-8 shooting and 4-for-5 FTs. The scoring is starting to pick up, but I would love to see the huge block numbers on a nightly basis. What? I’m greedy.
Marc Gasol– 6-11-6-1-1-4 on 2-of-9 shooting and made both FTs. Well, he was off the Marc last night and the Grizzlies have been playing like ass lately. He’s just not super aggressive on the offensive end, which is probably why he gets so many assists, but I think he could take over.
Derrick White– 1-19-4-0-1-1-2 on 8-of-9 shooting and made both his FTs. He’s really unlocked his game and is bringing the out-of-position blocks, which are the sweetest of all blocks.
Clint Capela– 13-21-2-0-2-1 on 5-of-8 shooting and 3-of-4 FTs. I feel like every Saturday he has a huge rebounding night, but then again he’s averaging nearly 13 on the year…
James Harden– 5-38-5-7-1-1-7 on 13-of-35 shooting and a perfect 7-of-7 from the line. Just missed six 40-burgers in a row, which sounds like a fat guy’s death wish.
Austin Rivers– 5-21-1-1-0-0-1 on 8-of-15 shooting. Austin has been Stone Cold lately! He’s been getting 38 minutes per game since joining the Rockets and is a viable option until Chris Paul gets back.
Jusuf Nurkic– 25-15-3-0-0-0 on 11-of-18 shooting and 3-of-6 FTs. He’s been on a heater and has had a hell of a week. He’s made big improvements to his FT shooting and has added over one assist per game from last year’s stat line.
C. J. McCollum– 3-24-4-4-1-0-0 on 9-of-21 shooting and 3-for-4 from the line. Here’s a guy if you own him, you don’t want to see his numbers from two years ago. Ok, they’re not even that different, but it’s the difference between about 30 ranking spots.
Damian Lillard– 2-17-5-12-2-0-4 on 5-of-15 shooting and 5-of-6 FTs. It’s nice to see Lillard with the dime bag, but he’s a shooter. Obviously, he had an off shooting night and was able to adjust and Portland came away with the big W against Houston.
Draymond Green– 1-12-7-7-1-2-3 on 5-of-7 shooting and made his lone FT. His scoring has been way down from last year, but he could easily turn it around. I mean, really he should be mostly dunking off of Splash Bros pump fakes.
Kevin Durant– 3-29-5-9-0-2-1 on 11-of-20 shooting and 4-of-5 FTs. There’s really nothing to ever say about him for fantasy, which is funny because in the “real world” he gets talked about a lot.
Stephen Curry– 10-42-5-2-2-0-6 on 14-of-26 shooting and 4-for-4 FTs. Splish Splash.
Willie Cauley-Stein– 14-13-6-2-0-1 on 6-of-13 shooting and 2-for-4 from the line. Raggedy Andy will definitely help your boards and FG%, but he’s a FT killer.
Nemanja Bjelica– 2-12-9-3-2-0-1 on 5-of-9 shooting. Damn. Was about to write: ‘hopefully, you didn’t drop him too soon,’ and then realized I was the one who dropped him too soon in my league.
Buddy Hield– 8-32-5-4-0-0-0 on 12-of-21 shooting. That’s Hield to you pedestrians! He made a big-time jump this year. Kudos if you had the foresight or just lucked into drafting him. It usually takes a good combination of both to win your league.
Bogdan Bogdanovic– 3-17-6-7-3-0-1 on 5-of-17 shooting and 4-for-5 from the line. If he could do this on a nightly basis…well, I’d take it. He’s been the superior Bog over the last two weeks, and he could surpass his bro from another schmo in the rankings.
Justin Jackson– 5-28-5-1-1-0-1 on 10-of-14 shooting and 3-for-3 FTs. In his previous five games he scored 25 combined points so I’d take the wait and see approach.
