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Howdy basketboys and girls, welcome back to another Saturday recap special. There was a great game last night as Ben Simmons and the Sixers almost cooked Steph Curry’s Warriors. The Sixers jumped out to an early 47-28 lead after the first quarter, but the Warriors did Warriors things and pulled off their own 47-15 rout in the third quarter to take back the lead and put the game away. Simmons had 23/8/12 on 11-for-15 shooting and only one turnover in the close loss. Wow. We knew he was great, but he’s blowing past everyone’s expectations this season. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy basketball:

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Steph Curry – Did the damn thing and carried the W’s to the win. 35/5/5 on 11-for-22 shooting, with 4-for-9 from three and a perfect 9-for-9 from FT. Second best shooter of all time, after The Man with No Name.

Kevin Durant – A pretty ho-hum rainbow for The Servant as he went 27/5/3/2/2 on 11-for-20 shooting. Only 1-for-6 from three and 4-for-6 from FT, but a damn good line nonetheless. Right now he has 2.2 blocks per game, shattering his previous career high of 1.6 that he set last year. Funnily enough, that 1.6 was already a big jump from his previous-previous career high. There’s something in the water down in Golden State.

Klay Thompson – 17/4/1 with no defensive stats on 7-for-17 shooting. They can’t all be winners.

Draymond Green  8/7/8/1/2 on 4-for-6 shooting. It’s been an interesting season for Dray so far. His assists are slightly down, but turnovers are up. Steals are way down, but threes and overall efficiency is up.

Dario Saric – 13/10/4/2/1 on 6-for-17 shooting. He started off the season really slow, but he’s starting to put it together as he gets more comfortable.

Robert Covington – The 62 million dollar man proved his worth as he put forth a nice 20/6/1/2/1 line on 6-for-13 shooting with 5-for-11 of those being threes. Lord Covington feels like the ultimate rags to riches story as he went from D-League to Hinkie-era Sixers afterthought to impact player on a promising new-look Sixers team. He’s shooting a hair under 50% from three this season so some regression is definitely on the horizon (previous high of 37.4%) but he’s still great.

JJ Redick – 20 points with little else on 8-for-16 shooting. Playing his role perfectly.

Joel Embiid – 21/8/3 with five turnovers and 7-for-16 shooting. It’s crazy that this feels like a bad game for him. If Fultz ever comes close to his potential… oh man.

Richaun Holmes – 6/4 with a block in 14 minutes. He has a high ceiling, but also a pretty low floor as long as he’s coming off the bench. Might be best to to just keep him on the wire for now unless you also own Embiid.

Lou Williams – Led the Clippers in scoring with a 25/2/4 line as they got bounced by the Hornets.

Blake Griffin – 19/8/4 with 3 turnovers on 6-for-17 shooting with two threes. Blake’s at a huge 2.1 threes per game this year, which is a huge increase on 0.6 from last year. Unfortunately, his FG% is also suffering as a result, as Blake’s FG% is down to 42% from a career average of 51%.

DeAndre Jordan – 10/14/2 with two blocks on 4-for-5 shooting. Surprisingly he went a perfect 2-for-2 from FT, but otherwise it was a quintessential DJ game.

Austin Rivers + Sindarius Thornwell – The starting Clippers back court had a 14/4/6 line with four turnovers on a combined 5-of-19 shooting in a combined 65 minutes. It’ll be a bit ugly while Milos Teodosic and Patrick Beverley are both out.

Kemba Walker – Led the way for the Hornets with a 26/2/6 line with six threes on 8-for-17 shooting.

Dwight Howard – 16/16/1/2/1 on 7-for-10 shooting. Dwight’s career narrative has been really weird, as I’ve never seen someone go from lovable superstar to laughable locker room cancer so fast. Remember when he was Superman? I don’t even know how to classify Dwight at this point, but I guess I’d say this is a bit of a redemption campaign as he was chased out of Atlanta and Houston (and Los Angeles). His numbers are actually down across the board, but he’s still producing at a high level, especially if you’re punting FT%.

Nicolas Batum – 12/4/7/1/2 on 4-for-11 shooting in his third game back from injury and he still looks a bit rusty. But the numbers and minutes are still there, so play with confidence.

Jeremy Lamb – 17/4 with two threes in only 22 minutes as his season slash is at 16/5/3. His minutes are obviously not going to be in the 30s anymore now that Batum is back in the fold,  but he should still provide some scoring value off the bench.

Derrick Favors – 25/11/3 with two blocks on 10-for-12 shooting as the Jazz clapped the Magic by 40 points. Favors should be juicy while Rudy Gobert is out with injury.

Rodney Hood – Caught fire and went off for 31/5/2 with seven threes on 12-for-21 shooting in only 26 minutes. Even with Mitchell starting now, Hood will still be good for scoring off the bench.

Ricky Rubio – 9/6/3 with no steals on 3-for-9 shooting in 16 minutes. The Jazz won by 40 and scored 125. Granted, Ricky’s been nursing an injury, but this still feels like some ticker tease.

Donovan Mitchell – 12/6/3/3 on 4-for-9 shooting with three threes. He’s looking really good and it looks like the Jazz will be playing him heavily from here on out. I’m sorry for doubting his readiness.

Raul Neto – 9/2/7/2 on 3-for-5 shooting. Didn’t really do too much, but I wanted to highlight that he was a +44 tonight. Just thought that was funny.

Thabo Sefolosha – 8/4/1/2 on 3-for-5 shooting. Not the most well-rounded player, but my favourite D-stat streamer.

Aaron Gordon – 18/9/1 on 6-for-12 shooting for the real dunk champ.

Nikola Vucevic – 8/2/1/3/2 on 3-for-11 shooting. Favors bodied him tonight, but at least the stocks were there, I guess. It was just a bad game for the whole team outside of Gordon.

Arron Afflalo – 3/7/4 on 1-for-6 shooting in 24 minutes. He was -33 in 24 minutes! Hilarious.

Kyrie Irving – Carried the Celtics to the win over the Hawks as the C’s continue to steamroll through the competition. 30/4/5 on 10-for-12 shooting with five threes as he starts to justify some of the early-season MVP whispers. Truthfully, I like to think Al Horford is probably the Celtics MVP so far, but maybe I’m just being contrarian.

Al Horford – Speaking of which, Horford went for 7/6/6/1 on 3-for-11 shooting. Kyrie for MVP!

Jayson Tatum – 14/7/0/4/2 on 5-for-11 shooting. Do you think the C’s regret not taking Markelle Fultz?

Jaylen Brown – 27/4 on 10-for-13 shooting. Very few teams had Brown at #3 on their draft board in 2016. If they redrafted again today, Brown probably goes second behind only big Ben Simmons.

Dennis Schroder – 23/2/9/2 as he’s putting together a low-key all-star season for the bottom-feeding Hawks. Even though he has almost no offensive talent around him to relieve pressure, his FG% remains a respectable 45% on high volume.

Kent Bazemore – 19/3/4/2 on 5-for-8 shooting. Someone’s gotta score!

Taurean Prince – 14/5/3 on 6-for-8 shooting as he continues to develop nicely. No D stats, but a solid line regardless.

John Collins – 18/7/1/1 on 7-for-8 shooting as he’s looking like the future of the Hawks’ frontcourt.

James Harden – 29/5/7/3 on 9-for-20 shooting with six threes as he led Houston to the win over the Grizzlies. This guy is definitely a professional basketball player.

Chris Paul – 17/2/6/2/1 as he progresses nicely in his second game back from injury.

Clint Capela – 17/13 with three blocks on 7-for-11 shooting. This tweet says everything you need to know.

Chandler Parsons – 17/2/1 on 7-for-9 shooting. He had 13/3/2 on 5-for-7 shooting in his last game, and has scored in double digits in four of his last six games on good efficiency. I know I shat on him a bit, but maybe it’s time to give Parsons a look.

Tyreke Evans – The former rookie sensation’s dream season hit a small speed bump as he fell to a 7/7/2 line on 3-for-10 shooting. He’s been tearing it up this season so it’s fair to not panic just yet after this one.

JaMychal Green – 15/6 on 6-for-8 shooting with two threes. Solid showing, but I’m still only really perking up if I’m in a deeper league.

Marc Gasol – A bit of a rough one as he only shot 6-for-17 (1-for-3 from three) but put up a good popcorn line of 15/9/4/0/2.

Wes Mathews – Surprisingly led the 3-14 Mavericks to a blowout win over the 8-7 Bucks. Wes had a great game, going for 22/2/8/2 on 8-for14 shooting with six threes. He’s been mediocre since joining the Mavs, but this was a nice surprise.

Harrison Barnes – 18/7/1/1 with two threes on 5-for-11 shooting. Another pretty empty line, but it got the job done.

Dirk Nowitzki – My boyfriend started at centre and it didn’t go so bad, but Dirk only produced a 7/7/4/1 line on 3-of-8 shooting. I’ll take it!

Dennis Smith Jr. – 5/4/2/1/1 on 2-for-8 shooting and four turnovers. But the Mavs still won by 32!

JJ Barea – 20/3/7 on 5-for-10 shooting with four threes as he’s been playing pretty well off the bench. Definitely worthy of streaming, at least.

Salah Mejri – 2/3 with a block in 7 minutes. Expect nothing from Mejri.

Giannis Antetokounmpo – 24/17/2/3 on 7-for-20 shooting. A huge game, but The Alphabet took an L tonight.

Khris Middleton – 23/0/2/1 on 9-for-12 shooting and three threes. Pretty empty line, but it’s not easy to play basketball when you’re pregnant.

John Henson – 5/2 with only one block on 1-for-2 shooting. At least he got the block!

Eric Bledsoe + Malcolm Brogdon – Combined for 10/5/5/2 with three turnovers on 4-for-19 shooting on 0-for-6 from three in 54 minutes. Yowza!

Skal Labissiere + Garrett Temple – Somehow these Sacramento starters combined for 0 points on 0-for-17 shooting in 38 minutes. Sacramento lost to Portland, obviously.

Zach Randolph – The former jailblazer had a nice game, going for 17/5 on 6-for-11 shooting even though they lost.

Willie Cauley-Stein – The other bright spot for the Kings, going for 18/9/0/3/1 on 6-for-13 shooting with a three.

Frank Mason – 13/2/2 in 19 minutes as he got some nice run off the bench with George Hill (12/4/1/2/1) and De’Aaron Fox (11/2/2/2) starting together.

Maurice Harkless – Another starter to go scoreless (didn’t even attempt a shot in 19 minutes!) except this one was for Portland. Harkless? More like scoreless!

CJ McCollum – Led the Blazers with 25/3/4/2 on 9-for-16 shooting.

Damian Lillard – Dame Dolla provided a nice complement, going for 22/2/6/1/1 on 8-for-18 shooting.

Jusuf Nurkic – 14/7/2/0/4 with four turnovers on 6-for-12 shooting. The juice is loose! Losing steam, that is! H-haha.. After the preseason hype train reached record speeds, it’s now just kind of cruising along. 14/7/2 with 1.9 stocks in 27 minutes is about his season average thus far, after averaging 15/10/3 with 3.2 stocks in 29 minutes with this team last year. The potential is there, especially for defensive stats, but maybe we shouldn’t be expecting the world.

 

Well that about does it for this week’s Saturday Daily Notes. As always, drop me a comment, question or your parents’ credit card info down in the comment section. Cheers!