As expected there were plenty of fireworks on Big Wednesday, including injuries to big-name fantasy plays like Anthony Davis, Kevin Love and James Harden that made owners’ hearts stop (all returned to action).  Kyrie Irving threw his hat into the ring for second-best fantasy line of the year with an NBA season-best 55 points, which would have made a whole lot more noise had Klay Thompson not set the league on fire a few nights earlier. 

The Breakdown will be out later today and we’ll get knee deep in the 11 games that happened last night, but for now here are your highlights in the Dose. 

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Editor’s Note: Rotoworld’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $275,000 Fantasy Basketball league for Thursday’s NBA games. It’s $25 to join and first prize is $20,000. Starts at 7pm ET on Thursday. Here’s the FanDuel link.

THE BIG NUMBERS

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BUSTED

INJURIES

Anthony Davis is a walking heart attack for owners much of the time and it looked like the end was near when he went down holding his leg and knee.  It turned out to be a groin injury and he needed help to get to the locker room, but owners got yet another reprieve as he returned to a standing ovation.  He’s not in the clear just yet, though.  Davis was pulled by Monty Williams when the coach noticed that he wasn’t moving well in the last few minutes of the game.  He’ll get an MRI this morning and Williams said “the doctors wouldn’t allow him to be on the floor if it wasn’t safe,” but that Davis probably convinced them to let him on the floor.  Bang the link to see Williams’ take on the situation, and be ready to upgrade the outlooks for Ryan Anderson, Alexis Ajinca, Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans.  

Kevin Durant (toe) missed another game and it’s interesting in the sense that the Thunder need to stop the bleeding on all sorts of fronts.  That doesn’t mean the injury is serious or anything like that, but you better believe I don’t believe a thing the team says regarding injuries given their history.  All it means is that it’s not something to be completely brushed away. 

Dwight Howard’s underwhelming season continued with another absence last night, as he’s combining an injured ankle with fluid in his knee.  The worst part about this for Howard’s owners is that the team has a more-than-able combo of big men they can play in his absence, so there is no need to rush him back if he’s not fully ready to go. 

The Rockets also appear to have him on a maintenance plan of scheduled rest, though it’s not clear if that’s the case, but the bigger takeaway is that owners can take a few more liberties with the remaining group of bigs.  I can make a case for all three of Donatas Motiejunas (16 points, five boards, one steal, two threes), Terrence Jones (10 points, five boards, two blocks) and Josh Smith (18 points, six boards, two assists, one steal, three blocks, four threes) to be owned and I like them in that order. 

Motiejunas is your safe, low-end play in the event Howard is out or misses a game per week going forward.  I wouldn’t argue with somebody taking Smith over Jones, but the latter has the better fantasy stat set at this stage in their careers.  And unlike Smith, Jones doesn’t need a bunch of minutes to do his damage. 

Smith turned back the clock a few years last night, but less is more with him and last night’s strong line was an example of ‘more.’  Fantasy owners would like him better if he’s doing less (read: shooting, touching the ball) while focusing on defense and rebounding.  That approach would take the boom-or-bust element out of his game and slide him into a top 100-150 outlook if all goes well.  If his usage rate is high he can fall out of the top-200 pretty quick.   

But if you want to shoot for a home run over the next week or so, assuming all the while that Howard misses some time both now and going into the future, then you grab Smith over Jones and hope the Rockets give him a set of keys that work. 

Kevin Love just can’t catch a break in his new digs and last night he added a left knee injury to his list of ailments.  He played through it and hit just 3-of-15 shots for 10 points, 12 boards, zero assists and two 3-pointers, but we’ll all be watching the injury report throughout the day.  LeBron James missed last night’s game and is also doubtful for Friday’s game against the Kings due his shooting wrist injury.  All of this helped contribute to Kyrie Irving’s NBA best 55-point night, and he has a real shot at first round value for the foreseeable future. 

Shooting wrist injuries should be watched extremely closely and LeBron’s injury hasn’t raised any big red flags, for what it’s worth.  As for Love, I am backing off the buy low talk that has receded over the last few weeks.  Though he fits the designation based on his body of work, he just seems snake-bitten this year and there’s no guarantee he can click the way owners hoped he would on draft day. 

Tristan Thompson (four points, eight rebounds, 21 minutes) isn’t a guy that I’ll be running to add in 12-team formats, but I will give some added rope to J.R. Smith (11 points, four assists, one steal, 38 minutes) over the next week or so if he starts to falter. 

J.J. Redick did not play due to back spasms last night against the Jazz, and that would normally be cause for concern since he dealt with a “noodle leg” last year that was part of a mid-body mess.  But Redick might play on Friday so hopefully for the Clippers that’s the end of that talk, since they can’t afford any wing injuries at all.  Jamal Crawford started and predictably stepped up with 21 points and four treys in the win.

Nene (foot) did not play and it’s possible that he’ll miss more time, so it’s time to look at Kris Humphries again.  The Humph scored 11 points with 15 rebounds and one assist but no steals or blocks in his 33 minutes, and he’s currently sitting on top 125-155 value (9/8 cat) over his last 17 games in just 22.4 mpg.  His season long values in a similar mpg split (21.9) are about 40 slots lower, so the reality of what he’s likely to produce is somewhere in-between.  Factor in an mpg jump and you’ve got a late-to-mid round guy whenever Nene is out. 

Mo Williams (hip, personal) did not play last night and that turned the team over to Zach LaVine.  The rookie turned in a solid outing with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting (including a three), four rebounds, six assists and three steals in just 24 minutes.  This is a pretty fluky line and the opposing Celtics aren’t exactly tearing the league up, so I’d still be pretty hesitant to trust LaVine as anything but a flier if Williams misses another one.  Ricky Rubio (ankle) isn’t likely to return until next week according to the most recent reports. 

Following up on yesterday’s Dwyane Wade (hamstring) injury, he is expected to miss “extended time” and that’s not surprising in the slightest.  You guys know how I feel about Mario Chalmers as a must-own player so run and make the add if he’s available. 

George Hill was held out of practice yesterday due to left groin soreness and it’s hard to say if he’s breaking down before our eyes or if this is just a function of trying to rehab in the middle of a season.  He seems genuinely frustrated and that’s a sign that he doesn’t have much control over his injuries, and at some point we’re going to have to re-think trusting him as a stash.  I think it’s a bit too soon for that but we’ll be watching that thread this week. 

Kemba Walker (knee) had a successful surgery and the team reported that he is expected to miss ‘at least’ six weeks, which is code for ‘we’re not bringing him back aggressively if we’re tanking down the stretch.’  Brian Roberts started and logged 37 minutes, posting an understated eight points on 3-of-11 shooting with three rebounds, six assists, three steals and two threes.  I like him as a guy with top-80 upside and a likely top 100-125 return for the next two months. 

For more injury news check out our injury page.

WELCOME BACK

Kevin Martin finally got back on the court after a wrist injury derailed what was a nice little hot streak, as he had poured in 37 points right before getting hurt.  He wasted no time scoring 21 points with four rebounds and two treys in 29 minutes, and he should be owned in all formats regardless of his injury risk.  Andrew Wiggins scored 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting (no threes) with three rebounds, three assists and one block in his 40 minutes, and he’s about to enter that extended buy low period I’ve been talking about for the last week.  Plan accordingly. 

Nicolas Batum played through his shooting wrist injury and scored seven points with four rebounds, seven assists, two steals, one block and a three on 3-of-8 shooting.  As mentioned a bunch in various places, the All Star break couldn’t come at a better time for he and LaMarcus Aldridge (38 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks, one steal, two threes).  I’m still not opposed to judicious buy low plays for Batum. 

Jose Calderon (knee) got back on the floor and scored four points with three rebounds, eight assists and two steals in 27 minutes.  He’s a top-150 value this season in 30.3 mpg and his upside lies in the hopes Derek Fisher uses him the way he has been used in past stops, and the downside lies in the fact that he’s an injury risk with nothing to play for in New York. 

PICKUPS

I’m a Joe Ingles guy.  I’ve had waiver claims in on him in deeper, 12-team formats and narrowly missed picking him up, and he continues to improve as a do-it-all guy for the Jazz.  He posted 10 points with five rebounds, seven assists, one steal and two treys, and looks like a fixture in the lineup going forward.  With a month of ownable value in standard leagues and some nice mid-round value over the last two weeks, I can’t see how he’s floating around any wires in 12-team formats. 

Cody Zeller had a career-night against the Spurs with nine points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, one trey and one block in 37 minutes.  Yes, this happened with Marvin Williams (concussion/broken nose) and Bismack Biyombo (knee) out but the former isn’t a lock to return soon and the latter is out at least 10 days.   Noah Vonleh (nine minutes) isn’t ready and there aren’t a lot of great options in Charlotte to take the ball out of Zeller’s hands, as evidenced by his busy output last night.  He has a month of top 100-110 value under his belt and all of those factors make him deserving of an add in 12-team leagues. 

I’ve had Lou Williams on the ‘hold’ list since DeMar DeRozan has returned because he had a better than even-money shot at holding onto late-round value.  He paid me off with 27 points, four treys and an otherwise normal line, but obviously this isn’t moving the needle with his season-long outlook unless somebody big gets hurt in Toronto. 

Jodie Meeks has been terrible shooting the ball lately, hitting just 33.8 percent of his shots over the last eight games and finding himself on the wire in a lot of standard formats.  Our own Mike Gallagher, the excellent explainer of things like usage rate, noted that he had a 29.4 usage rate last night and along with the 34 minutes he got he’s well-positioned to pop. 

Stan Van Gundy said that he needed to look at doing things differently with him before the game, and the coach usually is pretty honest with assessments like that.  We saw the Pistons go to Meeks a whole lot more than they have been, and most certainly more than they had been with Brandon Jennings around.  Bounce-back scenarios/explosions don’t set up much better than this and I’d consider this a solid and immediate buy low moment — or time for a pickup — and I consider Meeks a sneaky must-own player the rest of the way. 

THE MIDDLE

Brandan Wright scored 13 points with five rebounds, one steal and one block in 17 minutes, and he’s a guy that owners should consider stashing as we get closer to the trade deadline.  Miles Plumlee is firmly on the trade block and Wright can do damage in just 18-22 minutes per night.  The only question is whether or not he’ll lose some of his trademark efficiency with more freedom to shoot from the field than he had in Dallas. 

Jason Smith went for 11 and 11 with six assists and a steal in another start last night.  He’s barely returning late-round value over the last week after the statistical boost this outing provided.  He’s a risk in many regards so he’s just a deep league asset for now.  I’ll cover the Knicks more closely in the Breakdown later today, but Tim Hardaway (14 points, four threes) and Lance Thomas (17 points, five rebounds) are much better options and you already know that Langston Galloway (18 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals, three treys) should be owned. 

Greivis Vasquez started at shooting guard and posted 18 points, four rebounds, six assists, one steal and four treys on 7-of-9 shooting in 31 minutes last night against the Kings.  He has been talking openly about his time in Sacramento, about how he didn’t like it, and along with most of the second unit all of these guys get up for this matchup against their former squad.  So no, I’m not adding Vasquez based on the strength of one good game, but I do find it funny that he’s salty about his time in Sacramento after the front office brought him in on a majestic white horse with trumpets blaring. 

DROPS

Lance Stephenson is a total mess and last night it was an 0-for-5 night for zero points, four rebounds, four assists, one steal, one block and four turnovers.  His fantasy game isn’t great to begin with, requiring heavy utilization and big minutes to even think about cracking mid-round value, so I’m not buying that there’s a whole lot of upside here.  The only thing I can get behind is a stash in the hopes he gets traded to a team that needs him. 

Dante Exum’s move into the starting lineup is curious at best and I wouldn’t be drop dead surprised if down the road we learned that management ordered a change to see what they bought.  He hit just 1-of-6 shots for three points, one rebound and one assist, and with poor fantasy peripherals to begin with I wouldn’t kill anybody for dropping him.      

Dion Waiters managed just eight points and one rebound despite Kevin Durant being out and it’s long past time to drop him.  Even if Reggie Jackson (13 points, seven boards, one three, four assists, four steals) can be traded I don’t think Waiters can crack anything above late-round value in a best case scenario.  Jackson’s chances of being traded have improved according to recent reports, enhancing his case as a stash candidate for the next few weeks.  I’ve held him in the deeper 12-team league I own him in despite needing fresh bodies on that roster, based solely on the logic that it’s only three more weeks until the deadline.