The biggest question regarding the Los Angeles Clippers and fantasy basketball recently has been who will step up with Paul George (knee) sidelined. Numerous names have come up, but none have separated themselves yet. Monday night, the Clippers were also without Marcus Morris, who was sidelined due to illness. That opened up a spot in the starting lineup for Nicolas Batum, and he came through with one of the best shooting performances of his NBA career.
Playing 31 minutes in the Clippers’ 124-112 win over Chicago, Batum shot 8-of-10 from three and finished with 24 points, three rebounds, five assists, and two steals. The eight triples are a season-high and one shy of Batum’s career-high. His explosion also impacted Robert Covington, who only played 11 minutes despite moving up in the pecking order due to Morris’ illness. RoCo went scoreless on 0-of-2 shooting while tallying two rebounds and one assist. Rostered in 18% of Yahoo leagues, Monday may have been “last call” for RoCo.
Going back to Batum, does Monday’s performance make him a player fantasy managers should look to add? Absolutely not, even though the Clippers still play three more games this week. Two of those games are on the road against Memphis, which has work to do to lock down the 2-seed in the West, so they’ll be motivated. And the third is against New Orleans in the second game of a back-to-back on Saturday. The Pelicans are jockeying with the Clippers (and many other teams) for playoff positioning, which likely makes these matchups difficult ones for Batum.
Also worth noting here are Batum’s averages as a starter this season. In 12 starts, he’s averaging 7.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 1.9 3-pointers in nearly 28 minutes per game, shooting 39.7% from the field and 66.7% from the foul line. As much fun as it was to watch Batum torch the Bulls, performances like that have not been the norm. Fantasy managers may have the decision to make later in the week if the Clippers hold out Kawhi Leonard for one game of that back-to-back, but not right now. Let’s take a look at a few other fantasy pickups who performed well…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nicolas-batum-goes-off-spot-063306453.html?src=rss
Author : NBC Sports EDGE
Publish date : 2023-03-28 06:33:06
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