NBA Player News

The 21-year-old Frenchman fared well in the Pro A French league, averaging 10.2 points, 7.2 boards, 1.0 blocks and 0.7 steals in 22.9 minutes per game. Lessort doesn’t have much of a perimeter game at 6’9", but the hope is his motor can get him a chance to show what he can do. He’ll likely need to add some bells and whistles to his game in order to become part of “The Product” in Philly.

Jones is set to return from a six-game layoff. The Spurs guard has been in and out of the lineup due to a string of injuries and is looking to establish himself in a bench role. He’ll have to get past Stephon Castle on the depth chart to make his mark, though.

Okoro is at risk of missing his third game this month after missing practice with a shoulder injury. He’s held down a starting forward spot with Max Strus out, but could be relegated in the near future when the sharpshooter is made active.

Watford is back on the shelf after tweaking his hamstring against the Cavaliers. Noah Clowney has a chance to capitalize on his absence.

Poeltl is set to miss his second game of the month on Thursday. Chris Boucher and Kelly Olynyk will get chances to contribute more in the aftermath.

Barnes has a chance to return from a two-game hiatus on Thursday despite suffering what was initially considered to be a significant ankle injury against the Knicks. He’s progressing faster than expected and could be back in the lineup sooner rather than later.

Kuzma has missed seven consecutive contests since logging just eight minutes against the Clippers. Fantasy managers shouldn’t expect his return to be close until he becomes a full participant in practice again.

Porzingis logged just 11 minutes in his last contest before exiting for precautionary reasons. The Celtics are being careful with the big man after an offseason of recovery and it appears like he’s aiming to return to action in Boston’s next game.

As a team, the Thunder shot 33.7% from the floor and 15.6% from beyond the arc. While Wallace didn’t help much with that, he was still able to play solid defense off the bench and contribute some stocks. Alex Caruso (3 steals) was able to do the same in 24 minutes. Isaiah Joe got the start, but his shot wasn’t falling like they needed it to, which resulted in Mark Daigneault turning to Caruso and Wallace more. Wallace came off the bench in this game despite starting their last three games and six of their last seven. We’ll see if he returns to the starting unit on Thursday in Orlando.

Even though this game doesn’t impact fantasy basketball, JDub was still able to turn in a masterclass in 9-cat leagues. He didn’t have a great shooting night, but the entire team struggled to score in this game. Their previous low for points in a game this season was 99, so 81 was surprisingly bad from them. Still, Williams continues to show why he’s one of the best players in fantasy basketball. He should have no issues picking up where he left off when they head to Orlando for a back-to-back in Florida on Thursday.

Lopez has been going through a bit of a rough patch recently, but after finding his shot against the Hawks, he was able to keep it going in this game. Unfortunately, this was their last game in Las Vegas this season, and this one didn’t even count for fantasy basketball. They’ll have a couple days off to celebrate before starting a back-to-back in Cleveland on Friday. This will be their first game against the Cavs since they played two straight games against them in early November. Cleveland won both of those, with Lopez averaging 9.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.5 threes in their matchups.