Lonnie Walker hit 6-of-9 shots for 14 points, one rebound, one assist, two 3-pointers and two turnovers across 31 minutes in Wednesday's win over the Celtics.
This was a solid game for Walker, and he's been in a nice rhythm over the past two, but with Derrick White (toe) set to potentially return this weekend, Walker is going to lose most of his value. Patty Mills finished with 12 points, one rebound, two assists, two steals and three turnovers in 27 minutes off the bench, and it'll be interesting to see how White's imminent return affects him. We suspect that Walker will take the most significant hit, though.
Isaiah Roby returned to the bench on Wednesday with the return of Al Horford and played just 10 minutes, finishing with four points and a rebound.
Roby was cruising with Horford at home on baby detail but fell back to earth tonight. There's a chance Horford is traded and if it happens, Roby will be worth a look. But as long as Horford is starting and playing for the Thunder, Roby's a serious drop candidate.
Jae Crowder hit 5-of-16 shots and four 3-pointers for 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in 33 minutes of Wednesday's loss to the Thunder.
Crowder lost his starting power forward job to Cameron Johnson (eight points, 5 boards, 2 threes) but has made two straight starts with Devin Booker shelved with a hamstring injury. Crowder is averaging 19 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 5.0 3-pointers in those two games, but should crawl back under a rock once Booker is ready to roll again. But if Booker misses more games, Crowder makes for an interesting flier until he's back.
Deandre Ayton hit just 2-of-7 shots for five points, 14 rebounds, a steal and four turnovers in Wednesday's 102-97 loss to the Thunder.
Ayton had scored between 17 and 27 points in his previous four games and has been a rebounding machine in January. But inconsistency keeps raising its ugly head and Ayton has yet to put together a stretch of more than four great games in a row this season. He was dominated by Al Horford tonight and will try to get back on track against James Wiseman and the Warriors on Thursday night.
Chris Paul hit 12-of-21 shots, three 3-pointers and 5-of-5 free throws for a season-high 32 points, five rebounds, five assists and a steal against his former team in a 102-97 loss to the Thunder on Wednesday.
CP3 looked good tonight and saw some extra opportunities with Devin Booker sitting again with a hamstring injury. Paul has quietly scored in double digits in 12 straight games and had a combined 28 assists in his previous two games. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had his way with Paul tonight, but CP3 is still a pretty efficient point guard, returning fifth-round fantasy value on the season.
Ricky Rubio didn't do much through 22 minutes as a starter on Wednesday, contributing just five points, five assists, one rebounds and three turnovers in a loss to the Warriors.
Rubio finished 2-of-7 from the field and 1-of-2 from the stripe, and he failed to bring any defensive statistics to the box score. He's having a miserable year in Minnesota, and even with D'Angelo Russell (quad) out of the lineup, he hasn't been able to do much. Rubio acknowledged how much he's been struggling after the game, saying, "my game is not here and I gotta find it." He's gotten off to slow starts before, but this is the worst start from the 30-year-old PG in recent memory, and we're not entirely confident he'll be able to turn it around as long as he's with the Wolves.
P.J. Washington busted out of two-game funk on Wednesday with 18 points, eight rebounds, four assists, one 3-pointer and three turnovers in 32 minutes.
Washington had combined for 11 points in his previous two games, with just two points his last time out, but he matched that total by halftime today and finished 6-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-5 from the stripe. He led the team in plus/minus tonight with a plus-17 rating, but despite this effort, the Hornets still lost — dropping their second straight game. Gordon Hayward netted 16 points (6-of-14 FG, 3-of-4 FT) in the 10-point loss to Indiana, adding one 3-pointer, one rebound, four assists, one block and one turnover across 40 minutes.
Aron Baynes fouled out in 23 minutes on Wednesday, scoring 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting with six rebounds, two assists, three blocks and zero turnovers.
Baynes has struggled with his new team but he's shown signs of improvement recently, now averaging 10.7 points on 46.7% shooting in the past three games. "It's a new environment for him," Nick Nurse said. "I was kind of searching pretty hard there [with rotations] early, that affected him a great deal ... I think he's now getting his body on people at the rim a little more and he's getting his body on people in the rebounding department as well." Toronto's decision to waive Alex Len eliminated one threat to Baynes' role and he's worth a look if you don't require more than a trickle of boards, blocks and 3-pointers.
Khris Middleton racked up 24 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, five 3-pointers and one steal in a win vs. the temporarily Tampa-based Raptors on Wednesday.
Middleton is averaging 5.8 assists per game, by far the most in his nine-year career. He's also grabbing a career-high 6.3 boards while shooting 52.2% from the field, 42.6% from downtown and 92.0% from the line. He's loving life in the Bucks' updated offense, which isn't likely to change since Milwaukee's 117.9 offensive rating is tops in the league. Even if he doesn't maintain his 50/40/90 clip as a scorer, Middleton's all-around game has never been more valuable for fantasy GMs.
D.J. Augustin came off the Bucks' bench for nine points, one rebound, one assist and one steal in 14 minutes, hitting 3-of-7 shots with all of his makes from downtown.
Augustin has done little to distinguish himself as the Bucks' backup point guard, chipping in 5.9 points, 1.2 threes, 2.7 assists, 1.2 rebounds and 0.5 steals. He's shooting a mere 34.6% from the field, and even if the shots start falling he's simply not playing enough (18.2 minutes per game) to make an impact outside of deep leagues. The past few years with Orlando suggest his ceiling is barely top-200.
Giannis Antetokounmpo notched 24 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists during a 115-108 win vs. Toronto on Wednesday, shooting 8-of-14 from both the field and the free throw line.
He added a steal and a block and finished one dime shy of his third triple-double of the season. It's just the latest monster game from Giannis, who continues to pile up elite numbers despite some hiccups. The Bucks are getting him the ball on the wing more often, with a teammate in the baseline dunker spot, which he concedes has been a challenge. “It’s something new for me. It’s something that I’ve got to work on," he said. "It’s not like previous years where it was a little bit easier. I knew the offense." That doesn't account for his dip in rebounds (10.5 per game, down from 11.4 last year) or career-worst shooting at the line (58.5%), but there's plenty of time for the twice-reigning MVP to spiff up those numbers.
Pat Connaughton had two points, three rebounds and one turnover to his credit in 14 minutes vs. the Raptors on Wednesday.
Connaughton is playing well as a glue-guy off Milwaukee's bench, but his narrowly-defined role prohibits rostering him in almost any format. Interestingly, Connaughton is just 2-of-12 on three-point attempts from 22-24 feet, yet he's a blistering 17-of-30 (56.7%) on shots from 25+ feet. Maybe he should exclusively take step-back triples.
Jrue Holiday scored a season-low seven points vs. the Raptors on Wednesday, adding seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals and one turnover in 35 minutes.
Holiday had his worst shooting game of the season, going 3-of-14 from the field and 1-of-8 from deep. He even blew an easy layup off a nice pass from Giannis late in the fourth, but the Bucks' juggernaut of an offense still piled up 115 points in a road win. Holiday has been flirting with a career-best mark from the field this season (49.3%), and his 38.4% accuracy from deep is the highest since 2013-14. Tonight's struggles were just a speedbump on the road to early-round value.
Chris Boucher only played 13 minutes during Wednesday's loss to the Bucks, scoring 10 points with three rebounds, two blocks and one assist.
Nick Nurse opted to go with Aron Baynes for 23 minutes, tonight, plus 12 small-ball minutes featuring Pascal Siakam or Stanley Johnson at center. Boucher was busy when he was on the court, at least, shooting 3-of-9 from the field with two 3-pointers and zero turnovers. We'll chalk up the playing time to a matchup-based wrinkle from Nurse, since Boucher hadn't played fewer than 20 minutes since Jan. 6. He gets a delectable matchup on Friday against a Kings team that will likely deploy Hassan Whiteside with the second unit.
Will Barton hit 4-of-8 shots for 10 points, three rebounds, one assist, two 3-pointers, one block and three turnovers in 21 minutes.
Barton had scored a total of just seven points in his previous two outings, and he looked on track to completely break out of the funk tonight with all 10 of his points coming in his first eight minutes of play, but then he disappeared after that. Some of that may have had to do with the blowout nature of the game, but Barton has been brutally inconsistent this season, and it's fair to wonder just how long he'll be able to keep Michael Porter Jr. out of the starting group. MPJ netted 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go with five rebounds, three 3-pointers, one assist, four steals and three turnovers in 25 minutes off the bench.
Paul Millsap scored 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting Wednesday, to go with seven rebounds, three assists, one steal, one 3-pointer and two turnovers across 24 minutes in an easy win over the Heat.
The Nuggets have now won five straight, and their defense was excellent tonight, holding Miami to 30-of-80 shooting (37.5%) from the floor and 13-of-45 (28.8%) from 3-point range. Millsap continues to start, but he's been severely outplayed by JaMychal Green lately, and that remained the case tonight with Green tallying 15 points, 10 rebounds, three 3-pointers, one assist and one steal in 20 turnover-less minutes off the bench. While Millsap is the starter, Green is the better guy to roster.
De'Andre Hunter made another start on Wednesday and had 21 points, five rebounds, four assists, a steal, two blocks and a 3-pointer on 7-of-12 shooting in a team-high 45 minutes of Wednesday's overtime loss to the Nets.
Shockingly, Hunter has scored in double figures in every single game this season and he's been particularly hot over his last three games, averaging 25.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.0 blocks and 1.7 3-pointers. He's scored 21, 22 and a career-high 33 points in each of his last three games and while he's rostered in 76 percent of Yahoo! leagues, that number could be higher. Make sure he's not on the wire if you play in a smaller league.
Kendrick Nunn hit 7-of-16 shots for 17 points, two rebounds, one assist, three 3-pointers, three steals and two turnovers across 39 minutes in Wednesday's blowout loss to the Nuggets.
Nunn went just 5-of-17 from the field his last time out, so it was nice to see him come through with a more efficient effort. He's been decent over the past six games, but with Tyler Herro (neck) and Jimmy Butler (COVID-19) almost back, Nunn is about to lose all of his value and return to being a DNP-CD guy.
Danilo Gallinari played 14 minutes and hit 4-of-6 shots and a 3-pointer for 11 points and nothing else in 14 minutes on Wednesday.
He completed a big step in his comeback from an ankle injury tonight by playing in back-to-back games, but he's not yet worth using in fantasy leagues. If you are in a deep league and want to stash him, go for it, but standard-leaguers can probably do better off the waiver wire, at least for now.
Cam Reddish played through his achilles tightness on Wednesday and went off for a season-high 24 points, six rebounds, one assist, two steals and two 3-pointers on 9-of-17 shooting in 35 minutes of an overtime loss to the Nets.
He obviously wan't on a minutes count and his injury appears to be behind him, as long as he didn't tweak anything tonight. Reddish had just five points on Sunday before sitting out Tuesday's game, but returned to form on Wednesday. If he was dropped in your league, he's worth a look.