NBA Daily Grind Down: Thursday 3/21
The RotoGrinders NBA Grind Down article will give you an in-depth analysis into the NBA schedule each night. This article will break down the defense vs. position rankings for every single game and give you analysis on where you can exploit these matchups.
While matchups are a major factor in daily fantasy basketball, there are plenty of other factors to consider such as injuries, minutes, and salaries. The analysis should point you in the right direction, but it is still up to you to decipher the information and make your own selections.
Al Horford officially broke the Daily Grind Down curse last night with a monster game against the Bucks. While there are only 3 games on the schedule tonight, there are still some important events and qualifiers going on so hopefully this can help anyone in those. Today’s Grind Down shows you a few good matchups, but the best one of the night belongs to one Ricky Rubio.
NOTES:
1) Defense vs. Position rankings are how well a team defends against a certain position. The ranking is for the team that it is listed under, NOT the opponent.
2) Rankings are as follows: 30 is the worst defense against a position, 1 is the best.
3) Last 10 Game Data is collected at the start of each week. It will be updated each Sunday for the upcoming week.
Portland @ Chicago – 8:00 pm EDT
| Portland D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Chicago D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 28 | 18 | Point Guard | 5 | 9 |
| Shooting Guard | 21 | 20 | Shooting Guard | 11 | 1 |
| Small Forward | 6 | 21 | Small Forward | 13 | 15 |
| Power Forward | 12 | 20 | Power Forward | 21 | 10 |
| Center | 14 | 19 | Center | 30 | 6 |
- Portland is not very good defensively, but the Bulls could possibly get Kirk Hinrich and Taj Gibson back tonight which clouds things a bit fantasy wise. I still like Joakim Noah and Luol Deng tonight, but steer clear of Nate Robinson and Carlos Boozer if Kirk and Taj end up playing.
- The Bulls on the other hand are usually very good defensively, however they have really struggled against big men in their last 10 games. I think this is more of an aberration than anything, but it does make LaMarcus Aldridge at least a little bit tempting tonight. J.J. Hickson could also have decent value if his salary has dropped.
Philadelphia @ Denver – 9:00 pm EDT
| Philadelphia D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Denver D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 23 | 21 | Point Guard | 24 | 26 |
| Shooting Guard | 17 | 5 | Shooting Guard | 4 | 7 |
| Small Forward | 7 | 13 | Small Forward | 26 | 28 |
| Power Forward | 11 | 4 | Power Forward | 4 | 11 |
| Center | 22 | 26 | Center | 19 | 29 |
- This game definitely has blowout potential with the Sixers playing in a back to back situation on the road after getting crushed by the Clippers last night. Vegas has this game at -14 so be careful taking too many players from this game. That being said, some of the bench players for Denver could make good plays because they will only benefit from a blowout. Corey Brewer, Andre Miller, and Javale McGee are all solid plays if the price is right.
- For the Sixers, it’s tough to recommend anyone, so just look for value here. One guy that has really been struggling and that is cheap is Evan Turner. I could see him turning it around in this one.
Minnesota @ Sacramento – 10:00 pm EDT
| Minnesota D-Rank | Last 10 | Season | Sacramento D-Rank | Last 10 | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point Guard | 11 | 24 | Point Guard | 9 | 29 |
| Shooting Guard | 18 | 25 | Shooting Guard | 25 | 27 |
| Small Forward | 25 | 6 | Small Forward | 15 | 23 |
| Power Forward | 2 | 23 | Power Forward | 20 | 29 |
| Center | 29 | 4 | Center | 18 | 24 |
- This should be a fun high scoring game. Minnesota has plenty of holes defensively, but now that they have Pekovic back, I expect their Center ranking to get a lot better. I wouldn’t trust Cousins against him, but everyone else on the Kings is in play. Isaiah Thomas, Tyreke Evans, and even John Salmons all have positive matchups against the guards of the T-Wolves.
- Now we get to the Kings defensive rankings which are all green for the season long rankings. That means that everyone on the T-Wolves is in play tonight. Ricky Rubio was a little banged up last game but don’t expect that to hurt his game. He has a great matchup and I could see him getting 15+ assists. Nikola Pekovic, Luke Ridnour, and J.J. Barea are all also good plays. With a 3 game schedule tonight, it might not be a bad idea to stack quite a few players from this game.