Fantasy NBA Daily Notes: Fantasy Tips and Top picks for December 7th
Welcome back to another exciting day of the NBA 2018-19 season. There are almost 10 games to choose from and watch the ones that catch our fancy. With an eye on the present, let us look at some meaningful performances and delve into yesterday night's NBA games.
Thursday's recap:
1. The Boston Celtics 128 - 100 The New York Knicks
2. The Phoenix Suns 86 - 108 The Portland Trailblazers
3. The Utah Jazz 118 - 91 The Houston Rockets
Highlights:
1. Kyrie Irving (Boston Celtics): 22 points, 9-15 FG, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 TOs and 1 block.
2. Derrick Favors (Utah Jazz): 24 points, 10-13 FG, 10 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block and 1 TO.
3. Damian Lillard (Portland Trailblazers): 25 points, 8-14 FG, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block and 4 TOs.
Lowlights:
1. Marcus Morris (Boston Celtics): 10 points, 5-13 FG, 0-7 3 PT FG, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.
2. DeAndre Ayton (Phoenix Suns): 11 points, 5-13 FG, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 2 TOs
3. PJ Tucker (Houston Rockets): 0 points, 0-2 FG, 5 rebounds.
Thursday's takeaways:
1. The Boston Celtics won an easy game over the New York Knicks, 128-100. They outplayed the Knicks in each quarter of the game and managed to score a lot. Even though Morris and Hayward did not chip in a lot, Brown came back from injury and made up for it, scoring 21 points in 25 minutes.
2. The Phoenix Suns played another game without their main scorers, Devin Booker and TJ Warren again were a really, really bad team. They scored a measly 9 points in the first quarter to the Trailblazers' 34. The Blazers started playing their bench in response and Jake Layman had a 24-point outburst in 26 minutes along with Damian Lillard scoring a team-high 25 points for the Blazers. Josh Jackson had the best outing among the Suns, scoring a team high 14 points.
3. The Houston Rockets got completely outplayed by the Utah Jazz, 118-91. The Jazz outplayed the Rockets 38-11 in the 3rd quarter, even without Rudy Gobert, who got ejected within 3 minutes. James Harden also had an uncharacteristic off night yesterday, making only 5-16 shots, scoring 15 points. Donovan Mitchell also had a very off night, scoring only 6 points in 26 minutes. Derrick Favors had a great night, scoring 24 points in 26 minutes and also pulled down 10 rebounds. Clint Capela had a good game for the Rockets, scoring 12 points and 10 rebounds.
1. PG 1 - Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors):
The Golden State Warriors have been very underwhelming to begin their title defense, currently 5-5 in their last 10, but in 4th place with a 17-9 record. Most of their woes were because of the lack of bench strength, if any of their stars were out due to injuries.
Curry and Green were injured and this is what led to a horrible stretch for the Warriors, given their high standards. Even a considerable fight from Durant, who had scored 3 consecutive 44+ point games, couldn't really start them. But now Steph is back and it's a completely different ballgame when he's in the picture.
Steph returned in the game against the Pistons, which the Warriors surprisingly lost. Curry had 27 points then, showing his slight rustiness after injury. He followed that up with wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks. He scored a game high of 42 points against the Cavaliers and 30 against the Hawks respectively. He is matching a career high of 30 points per game, to go with 6 assists and 5 rebounds. He is one of the first picks on your DFS rosters.
Alternative Picks: De'Aaron Fox (Sacramento Kings)