Starting 5 - Back to Back: Monday, March 30th

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The Starting 5 Series will provide Grinders with a quick look at the day’s top positional plays, analyzed through the lens of our Daily Research Tools.

There are quite a few teams that played on Friday and over the weekend that are playing again on Monday, so we will be seeing a few two games in three nights and three games in four nights. Today we’ll take a closer look at the Back to Back Tool and see just which teams we can target.

This is a nice tool to look at everything in a consolidated view and can be used to identify secondary players that may get extra minutes if there team has had a lot of games, as well as attacking teams that may be a little tired.

POINT GUARD – Trey Burke – Utah at Minnesota

Team B2B 2/3 3/4 4/5
Minnesota Yes Yes Yes
Utah Yes Yes

Yes, I am aware that Trey Burke and the Jazz do not use a point guard in the traditional sense. However, with the injuries that have devastated the Timberwolves and with this being a triple-witching hour special with a back-to-back, two-in-three and three-in-four game stretch for Minnesota, this is a team on the ropes and one we need to target.

With so many great point guard matchups today, there is a good chance that people are going to overlook Burke. In three games this season against the Timberwolves, Burke is averaging 23.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 6.0 APG and 1.7 SPG. Utah is also playing their third game in four nights, but they did get Sunday off. Burke will likely be an under-utilized tournament option today.

SHOOTING GUARD – DeMar DeRozan and Lou Williams – Toronto vs Houston

Team B2B 2/3 3/4 4/5
Houston Yes Yes Yes

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The injury bug cuts both ways in this matchup, as it is highly likely that both point guards are going to be out. This leaves extra minutes and opportunities available for the Toronto duo if Kyle Lowry again is on the shelf.

On the flip side, with Patrick Beverley out, James Harden has taken on even more responsibilities and we can see his defense starting to suffer a bit. That’s especially true with him having played Sunday, and this will be his third game in four nights this evening.

SMALL FORWARD – Wesley Johnson – Los Angeles at Philadelphia

Team B2B 2/3 3/4 4/5
Philadelphia Yes Yes Yes
L.A. Lakers Yes Yes Yes

The Lakers and the 76ers are both in a heavy stretch of games and on back-to-backs having played yesterday. It is hard to target anyone from Philadelphia because they are playing lineup games. Heck, Furkan Aldemir got a random start and played 27 minutes, while Thomas Robinson was a healthy DNP-CD.

This is leading me to focus on Wesley Johnson, as I am going cheap at the small forward spot. He has been very solid for his price point in his last two games with 20+ fantasy points in each. Plus, last Sunday against the 76ers in LA he had 25 fantasy points. As long as he is starting, Johnson is a fine punt option.

POWER FORWARD – LaMarcus Aldridge – Portland vs Phoenix

Team B2B 2/3 3/4 4/5
Phoenix Yes Yes Yes
Portland Yes Yes

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This is another game where both teams are playing their third game in four days. However, the Trail Blazers had a day off while the Suns lost a spirited game last night to the Oklahoma City Thunder and then had to travel to the Pacific Northwest.

Aldridge has been a phenomenal play, as he is gutting through ligament issues on his off-hand. Over his last seven games, he is averaging 20+ field goal attempts and in his two prior games against Phoenix this season he is averaging 23 PPG and 11 RPG. Aldridge is a core play on all sites for me today.

CENTER – Rudy Gobert – Utah at Minnesota

Team B2B 2/3 3/4 4/5
Minnesota Yes Yes Yes
Utah Yes Yes

To borrow a quote from the wise and savvy Notorious, today is a day to Gobert or go home.

Between the heavy workload, injury attrition and no incentive to win, the Minnesota frontcourt is in no shape to deal with Rudy today. Last Monday in Utah, Gobert posted 18 points, 17 rebounds and 6 blocks for 50+ fantasy points. Lock and load Gobert in all formats today.

About the Author

emac
Emac (emac)

Emac won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. You can check out his ESPN Fantasy Experience here. Emac finished in the top ten for the DraftKings inaugural $1,000,000 Chase for the Crown promotion and also won the first ever MLB King’s Crown ($5k top prize) on DailyJoust.