NBA Player News

Liddell was perceived as a “throw-in” in the Dejounte Murray trade but looked like a legitimate contributor on Sunday night. While the scoring was not surprising, Liddell blocking four shots was unexpected, given the career average of 0.3 per game as a rookie. He’s a rugged forward who can be challenging to corral when allowed to get downhill off the dribble. The Hawks also acquired Larry Nance Jr. in the Murray trade, but there could be minutes behind Jalen Johnson at power forward, especially if Nance or Clint Capela were to be moved before the season begins. If so, Liddell’s chances of earning rotation minutes will increase.

Missi was questionable heading into the afternoon, but he’s been given the green light to take the court. The rookie has averaged 11.2 points, 10.1 boards and 1.3 swats through 12 games in December.

According to Grange, “Barrett left arena immediately after the game Sunday, missed practice [Monday] and will not travel to Boston with team for game Tuesday afternoon.” No reason was given for his absence, so his status for games beyond Tuesday is unclear. Toronto plays the Nets on Wednesday and the Magic on Friday, so fantasy managers should keep a close eye on Barrett leading up to those contests. While Barrett is out, Bruce Brown and Ja’Kobe Walter should see increased run.

Giannis has missed four straight, but Nehm’s report quotes Doc Rivers as saying that the Greek Freak will likely take the court against Indiana on Tuesday without a minutes restriction. Bobby Portis has started and played well in each of the last four games, but the former will likely slide back to the bench with Giannis’ return.

Sarr finished with a 12/6/5 line in Saturday’s surprisingly entertaining overtime loss to New York. If he’s unable to go for tonight’s rematch, Jonas Valanciunas will likely replace him in the starting five.

Mann last played on November 21, but according to the official Hornets PR twitter feed, he’s getting closer to a return. Since November 29, Vasilije Micic has averaged 10.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists across 25.5 minutes per tilt. Micic should continue to see meaningful minutes while Mann is out.

CP3 didn’t do much scoring in this game, but he was still able to make his presence felt. He set a new season-high for assists while also tying his season-high for steals. What was interesting about his night was that while he did score six points, they all came from the free throw line. Paul failed to make any of his field goal attempts in this game, but he was still able to make a big impact. Paul has managed to be an excellent option in 9-cat leagues once again this season and will look to keep dishing out the dimes with the Clippers coming to town on Tuesday.

Wemby’s 20-point streak came to an end in their last game, but he was able to start a new one in this game. Wemby led both teams in scoring, though it didn’t come on efficient shooting as he made less than half of his 30 shot attempts, which was his second-highest output in a game this season. It wasn’t enough for them to escape Minnesota with a win, and their road trip will come to an end with a 1-3 record. They’ll kick off a three-game week with the Clippers in town on Tuesday.

Barnes got off to a hot start in this game, scoring 15 points in the first half alone. That allowed him to have one of his best performances of the season, but it could have been so much more than what it was. It isn’t often that a player scores 24 points on nine shots while only missing once, because normally a team would feed the player more shots. That didn’t happen, which prevented him from doing way more damage. Barnes hasn’t been a fantasy-relevant player despite starting for the Spurs this season, and he isn’t worth picking up just because of this game.

Coming off his best game of the season, DiVincenzo was able to stay hot in this game. He scored 15 points in the first half and was able to set a new season-high for scoring for a second straight game. DiVincenzo is coming off the best season of his career, so his first season in Minnesota has been rather disappointing to this point. However, he has scored in double figures in five of their last six games and has scored at least 20 in two straight, which are also his only two 20-point games of the season. He’ll look to stay hot in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.

Gobert has been alternating games recording a double-double, and that pattern held true in this game. He has been struggling to produce for fantasy managers recently, and he ranks outside the top-200 over the past two weeks. However, he was able to play well in a matchup with his teammate from the French National Team in Victor Wembanyama. Unfortunately, while Gobert is more than capable of nights like this, they haven’t come consistently this season. He’ll look to end the pattern of recording a double-double in every other game on Tuesday against the Thunder.