Big Wednesday couldn’t live up to Tuesday’s hoopla but it slowly caught fire, with Monta Ellis hitting yet another game-winner, the Sixers winning a real-life basketball game, and some big lines where needed for big names like Bradley Beal and Andre Drummond.  With a Bruski Breakdown coming later today, let’s get right to it. 

For real-time NBA updates and fantasy information, you can click here to follow me on Twitter. 

Editor’s Note: Rotoworld’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $150,000 Fantasy Basketball league for Thursday’s NBA games. It’s $25 to join and first prize is $20,000. Starts at 8pm ET on Thursday. Here’s the FanDuel link.

THE BIG NUMBERS

BUSTED

INJURIES

Marc Gasol said after last night’s game that he was dealing with some right knee discomfort, adding that he wasn’t an MRI machine or a computer.  Actually, maybe he is a computer-generated low-carb cyborg with the way he has been playing this year, and if he was to miss any time then Kosta Koufos or Jon Leuer will pick up the slack.  Neither has a tremendous track record of success. 

Luol Deng suffered what he is calling a bruised right hand in last night’s loss, and it sounds like his upcoming absence is past day-to-day and into the short-term ‘indefinite’ range at the least.  Shawne Williams wasn’t doing much even with Josh McRoberts getting eased in, but he’ll be worth a look and the wild card here is James Ennis. 

Even if he jumps into a heavy minute role it’s questionable how many touches he’ll get and whether or not his stat-set can return standard league value.  But I did carry him in my top-200 for a reason this season, as he played a No. 1 role for his Australian team last year and it wasn’t hard to see Heat attrition helping him out.  If you have very low expectations and a roster space to burn, that’s both the fun play and perhaps the one that leads to something down the road.  After all, Deng and Wade are huge injury risks. 

Paul Pierce left last night’s game and did not return due to a “lingering toe injury.”  Beat writer J. Michael wrote that it’s “likely to keep him out of practice in the near future,” and with games coming on Friday, Sunday and Monday there’s some potential for a handful of absences.  Otto Porter and Rasual Butler should be on radars, with the former representing something of a safer play in the event Pierce misses time and Butler being the all-or-nothing play. 

Brandon Jennings may have re-injured his thumb and he certainly sported a line that looked like it came from an injured guy, missing all 11 shots from the field to finish with one point, four boards and 12 assists.  Whatever was going on was contagious too, as D.J. Augustin missed all six of his shots.  Keep an eye out for updates today. 

Derrick Rose (15 points, two boards, five assists, two threes) didn’t get hurt last night but he lives in this section so we’ll point out that he made it through the back-to-back, which is a bit more impressive considering Tuesday’s game went into double-overtime. 

Joakim Noah, on the other hand, is going to give owners fits all year because there’s nothing he and his coach won’t push through.  Noah rolled his ankle pretty badly and stayed in the game, finishing with 14 points, 10 boards, seven assists and a steal.  His numbers are down and if he’s healthy he should improve, but that’s a really big ‘if.’ 

Nikola Vucevic did not play last night due to his back injury despite a report saying he’d “give it a go,” and my guy Kyle O’Quinn couldn’t take advantage because of a questionable Flagrant-2 call.  The fact that Vooch was close to playing means the rotation should return to normal fairly soon, and regular readers already know my position on holding O’Quinn (do it). 

Alec Burks had a brace on his shoulder in Tuesday’s game and the injury kept him out of last night’s action, and the main offensive contributors for the Jazz all enjoyed some extra looks.  Beyond that, Rodney Hood (10 points, two threes, 27 minutes) started for Burks and just isn’t ready for fantasy leagues yet. 

Dwight Howard (knee) is likely out through the weekend and that appears to be the case with Patrick Beverley (hamstring), too.  Terrence Jones’ season is just a mess and he doesn’t sound close to a return at all.  I may wait to see how things settle in once Howard and Beverley return to see if that loosens up any of the reporting on Jones’ injury, but if he remains in limbo I think owners can start to consider a drop depending on format. 

Ersan Ilyasova will miss four games due to his face injury and I’m still not sure if they’ve ruled out concussion issues.  Jason Kidd went away from Jabari Parker (22 minutes), Larry Sanders (22 minutes) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (18 minutes) last night, perhaps because Khris Middleton (21 points, 8-of-13 FGs, one three, eight boards, three steals, one block, 30 minutes) got hot as hell. 

Regardless, Middleton probably graduates to viable desperation play for four-game weeks in 12-team formats, but the valuations on any of the aforementioned aren’t changing due to one bad night.  The only one that isn’t a must-own player in my book is Antetokounmpo but he probably has trade value so I wouldn’t fight anybody over that. 

DeMarcus Cousins won’t play on Friday or Saturday as his viral infection was way worse than anybody close to the team had been letting on. 

For more injury news check out our injury page.

WELCOME BACK

Marcus Smart (ankle) returned to action and played five minutes, but his return isn’t going to do much to impact most fantasy leagues. 

Marvin Williams (shoulder) returned to action but came off the bench, and we’re going to find out pretty soon if Cody Zeller (12 points, eight boards, two assists, 23 minutes) has what it takes to put distance between he and Williams.  The fact that Williams played 25 minutes tonight isn’t a great sign but he wasn’t great or anything, scoring six points with three rebounds and one steal. 

Williams helps stretch the floor for a team desperately needing shooting, but Zeller has much more upside and Steve Clifford won’t have to worry about injuries with him nearly as much.  I added Zeller two weeks ago in a deeper 12-team league when his peripherals were better than they are right now, and I’ve held with the recent developments in his favor but I still wonder if he can produce real value in standard leagues with a lackluster stat set. 

PICKUPS

J.J. Redick scored 20 points with four treys last night and as he relies on his teammates for scoring chances, he’ll go as the Clips go.  And since the team basically used November as their preseason, it’s probably time for Redick to put up serviceable late-round value.  I’m not sure I could be any less excited typing that up. 

Patrick Patterson (13 points, three boards, three treys) isn’t going to win you any leagues but he’s returning top 100-130 value (9/8 cat) on the year and the injury to DeMar DeRozan can only help him out. You may also find Lou Williams on wires after a slow couple of games and that never should have happened in 12-team formats.  He got back on track with 17 points, five boards, two steals and a three in 26 minutes.  James Johnson is also a standard-league hold or add despite just two points, three rebounds, two assists and two blocks.  Like many of his teammates, he was a late-round value before the DeRozan injury. 

Nobody is really on the Josh McRoberts (four points, five boards, three steals) train because frankly he hasn’t given folks much reason to ride, but if we assume he’s going to be fairly healthy this year he stands a great chance of outlasting some of his other, more injury prone teammates.  He returned to the starting lineup and Luol Deng is looking at some sort of extended absence, and I still like his chances of returning late-round value with a slice of mid-round upside. 

Nick Young hit five 3-pointers last night and he’s officially hot, finishing with 21 points to go with a steal and block.  He has lifted his field goal percentage to 40.7 percent and moved into a late-round value for his nine games this season.  This is probably where he’ll be once you iron out all the peaks and valleys, but the add makes sense if you consider he’s one Kobe Bryant injury away from a value bump. 

THE MIDDLE

Channing Frye could start to hit the wire in some 12-team leagues after yet another slow night, as he posted just six points, three boards, two assists and a steal.  He wasn’t bullet proof toward the end of last year but a little goes a long way with him and it’s hard to change a solid late round evaluation based on a shooter’s cold streak.  I’m holding in those formats. 

Robert Covington (17 points, four boards, three treys, one steal, 31 minutes) was an add of mine in my big money leagues two weeks back and it’s been sort of frustrating watching Brett Brown (correctly) sit him down.  Covington, like K.J. McDaniels, gives the Sixers the best chance of winning in both the short and long-term, but all the rough edges demand accountability and until last night Brown hasn’t been playing for wins and losses.  But with Minnesota on the docket and a chance to get that first win, Brown went with his ‘win now’ lineup and owners got a glimpse of the future. 

I can’t guarantee Covington carries this over and it’s unclear what his stat set will look like, though it was plenty versatile in the D-League and there could be some upside.  He’s a stash at best in 12-14 team leagues, and I probably only grab him if I have a declining late-round value to cut loose. 

Devin Harris played 18 minutes and had just two points with three boards on the night.  I’d give him another game or two because he could easily be the last point guard standing, as strange as that sounds, and his fantasy game is fairly potent for an aging, injury prone backup. 

Donatas Motiejunas had another big flashy line with 15 points, seven boards, two assist, one block and one three, but once you get past the popcorn stats he’s still not performing at a 12-team level during his so-called hot streak this week.  The culprits are the typical lack of money counting stats (3PTs, STLs, BLKs), as he has averaged just 0.6 of them combined over the last three games. 

Kostas Papanikolaou (12 points, four rebounds, three assists, one steal) has actually returned more value in standard leagues over that span, but he has faded into the background on most nights.  I mentioned that I overspent on him in a deeper big money format, and barring a major change in either direction for him I’ll be keying on Dwight Howard’s theoretic return to see if that frees up more 3-point looks.  That’s probably his last, best hope for hanging around my roster, and Motie just isn’t doing it for me in standard formats. 

After bringing him up for a week Kris Humphries finally did something with the Nene injury, grabbing 20 rebounds with two steals, one block and six points in 30 minutes.  Nene is apparently targeting a return on Friday, so owners can leave the action on the wire or move along if the Nene return seems imminent. 

DROPS

Evan Fournier continued to slump with just nine points on 4-of-11 shooting, one three and two assists.  I mentioned last week that we had to watch for nagging injuries to play themselves out before ruling on him, and his stat set just isn’t strong enough to sustain lulls in production like this.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see him go on a run again, but owners shouldn’t be afraid to ditch the low upside player for a hot free agent.