Anthony Davis was uniquely dominant in a loss to the Nets on Wednesday night. Davis collected 26 of the Pelicans’ 41 total rebounds, amounting to 63.4 percent of the team’s boards. That is the second-highest rebounding percentage by any one player in the past 15 seasons. The highest came just last season — also with the Pelicans, as DeMarcus Cousins grabbed 20 of his team’s 31 rebounds in a 128-120 loss to the Mavericks late last December.
Davis led Wednesday’s busy slate with more than 80 fantasy points in DFS play. Davis also joined Kevin Garnett (back in 2003) as the second player in NBA history to post at least 30 points, 25 rebounds and at least two 3-pointers in a single game. As awesome as Davis has been this season, typified by last night’s epic line, he’s universally rostered in all fantasy leagues and is often the most expensive player in daily fantasy competition, thus it’s helpful to also mention how productive Elfrid Payton proved on Wednesday in his second game back after missing 21 straight games and 30 of the past 31 Pelicans games.
Payton tallied a season-high 25 points to go with seven dimes and a team-best net rating of plus-18 as he assumes the valuable, ball-dominant distribution role Rajon Rando successfully fulfilled for the Pelicans last season. Given his long absence to injury, Payton is available in free agency in more than 40 percent of ESPN leagues as of Thursday morning. Payton is a productive passer and seemingly improved scoring threat worthy of more attention from fantasy hoops managers.
With an eye on meaningful fantasy performances and relevant statistical trends, let’s delve into the night that was in the NBA.
Tuesday recap
Highlights
Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans: 34 points (12-25 FG), 26 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, 1 TO
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers: 42 points (12-23 FG), 18 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 4 TO
Paul George, Oklahoma City Thunder: 37 points (15-29 FG), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 1 TO
Gordon Hayward, Boston Celtics: 35 points (14-18 FG), 1 rebound, 5 assists, 2 TO
D’Angelo Russell, Brooklyn Nets: 22 points (9-21 FG), 5 rebounds, 13 assists, 2 steals, 1 TO
Lowlights
Mike Conley Jr., Memphis Grizzlies: 0 points (0-8 FG), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 TO
Collin Sexton, Cleveland Cavaliers: 12 points (5-15 FG), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 TO
Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets: 11 points (4-14 FG), 3 rebounds, 5 assists
Wednesday takeaways
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George has been brilliant for the Thunder and fantasy investors alike. With his quietly efficient game and playing next to triple-double machine Russell Westbrook, George’s awesome season has flown under the radar a bit, as he’s second only to James Harden in scoring 31.2 PPG since the start of December. There’s a solid argument for George as both a real and fantasy MVP candidate. Speaking of his stat-savvy peer, Westbrook posted 14 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists en route to his 115th career triple-double. However, Westbrook shot just 15 percent from the floor, missing 17 of his 20 attempts, which is the fifth-lowest field goal percentage on a triple-double in NBA history, per Elias.
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Hayward produced a stellar game as a reserve for Boston on Wednesday. The former All-Star scored 35 points on a career-best 77.8 percent field goal clip (minimum 15 field goal attempts. Per Second Spectrum, Hayward shot 9-of-10 off the dribble, having entered the game shooting 38 percent on shots off the dribble, which ranked 173rd out of 186 players with 100 field goal attempts entering the day. It’s tough to tell if this is an outlier or potentially an upward trend for Hayward, but it’s clear he merits a bit more patience, given his ability to perform at such as a high level like last night.
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The 76ers improved to 25-14 with a win over the Suns on Wednesday, the most wins by the team’s 40th game since 2000-01 (finished 56-26 and reached NBA finals during Allen Iverson‘s MVP campaign). Embiid recorded his third game this season with at least 40 points and 15 rebounds, becoming just the third player in 76ers history with three such games in a season, joining Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Charles Barkley. Embiid posted 30 points and 14 rebounds in the first half, becoming the first NBA player with 30 points and at least 10 boards in the first half of a game since Antawn Jamison in early December of 2000. On the losing side, Devin Booker poured in 37 points and eight dimes, marking his seventh 35-point game this season, tied for second most in the NBA.
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Tomas Satoransky tallied the fourth-most fantasy points among point guards on DraftKings on Wednesday, besting strong efforts from Ben Simmons and Terry Rozier, to name a few. We knew Bradley Beal would shine in the wake of John Wall‘s season-ending injury, but we’re finding great utility from both Satoransky and from emergent big man Thomas Bryant, who played 39 minutes and pulled 14 rebounds in Wednesday’s win over the Hawks. Wings Jeff Green and Trevor Ariza also merit more attention from fantasy managers going forward. The Wizards are currently an attractive source for fantasy value.
Injuries of note
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Kyle Kuzma left Wednesday’s loss to the Thunder early with a bruised lower back and will undergo an MRI on Thursday to gain more information on the injury. Josh Hart tallied a career-high 15 rebounds with increased exposure and makes for a worthy addition if Kuzma misses any time.
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Dion Waiters played 10 minutes for the Heat in making his season debut after a long recovery from a significant ankle injury. There isn’t much fantasy value to consider with Waiters, with Hart and the likes of Satoransky proving more intriguing of the widely available assets in ESPN leagues.
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Kyle Lowry received anti-inflammatory injections for his back late last week and remains sidelined for the Raptors, with Fred VanVleet expected to start for Toronto against the Spurs tonight.
Analytics advantage for Thursday
Denver leads the Western Conference by just a hair over Golden State. The Nuggets seek to remain atop the conference with a road trip to Sacramento on Thursday in a matchup that claims strong indicators for fantasy fun. Loading up on shares of this game for streaming purpose in redraft leagues and stacking both rosters in DFS could prove respectively rewarding, as Denver sits as slight three-point favorites facing the Kings in a game with a point total that opened at 227, the highest of tonight’s trio of games.
This spells a potentially close and high-scoring game, which happens to be our preferred outcome as statistical speculators. Beyond the proven stars such as Nikola Jokic and De’Aaron Fox, we can look to widely available players such as Malik Beasley, Monte Morris, Juan Hernangomez, Nemanja Bjelica and Buddy Hield when building out depth in lineups tonight.
Top players to watch tonight
This one is pretty simple: Kawhi Leonard makes his return to San Antonio after a drama-filled end to his Spurs career. The former Finals MVP has helped lead the Raptors to one of the league’s best records to date and just delivered a career-high 45 points on Tuesday.
DeMar DeRozan, the man dealt for Leonard in August, is averaging a career-best 6.3 assists while posting his best shooting percentage since his rookie year in Toronto. Leonard ranks seventh among small forwards in added wins this season, while DeRozan ranks fourth in added wins among shooting guards — setting up an epic showdown in Texas tonight.
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