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The NBA has returned from an amazing bunch of games last night to bring you only three games tomorrow. The Utah Jazz take on the Houston Rockets which is going to be the tastiest match to watch tomorrow. Both the teams are really underperforming and need to come back soon.
The other 2 games are a little low key. The Boston Celtics will take on the New York Knicks, who suddenly seem to be playing with a spring in their step. The Portland Trail Blazers take on the Phoenix Suns in the other match, where the Blazers will be looking to break their losing streak and get back into the winning mentality and form that they had begun their season with.
In yesterday's games, the standout game was the Toronto Raptors against the Philadelphia 76ers, which the Raptors won 113-102. The other outstanding game was Paul George and the Oklahoma City Thunder with an amazing comeback win over the Brooklyn Nets 114-112. Paul George had 47 points and the game-winning 3, while Westbrook notched yet another triple-double to move past Jason Kidd.
The Milwaukee Bucks put away the Detroit Pistons with relative ease, 115-92 and the same way the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Dallas Mavericks to end their losing streak, 132-106. The Washington Wizards, without John Wall and Dwight Howard, overcame the Atlanta Hawks, 131-117.
The Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-105 and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Charlotte Hornets 121-104 as well. The Denver Nuggets overcame a tough Orlando Magic 124-118, in an overtime win.
In the final 2 games, the Los Angeles Clippers finally lost to a spirited Memphis Grizzlies in a tight game, 96-86 and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs 121-113 in an entertaining game. Let us now have a look at the potential best players for tomorrow that you can pick in your daily fantasy rosters.
Honourable mentions as top DFS picks for tomorrow's games:
1. PG - Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers)
2. SG - Damyean Dotson (New York Knicks)
3. SF - Josh Jackson (Phoenix Suns)
4. PF - Al-Farouq Aminu (Portland Trail Blazers)
5. C - Enes Kanter (New York Knicks)
PG 1 - Kyrie Irving (Boston Celtics)
The Boston Celtics have had a rough start to their 2018-19 NBA campaign. They were touted to be the contenders for the Eastern Conference title, against the Toronto Raptors or maybe the Philadelphia 76ers. Getting Hayward back from his horrible injury was going to be a huge boost to the roster as well as the city of Boston in general.
Instead, the Celtics are 13-10 and in the 6th place in the Eastern Conference. People expected Hayward to be rusty, but he has been really poor coming back and has been moved to the bench to gain some confidence with the second unit. Jayson Tatum has continued to be the shining star of this team but not for long.
Kyrie came back this season after a knee surgery that had to be done just before the playoffs started last season that kept him out for the rest of the season. He had started off slow, and so did the Celtics, going 5-5 in their first 10 games.
Kyrie had averaged only 16 points to start the season in the month of October but picked it up in the month of November, scoring 25 points per game and dishing out almost 7 assists and 5 boards per game too. In his previous game, the win over the Timberwolves, Kyrie had 21 points to go with 9 assists. He has gotten back into his groove and should look to keep this up against the New York Knicks tomorrow.
PG 2 - Emmanuel Mudiay (New York Knicks)
The New York Knicks had known before the start of the season that they would be without their star player Kristaps Porzingis, for almost the whole season. More recently, Trey Burke has gotten injured as well for the Knicks and Frank Ntilikina has been really really bad for them as well, leaving Mudiay as their only choice at point guard for the foreseeable future.
David Fizdale, the new head coach of the NY Knicks, has been having a very constant rotation of his players, not making them fantasy relevant, with the exception of Tim Hardaway Jr and Enes Kanter. But now with all these injuries, it seems like Mudiay is set to be the point guard for a while.
In the past 2 games when Burke has not played and Mudiay has gotten the chunk of the minutes, he has led them to an impressive win over the Milwaukee Bucks and a good game but in the end a loss against the Washington Wizards. He had 28 against the Bucks to go with 7 assists and 3 rebounds, while he scored 16 points and got only 4 assists against the Washington Wizards. The Knicks anyways are 8-17 for the season and if Burke is not healthy enough to return tomorrow, expect Mudiay to come up big again.
SG 1 - James Harden (Houston Rockets)
The Rockets are having a tumultuous start to their season, just like their opponents tomorrow, the Utah Jazz. They are currently 11-12 for the season and languishing in 13th place. They are just not able to play right together even though their star, James Harden has been crushing it this season.
They were sort of putting on a run with a 2 game win streak but it all came crashing down with a stunning loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves, where they managed to score only 29 points in the 2nd half. The only good thing happening for them is Capela and Harden seem to be combining really well, while Paul is having a terrible season.
Harden is currently leading the league in scoring and is averaging 27 points in his last 3 games, to go with almost 8 assists and 6 rebounds. He is averaging almost 31 points per game for the season and has 9 assists and 6 rebounds per game as well. All the offence seems to be funnelling through Harden and that should allow him to have a huge night against the Utah Jazz.
SG 2 - Donovan Mitchell (Utah Jazz)
Similar to the Rockets, the Jazz have had a really bad start to the season. They have won 2 out of the last 3 games and would probably like to build on their huge win over the San Antonio Spurs, 139-105.
Their struggles are directly co-related to the struggles of their star guard, Donovan Mitchell, who had a rough start to the season and also had to deal with an injury. But since his return to form and the team, he has been stellar.
In his last 3 outings, Mitchell has averaged 23 points per game along with 4 assists and 4 rebounds per game. He seems to be improving his game on a day to day basis and we probably will see him take a leap soon. He has been averaging 21 points per game, a marginal increase on last season, his rebound numbers going down a bit. He seems to be on the up and should be rostered for the game tomorrow.
SF 1 - Gordon Hayward (Boston Celtics)
The Celtics, as discussed in a previous slide, are not performing as per expectations this season, and are 13-10 in 23 games. The main part of this has been Brad Stevens not able to fit in a team of Kyrie, Hayward and Tatum in one team. But more than that it is the struggles of Hayward on the offensive end. He has not been able to play like the All-Star he was before his horrific injury.
Hayward has been averaging only 11 points per game this season with only around 3 assists 5 rebounds too. Stevens was forced to bench him due to his struggles and he is currently coming off the bench.
But the last game, the win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Hayward came off the bench and absolutely exploded. He scored a team-high and season-high 30 points in 30 minutes and dished out 8 assists. He also managed to grab 9 boards, almost getting himself a triple-double.
This performance was very similar to the Hayward of old and he slowly seems to be getting back into his groove. The game before the Timberwolves, the Celtics played the Cavaliers and Hayward had an efficient 14 points in 24 minutes, with 4 assists and 4 rebounds. He could be down for another big night against the New York Knicks tomorrow and he should be available on the cheap.
SF 2 - Tim Hardaway Jr. (New York Knicks)
It is well known that the Knicks are a very bad team without Porzingis to play for them. This season, they are really bad without him but can take away some good from this. Something like Tim Hardaway Jr. is an amazing scorer and without Porzingis, all the usage has gone to him. The offence is channelled through him and it has shown this season. When he performs, the Knicks seem to stand somewhat of a chance to compete and win.
In his last 2 games, Hardaway has averaged 20.5 points per game, with 5 assists per game along with 2 boards too. He has been averaging over 22 points per game this season, on 40 percent shooting. He doesn't get you much of any other stats but he is a volume shooter and is scoring really well. He is at least 10 points per game above his career average and is probably going to be the player who will have the ball most tomorrow.
PF 1 - Noah Vonleh (New York Knicks)
The Knicks do not have Kristaps Porzingis for the immediate future, which has given the lesser known stars of the team some limelight. There are rookies and sophomores on this team who will get a chance to break out and have a career year, showing everyone what they are made of.
One such player for the New York Knicks has been Noah Vonleh, who has taken this opportunity to establish himself as the #1 option at the Power Forward position for the Knicks.
The 23-year-old has never played more than 17 minutes per game in any season and his maximum games played are 78, for the Blazers in 2015-16. Everyone was out on him to save the Knicks, who gave him another chance and he seems to have grabbed it with both hands.
He is averaging 25 minutes per game this season, averaging 8.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. He is also become a really good defender, averaging almost 1 steal and block each per game. The last 2 games, he has played over 30 minutes and scored 13 points per game for 70 percent shooting and pulled down almost 7 rebounds as well. The more opportunities he gets, the better he is performing and he should be a very budget worthy pick for the game tomorrow.
PF 2 - Marcus Morris (Boston Celtics)
The Celtics have really had their unsung heroes to thank as well apart from their stars. If last season was all about the rise of the young stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, it was also about their role players who could step up and perform on any given night, giving them the solid second unit, any championship pursuing team needs.
Marcus Morris has probably been the most consistent and solid of them all. He averaged 13.6 points last season and could also space the floor for the stars and shooters of the Celtics to take advantage of. This season, with the Celtics sputtering, he has always seemingly had their back in clutch situations.
This season, Morris has averaged a healthy 14 points per game, with 6.4 rebounds as well. He is shooting at a career-high 49 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc. In the past 4 games, Morris has really come into his own, averaging a great 16 points per game, 6 rebounds per game on around 54 percent shooting. He is an integral cog in this Celtics team and look for him to have a good night against the Knicks tomorrow.
C 1 - Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz)
The Jazz have had not that great of a start this season, going only 12-13 and are currently sitting in the 12th spot in the Western Conference. Much of this has got to do with the in general shooting woes of the team and their star, Donovan Mitchell.
It also has got to do with their diminished defensive numbers. This is what they were going to look like last season but they played out of their minds and exceeded expectations. Reality seems to have hit and they have not been playing well. They won their last game against the San Antonio Spurs 139-105, and they will look to push forward with this.
Gobert had a great game against the Spurs last time out, scoring 18 points in 29 minutes and shooting very efficiently, at 71 percent. He also pulled down 10 rebounds and was elite defensively, grabbing 3 blocks as well. He has not let the overall woes of the Jazz affect him, having a career year, averaging an awesome 15.5 points per game, to go with almost 13 rebounds per game and 1 steal and 2 blocks as well. He should be going up against a really bad defence in the Rockets and have a great showing.
C 2 - Clint Capela (Houston Rockets)
For all the talk of Chris Paul and James Harden playing together, the one person who was low key having the season of his life last year, was Clint Capela. Without Capela playing so well, the Rockets would not have been able to have such a great season in the 2017-18 campaign.
Even though the Rockets have had a rocky start to their campaign, Capela has not looked back from last season. He has instead taken an even bigger leap and is covering up for the offensive load that has been dropped by Paul, having a career year.
The 24-year-old from Switzerland has been averaging almost 18 points per game, with almost 12 rebounds per game as well. He is an elite rim protector and that has shown with Capela averaging almost 2 blocks per game too. He shoots very efficiently at a 66 percent and has probably now become the 2nd most important player to the Rockets, ahead of CP3.
In the last 3 games, he has averaged 23 points per game, along with almost 12 rebounds per game as well. He has blocked 2.6 shots per game, showing his rim protection skills. It will be an interesting game against the Jazz and their center, Rudy Gobert. Nonetheless, he should be in for an excellent night tomorrow.
