NBA Big Events: Big Money Wednesday Recap
Welcome to the second edition of NBA Big Events! This column will be relatively similar to the article we ran during the NFL season, but you’ll notice a few differences. Wednesdays are typically the biggest day of the week for the NBA, and sites love to run their big tournaments when interest is at it’s highest. We saw the prize pools beef up a bit this week, with DraftKings running the $200K Buzzer Beater, which was four times the size of the event they ran last week. DraftStreet and StarStreet both ran qualifiers for their basketball championships, and FanDuel offered up the $110K Super Slam.
In addition to the tournament breakdowns, there will be a section near the end of the article that covers the night’s top scorers/biggest busts around the NBA. There were no shortage of landmines to avoid last night (thanks for nothing Flip!) and the injury news continued to pour in as we approached tip off, which opened up a lot of roster flexibility to pay for guys like Kevin Love and LeBron James. More on the studs and duds of the evening later, but let’s break down the night’s big winners in our community first. All RotoGrinders members who finished in the top-10 of a major tournament will have their names bolded.
Tournament Breakdowns
DraftKings $200K Buzzer Beater
| Finish | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | tslats | $25,000 |
| 2 | PrimeTime420 | $15,000 |
| 3 | Makisupa | $10,000 |
| 4 | simpledude16 | $7,500 |
| 5 | fitch123 | $6,000 |
| 6 | condia | $4,500 |
| 7 | lplayragstoo | $3,500 |
| 8 | TeeJayorTj | $3,500 |
| 9 | Gettinguap4 | $2,500 |
| 10 | CyRus315 | $2,500 |
Tslats edged out PrimeTime420 by just over 2 points for first place in the $200K Buzzer Beater last night! Both players crossed the 350 mark, but tslats (73rd overall, 123rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) beat out the field by a hair with a score of 354.75. Tslats was part of the 3.8% of the field that rostered Jared Sullinger, who beat up the Philly front-court for 50.25 DK points. PrimeTime420 went against the grain with Mike Conley, who also went for 50.25 DK points and was owned by just 3.9% of the field. PT420 is currently 8th in the overall rankings, and sits in the same spot on the NBA Grinder leaderboard. Makisupa finished third, thanks to getting 50+ from Lowry, Foye, Dirk and Durant. Fitch123 (874th in the overall rankings) finished in fifth place, who also set himself apart by rostering the under-owned Mike Conley. Everybody’s favorite villain condia finished sixth, and his pick of Goran Dragic (7.2% owned, 45.5 DK points) helped to set him apart. He’s still first in our overall rankings and on the NBA Grinder leaderboard. TeeJayorTj (145th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished a few points behind in eighth, even with a zero from Nate Robinson. His picks of Evan Fournier (1.3% owned, 40.75 DK points) and Al-Farouq Aminu (7.8% owned, 39 points) really helped to make up for Robinson’s frustrating night. Gettinguap4 (353rd on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished ninth with half of his roster consisting of Rockets (Parsons, Howard, Lin, Jones). CyRus315 (aka lildre315, 987th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) rounds out the top-ten.
Fanduel $110K Super Slam
| Finish | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | russarmny | $12,000 |
| 2 | mailnurs | $7,000 |
| 3 | luckypapa | $4,000 |
| 4 | winning11111 | $2,500 |
| 5 | 1_srekal | $1,750 |
| 6 | pppanos32 | $1,250 |
| 7 | nicnic15 | $1,000 |
| 8 | dhachosenone | $900 |
| 9 | this2easy | $800 |
| 10 | superfly76 | $800 |
Congratulations to russarmny for taking down the Super Slam last night! I wouldn’t have guessed that a lineup with Steve Novak in it would take home the $12,000 first prize, but punting that spot was worth it considering Kyle Lowry, Randy Foye, Kevin Love and Al Jefferson all crossed the 50 FP mark last night. Russarmny is 257th in our overall rankings and 379th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard. He was the only RG member in the top-ten this week.
DraftStreet $215 DBBC Qualifier
| Finish | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | peter413 | DBBC Main Event Entry |
| 2 | csuram88 | $2,200 |
| 3 | MotherTeresa10 | $1,600 |
| 4 | Haggs11 | $1,200 |
| 5 | csuram88 | $1,000 |
| 6 | youdacao | $900 |
| 7 | bono6699 | $800 |
| 8 | DailyCrusher | $700 |
| 9 | youdacao | $600 |
| 10 | Al_Smizzle | $600 |
CSURAM88 (who has already secured one spot in this tournament) had entries in second and fifth place yesterday, although the winner outscored the rest of the field by over 25 points. CSU (6th overall, 7th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) was part of the 10% of the field that played Al-Farouq Aminu, who hit over 3.5X value last night. MotherTeresa10 (235th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) is near the top of this scoreboard for the second straight week, this time with a third place finish. Haggs11 (597th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) finished fourth, and overcame a poor game from Phil Pressey thanks to rostering Aminu, Dirk, Conley and Lowry. Bono6699 (225th in the overall rankings) finished seventh, followed by DailyCrusher (aka vengven, 64th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in eighth, and GrindersLive host Al_Smizzle (10th overall, 15th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) rounds out the top-ten.
StarStreet $530 PBC Qualifier
| Finish | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makisupa | PBC Main Event Entry |
| 2 | drolson22 | $900 |
| 3 | naapstermaan | $600 |
| 4 | MrTobiasFunke | $0 |
| 5 | headchopper | $0 |
With only 17 entries in this tournament, we’ll break down the top five finishers, all of which were RG members. A big congratulations to Makisupa for earning himself a trip to the Playboy Mansion to compete for the title of 2014 PBC Champion. He edged out drolson22 (86th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) by just over two points, and surprisingly it was the pick of Gerald Henderson (6% owned, 36.5 SS points) that helped to set Makisupa apart from the field. Drolson22 got burned by Monta Ellis and Boris Diaw, but made up for it with his selections of Dirk, Conley, Brandon Knight and Greg Stiemsma. Naapstermaan (37th in the overall rankings) finished third, followed by MrTobiasFunke (75th on the NBA Grinder leaderboard) in fourth and headchopper (22nd in the overall rankings) in fifth.
Studs & Duds of Wednesday Night
As you can see from the tournament breakdowns above, there are always a few players that make or break tournament teams on a nightly basis. We dealt with a few more injuries (both pre-game and in-game) then usual last night, and that’s before we even get to the disappointments of the night. Let’s take a look at the difference makers in last night’s games…
Studs
Kyle Lowry – He’s been absolutely sensational in the two games that DeMar DeRozan has missed thus far, going for 50+ fantasy points in both. Lowry tore up the Magic back-court last night on his way to a 33 point, 11 assist, 7 rebound game, and although he was a popular selection, he still rewarded his owners in a big way. Amir Johnson, Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross also exceed value against the porous Magic defense.
Jared Sullinger – There is always (at least) one player to completely go off against the Sixers anytime Philly takes the court, and last night it was Jared Sullinger. The Celtics as a team are hard to figure out, with the front-court being the most difficult part of the team to predict. After a string of bad games, Sully bounced back last night with a 24-point, 17-rebound game, and really set some people apart from the field considering he wasn’t all that popular of a play.
Dirk Nowitzki – It was all Dirk Wednesday night against the Rockets, as the rest of the Mavericks seemed to forget how to score last night. While no other starter eclipsed 8 points, Dirk went off for 38 on 13-21 from the field and 11-11 from the stripe. He also reeled in 17 rebounds to go with 3 assists, so it was an all-around great game for Dirk.
Mike Conley – Conley took advantage of the match-up with Isaiah Thomas to pour in 27 points, 10 assists, 3 boards and 2 steals. He and Z-Bo were pretty much the entire Memphis attack last night, but it was enough for the Grizzlies to outlast the Kings on the road. The former Ohio State guard has made a nice step forward this season and is one of the best mid-range fantasy point guards in the game.
Al Jefferson – Last night was a perfect storm for Big Al Jefferson. He’s been playing exceptionally well since Kemba Walker has been sidelined, and he stepped into a match-up against the Nuggets, who continue to struggle defending the paint. Jefferson went for 35 and 11 with two blocks, which was good enough for a 50 point fantasy effort on some sites. I’m not sure how long this surge will last for Big Al, but play him while he’s hot.
Randy Foye and Evan Fournier – With Ty Lawson on the shelf last night, it looked like a great opportunity for Nate Robinson, Randy Foye and Evan Fournier to step up. However, an early injury to Nate Robinson opened the door for HUGE games from the two shooting guards, who aren’t all that used to running the point. Fournier took over most of the point guard duties, and ended up with 19 points, 6 assists, 5 boards and 3 steals on the night. Foye was a pretty popular play on late-swap sites such as DraftKings, and he helped his owners with a gracious line of 33 points, 7 dimes, 3 boards and 2 steals.
Kevin Love – Without Anthony Davis roaming down low, Love had another productive fantasy outing, outscoring both LeBron and pretty much matching the output of Kevin Durant. Not having Nikola Pekovic down low also helped Love from a fantasy perspective, and he finished Wednesday night with 30 points, 14 boards and 5 assists.
Al-Farouq Aminu and Greg Stiemsma – These two also benefited from injury news, as The Brow was ruled out before tip-off and led to a lot of roster shakeup across the industry. Aminu was impressive earlier in the season when Davis was injured, and he hits the glass much harder when The Brow isn’t around to dominate down low. Aminu totaled 18 points and 12 boards in a team-high 36 minutes, while Greg Stiemsma played 33 minutes and also racked up 12 boards to go alone with 3 points, 2 steals and a block. Considering what it cost to play Stiemsma, that output was more then enough.
Jeremy Lin – With Harden out again last night, Lin drew the start at shooting guard and had another productive fantasy output. He posted a pretty similar line to his last start, racking up 18 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds. There was plenty of fantasy goodness to go around in this game considering the total exceeded 130 points, and Lin was one of the best producers from a point/$ spent standpoint.
Goran Dragic – This game seemed to be somewhat overlooked last night, but it ended up with 243 total and several productive fantasy options came out of this one. Dragic was probably the best of the bunch, leading all scorers with 30 points to go along with 6 assists and 4 rebounds. He did come down with a minor injury late in the game, but he is expected to play tonight.
Brandon Knight and Ersan Ilyasova – With a 243 total, several of the Bucks exceeded value last night. Brandon Knight was the top scorer from a fantasy perspective, racking up 24 points, 8 dimes and 2 steals, while the ever-inconsistent Ersan Ilyasova went off for 27 points and 4 boards. I still wouldn’t touch any of the Bucks in cash games, but they’ll have nights like this every now and then.
Duds
Nate Robinson – He was probably the biggest frustration of the evening considering he was supposed to pick up value with Lawson out, but he unfortunately came down with an injury before logging any fantasy points (and left people with -1 on DS). It’s just a bad break for anyone who played him, not much you can do about something like that.
Monta Ellis – This one was a little easier to understand, although the total in this game makes it hurt a little more. Patrick Beverley is one of the better defenders in the NBA, and he just got the better of Monta for most of this one. He also got into foul trouble and turned it over 4 times, so he didn’t do himself any favors either. Jose Calderon also didn’t play all that well, which forced Dirk to basically put the team on his back.
Phil Pressey – Oh boy was he terrible. In 21 minutes on the court (a number that would have been higher had he not looked like he was blindfolded the whole game), Pressey scored just 2 points on 1-7 shooting, and had just two assists to five turnovers. He had actually played pretty well lately in the games that Rondo didn’t play or was limited, but for whatever reason he posted a complete dud against one of the worst defenses in the league.
Boris Diaw – After a big game against the Rockets on Tuesday, Diaw followed it up against Chicago with 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists to go along with 2 turnovers, and it wasn’t that surprising to see Diaw come back to earth against a much tougher defense. He’ll have the occasional big game, but Diaw, like the rest of the Spurs, is a risky option on a nightly basis unless Tim Duncan were to miss time.
Miles Plumlee – This one is more DraftStreet specific then anything else, since Plumlee was underpriced and was a pretty popular play in cash games and tournaments. While the Suns scored 126 points, Plumlee managed just 8 points, 3 boards and 2 assists in 21 minutes last night. Anytime you choose a big man from the Suns, you’re literally playing with fire. It’s a risky endeavor.
Kenneth Faried – The Manimal had a really nice game against Sacramento earlier in the week, but didn’t find nearly as much success against the Charlotte front-court. He racked up 6 points on 3-11 shooting to go along with 6 boards, which isn’t what you’re hoping for when you play Faried. His lackluster defense can land him in the doghouse at times, so he’s tough to trust in cash games regardless of the opponent.
John Henson – Henson turned a good match-up against Phoenix into a 9-point, 6-rebound effort with only one block, and he saw just 22 minutes of court time due to foul trouble. It would certainly be interesting to see what he’s capable of with a nightly complement of 35+ minutes, but that probably can’t happen for a few reasons; he’s still coached by Larry Drew (unfortunately), and he can’t seem to stay out of foul trouble.
Shawn Marion – Along with the other members of the starting five not named Dirk Nowitzki, Marion completely flamed out on Wednesday. He managed just 6 points and 7 boards in 29 minutes, continuing his recent slide. He may have aggravated an injury during this game or in a previous one, which could explain his lack of production. Marion is considered questionable to play on Friday night against the Kings.