Kemba Walker must be convinced he's in the Big East Tournament, as the scoring maven followed up Saturday's 60-point opus with 43 points, including 21 in the fourth quarter, in a compelling win over the Celtics on Monday. Evoking the "Mamba mentality," Walker is the first player to follow up a 60-point game with a 40-point showing since Kobe Bryant in the 2006-07 season, per Elias.
Walker joined Bryant and only four others in NBA history to accomplish this rare scoring feat. These other players are Tracy McGrady, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan and Pete Maravich. Pretty cool company to join.
This marks the third occurrence of consecutive 40-point games this season, joining Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard. Walker also joins Glen Rice as the only other player with back-to-back 40-point games in Hornets history (you must use a Rice reference whenever presented with the opportunity).
At this point, Walker's managers should be rooting for him to stay in Charlotte throughout the season versus a potential trade, given the awesome usage and shooting freedom afforded to him in this current role. Charlotte is impressively seventh overall in offensive rating, thanks to Walker's brilliance and a more modern offensive coaching agenda.
The Hornets face luxury tax concerns for the first time in Jordan's stewardship, so it will be interesting to see if Walker, in the heart of his prime, will earn a five-year max offer to stay in Charlotte, thus the potential for trade talks to surface.
Pivoting to a younger playmaker proving productive, last night Atlanta's Trae Young became the first rookie with at least 25 points and 15 assists since Allen Iverson. Young recorded 17 assists, the most by any player this season and just the third rookie with at least 25 points and 15 assists in a game over the past 25 seasons.
Monday marked Young's fourth 20-point, 10-assist game of the season. That is ...
Tied for the most in the NBA
The most by a Hawks player since Jeff Teague had 10 in 2012-13
The only rookie with even one 20-10 game this season
The only Hawks rookie with more than two 20-10 games in team history
Those who've stuck with Young and his variant shooting performances are being rewarded with these Iversonian showings. With Luka Doncic and Young headlining this impressive rookie class, the NBA appears to be in good hands.
With an eye on meaningful fantasy performances and relevant statistical trends, let's delve into the night that was in the NBA.
Monday recap
Highlights
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns: 37 points (13-28 FG), 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 TO
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers: 33 points (12-23 FG), 17 rebounds, 3 steals, 6 TO
Julius Randle, New Orleans Pelicans: 21 points (9-13 FG), 14 rebounds, 10 assists
Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets: 43 points (14-25), 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 TO
Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks: 25 points (8-22 FG), 3 rebounds, 17 assists, 6 TO
Lowlights
LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio Spurs: 7 points (2-11 FG), 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 TO
Juan Hernangomez, Denver Nuggets: 6 points (2-10 FG), 7 rebounds, 1TO
Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz: 7 points (3-8 FG), 1 rebound, 1 assist, 3 TO
Monday takeaways
Russell Westbrook returned to action on Monday, and -- this might be shocking -- he almost tallied a triple-double. The league's leader in usage rate, it appears the team was effectively conservative in letting their superstar offensive engine get back to full capacity. Paul George enjoyed a strong stretch of scoring production sans Westbrook, but it was encouraging to see George loft 24 shots last night, at least from a fantasy perspective.
Former ESPN NBA analyst and current Memphis Grizzlies executive John Hollinger crafted a unique statistic deemed "game score" years ago to provide a rough measure of an individual player's performance in a given game. Montrezl Harrell produced the highest game game score of his career last night with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 5 steals in the Clippers' fifth straight win. A good game score relative to the average NBA player sits around 12, while Harrell produced a 29.8 last night. During the past six games, Harrell is averaging 20.5 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 2.0 BPG on 69.4 percent from the field for a game score average of 20.8. It's quite clear this guy is quite good and you might want to add him, if for some reason he's floating in free agency; he's rostered in fewer than half of ESPN leagues and plays a depleted Washington frontcourt tonight.
You won't find many triple-doubles come from the bench, and you certainly won't find many power forwards accomplish such a rare feat, but such is the unique skill set of New Orleans' Julius Randle, who pulled off the Ice Cube special on Monday. I always thought Randle's soft market in the actual NBA was odd this past summer, given the defensive prowess he finally flashed in his final year with the Lakers. We always knew this guy had point-forward potential, and the Pelicans are reaping the rewards of the "second draft" as some call it. Randle is found at 10th on the Player Rater during the past 15 days among power forwards.
Found at fifth on the Player Rater among power forwards during this same sample is rising rookie Jaren Jackson from Memphis. The cool kids often call him "JJJ" and fantasy investors will want to acquire him wherever possible. Despite already proving elite in block and steal production, Jackson remains available in nearly 70 percent of ESPN leagues. Unless or until the market properly appreciates his awesome production, the onus is on me and my fantasy hoops colleagues to keep promoting Jackson Jr. as an atypically valuable rookie to roster.
Injuries of note
Toronto's Kyle Lowry sat out Monday's practice with an ankle issue but it listed as probable for tonight's game with the Magic. When asked if the ankle issue was anything of concern, coach Nick Nurse joked that the main injury was Lowry being "old," thus there isn't any pause in starting Lowry in redraft and DFS lineups tonight.
The Heat's Goran Dragic had his right knee drained on Monday and will miss at least the next three games, including tonight against Brooklyn, per the team. Dragic missed time last season with a right knee ailment, so this is worth monitoring. Tyler Johnson is worth streaming this week in his place, while we should also see more distribution duties fall to Josh Richardson.
Analytics advantage for Tuesday
It's a somewhat shallow four-game slate with only a few true bankable superstars. Given there are just eight teams in play, selecting the correct NBA rosters to stack could prove profitable in both streaming in redraft formats and most relevantly in daily fantasy play. When poring over the Vegas details for Tuesday's NBA schedule, my eyes went directly to the Clippers in Washington to face the reeling Wizards.
With the night's highest projected point total hovering around 230 points and the Wizards opening as just one-point favorites, this could be a rewarding game to invest in. If we are to chase narratives, there is potential for the Clippers to pounce on a Wizards team beset by brewing drama that could result in massive roster changes, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
To this end, affordable shares of Harrell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (the Wizards are allowing the most fantasy points to point guards on FanDuel this season) to go with certified scorers in Tobias Harris and Danilo Gallinari could prove prudent in this spot.
Top players to watch tonight
With a need to identify high-ceiling players on a smaller slate, I'm intrigued by Hassan Whiteside of the Heat; the Nets have allowed the most fantasy points per game this season to centers using FanDuel's scoring model, while Whiteside is the rare player with the upside for a 20/20 performance in a favorable matchup.
Conversely, we can look to Spencer Dinwiddie from Brooklyn's backcourt to shine in a positive matchup, with Miami ranked 23rd this season in terms of DraftKings points allowed per game to point guards. Dinwiddie has enjoyed a surge in usage and scoring opportunities with Caris LeVert sidelined and yet is still available in 80 percent of ESPN leagues as of Tuesday morning.
