It was another eventful Saturday night in The Association. There were eight games on the slate and plenty of close contests, including in Philadelphia where the Cavs beat the Sixers despite another inspiring performance from Joel “The Process” Embiid.
Before we begin recapping game action, one injury note to pass along from a team that didn’t play. New Orleans announced on Saturday night that Lance Stephenson has a groin injury that will require surgery and sideline him indefinitely. Only the Pelicans could find a way to lose on a night they weren’t even playing. As far as fantasy impact is concerned, Tim Frazier will reclaim his role as the primary facilitator of the Pels offense and should see an uptick in production until Jrue Holiday returns. Solomon Hill will also see more court time with Stephenson sidelined. Buddy Hield and E’Twaun Moore could also be considered potential benefactors.
Okay, there is plenty of other news to discuss and box scores to examine, so let’s dig in.
Cleveland Cavs 102, Philadelphia 76ers 101: As devastatingly depressing as Joel Embiid’s first two years of inactivity in the NBA were, his first two weeks of actual game action have been just as exciting and enjoyable. Embiid was back at it again on Saturday night. He poured in a career-high 22 points and blocked four shots. He also cracked the 25-minute plateau for the first time this season. If “The Process” can stay healthy and the Sixers continue to let out the leash allowing him to play more and more, the sky’s the limit for this kid. On the season, he is now averaging over 30 points and five blocks per-36 minutes. The other feel-good story out of Philadelphia was the emergence of Ersan Ilyasova. He scored 21 points, adding four rebounds, four 3-pointers and no turnovers in 28 minutes. It wasn’t all good news for the Sixers, however. If Embiid’s start to the season has been a fairytale, Robert Covington’s has been a nightmare. Over the Sixers last four games, Covington is 3-of-30 from the floor. He has made a total of one two-point field goal this entire season and has only three made free throws. On the bright side, he has at least two steals in each of Philly’s five games and grabbed eight rebounds on Saturday. Coach Brett Brown is continuing to give him plenty of minutes, but if Ilyasova continues to play well, Covington may see his playing time decrease.
LeBron James did LeBron James things in this one, finishing with 25 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds and two steals. LeBron passed Hakeem Olajuwon for No. 10 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with a dunk in the first quarter. However, it hasn’t been King James scoring that has been most impressive this season, but rather his passing. LeBron is averaging a career-high 10.6 assists per contest. Earlier this week, Coach Tyronn Lue stated he believed James could average a triple-double “if he wanted to.” It will be interesting to see if LeBron takes a run at joining Oscar Robertson as just the second player in NBA history to average a trip-dub over a full NBA campaign.
Atlanta Hawks 112, Houston Rockets 97: The reunion between James Harden and Dwight Howard didn’t receive a fraction of the attention dedicated to the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook showdown on Thursday, but it’s safe to assume the win felt great for Howard nonetheless. D12 dominated the paint against his former mates. He hit 8-of-10 shots and 4-of-10 free throws for 20 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks. Paul Millsap also stuffed the stat sheet, scoring 23 points, to go along with 11 rebounds, four assists and five steals. Kent Bazemore finally snapped out of a nasty slump to start the season. Bazemore had admitted he “gotten a little down” himself after making just made just 13-of-47 field goal attempts and 3-of-20 3-point attempts through the Hawks first five games. He hit 7-of-12 shots on Saturday, scoring a season-high 21 points.
James Harden was his usual dominant self but got very little help from his friends. Harden hit 10-of-19 shots and four 3-pointers for 30 points, nine rebounds, 12 assists, and three steals. However, no other Houston player scored more than 13 points and the rest of the Rockets combined only dished out 10 assists.
Orlando Magic 88, Washington Wizards 86: There was some disconcerting news out of Washington this morning, and it actually wasn’t related to this interminable presidential race. Wizards’ coach Scott Brooks announced that the Wiz are going to strictly monitor John Wall’s minutes this season. Part of this maintenance program will be refusing to play Wall in back-to-backs early on this season. Starting in place of Wall on Saturday night was rookie Tomas Satoransky, who has leapfrogged Trey Burke on the depth chart. The 6’7” Satoransky played 32 minutes, scoring eight points with two rebounds, three assists and one steal. He doesn’t need to be scooped up of the waiver wire as of now, but he is an intriguing prospect to keep an eye on. Markieff Morris missed a wide-open 3-pointer at the buzzer, but still posted solid numbers on Saturday. He scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds, one night after tallying 18 and nine in a win over the Hawks.
Serge Ibaka was pulled in a disappearing act for the Magic on Saturday night. He was benched for nearly the entire fourth quarter in favor of Jeff Green, who scored a team-high 18 points. After being traded to Orlando this summer, the hope was that Ibaka would put up impressive numbers for the Magic, but the production just hasn’t been there through six games. Due to the crowded frontcourt, Ibaka is playing less than 29 minutes a night and is currently averaging 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 blocks. Both those numbers would represent career lows.
Indiana Pacers 111, Chicago Bulls 94: Dwyane Wade was wonderful on Friday night, when he poured in 35 points against the Knicks. But D Wade came crashing back down to earth on Saturday with a big thud. He scored four points, while missing eight of the nine shots he attempted. He had more turnovers (2) than rebounds and assists combined (1). Bobby Portis had scored a total of just 12 points over the Bulls first five games this season, but tallied 16 points in this one on 7-of-9 shooting. Hopefully, he can build off this solid showing and crack Fred Hoiberg’s rotation consistently.
Nervous Jeff Teague can calmly exhale, as the Pacer point guard finally stepped up on Saturday. Over Indiana’s previous four games, Teague was averaging 7.3 points per game and shooting a horrific 21.7 percent from the floor. Teague scored 21 points, on 9-of-14 shooting to pace the Pacers. He also chipped in 6 assists and three 3-pointers. Paul George was ejected from this game after kicking the ball into the stands, where it struck a patron. George immediately went over to apologize to the fan, but it was too late. He will definitely get a hefty fine from the league office, and a suspension is also a possibility. Myles Turner’s breakout season continued on Saturday. He scored 16 points and blocked four more shots in 28 minutes.
Detroit Pistons 103, Denver Nuggets 86: Coach Stan Van Gundy called out Andre Drummond after the Nets spanked the Pistons in Brooklyn on Tuesday. SVG benched Drummond in the fourth quarter of that contest and afterward chastised his big man for “bringing absolutely nothing to the game.” Unsurprisingly, Drummond bounced back in a big way. He just missed posting one of his vintage 20/20 monsters, finishing with 19 points and 20 rebounds. In the process, he regained the league lead in rebounding, at 14.7 boards per game. Marcus Morris continued his stellar play for the Pistons. He had 15 points and six rebounds, and has now scored at least 15 points in five of the Detroit’s six games this season.
Another discouraging clunker from Nikola Jokic on Saturday. He scored six points and grabbed six boards in 22 minutes. Jokic has now scored eight points or less in three of Denver’s five games. He has blocked just one shot all season. Playing at power forward, alongside starting center Jusuf Nurkic has been a major hindrance to Jokic’s production. If you invested an early-round pick in Jokic, you have no choice but to remain patient and hope he turns it around. If he is able to string together a few solid games in a row, it may make sense to try and move him at that point, even if you can only get back 75 cents on the dollar. Another Nugget not living up to expectations is Emmanuel Mudiay. After shooting just 36.4 percent from the floor as a rookie, the hope was Mudiay would show improvement in his sophomore season. Quite the contrary, he has shot below 36 percent from the floor in every game this season. Mudiay’s field goal percentage dipped to 27.1 percent after Emmanuel missed all seven of his shot attempts on Saturday. Meanwhile, his turnover rate has jumped up.
Milwaukee Bucks 117, Sacramento Kings 91: The Kings were blown out of the building in Milwaukee, as Sacramento starters failed to match the Bucks intensity. Four of the five Kings’ starters scored seven points or less. Ty Lawson scored one point in 19 minutes. With Darren Collison returning from suspension next week. Lawson’s days of fantasy relevance are likely coming to a close.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was once again the story for Milwaukee. He narrowly missed his first triple-double of the season, finishing with 17 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals in just 25 minutes of action. Mirza Teletovic enjoyed his best game as a Buck on Saturday. He knocked down seven three-pointers and scored 21 points.
Los Angeles Clippers 116, San Antonio Spurs 92: No one on either team played more than 29 minutes in this game, as the Clippers jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Blake Griffin did the most damage for L.A. He scored 28 points on 13-of-19 shooting, adding five boards and three dimes. Chris Paul only put up nine points, but flirted with a triple-double in 28 minutes of action. CP3 finished with 10 assists and eight rebounds.
Kawhi Leonard had his worst game of the young season. He shot 3-of-13 from the floor on his way to 14 points, six rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block. Kyle Anderson’s disappointing start to the 2015-16 campaign continued. He started his sixth game of the season, but has yet to score more than five points in any contest. He’s averaging just 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists as well. With Danny Green likely returning to the Spurs lineup within the next week, feel free to waive Anderson if you haven’t already done so.
Oklahoma City Thunder 112, Minnesota Timberwolves 92: OKC was surely eager to wipe the awful taste out of their mouths following the embarrassing loss to the Warriors back on Thursday night. The Thunder took out their frustrations on the Timberwolves on Saturday. Russell Westbrook always plays angry and with a chip on his shoulder, so it‘s never a surprise to see he him relentlessly attack the tin. Despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter and playing just 28 minutes, Westbrook still finished with 28 points, eight assists, six rebounds, four 3-pointers, and three steals. If Russ had played his customary 35-plus minutes tonight, he would have very likely notched yet another triple-double. After being buried on the bench and playing just three minutes in the loss to the Warriors, Enes Kanter was as determined as Westbrook on Saturday. He scored 20 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds in 20 minutes. Kanter usage is often dictated by matchups. The Warriors, for instance, are one of those smaller, quicker teams that Kanter won’t play much against. The matchup with Nuggets, on the other hand, is suited to his strengths and Kanter took advantage.
It looked like Karl-Anthony Towns was on pace for a monster night, when he poured in 28 points in the first half. However, Towns had to return to the Wolves locker room briefly in the third quarter. Fortunately, he returned shortly thereafter and didn’t appear to be dealing with any sort of injury. He finished the night with 33 points and six boards. Andrew Wiggins had his worst game of the season on Saturday. He missed 10 of the 13 shots he attempted, scoring just seven points. Wiggins does little else besides score (he had just three rebounds and one assist on Saturday), so fantasy owners are relying on him to put up plenty of points and do so efficiently. However, this was actually the first game this season Wiggy shot below 50% from the floor, so we’ll let him slide. Shabazz Muhammad scored a season-high 15 points, but it should be noted that eight of those points game in garbage time.
