The Warriors cruised to their ninth-straight win by pummeling the Wizards in the paint on Thursday night, but Washington's Tomas Satoransky countered with an awesome floor game. Satoransky tallied his highest game score (a measure of player efficiency based on box score statistics) of the season last night, thanks to a strong double-double showing.
Rostered in just shy of a third of ESPN leagues, Satoransky leads the Wizards in passes per game (12 more than Bradley Beal) the past 10 games in the wake of John Wall's season-ending injury. The 6-foot-7 combo guard is hitting 41.9 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-pointers this season, best on the team, while he's tied with Beal for the team lead since Wall went down with 12.7 potential assists per game. Trailing only Beal with 9.3 drives per game during the past three weeks, Satoransky has the team's highest assist percentage (15.5) on drives and the team's lowest turnover rate on drives among the top six on the team in drives per game.
During the past dozen games, all starts, Satoransky has slashed for 11.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 5.9 APG, 1.7 SPG, 1.3 3PG in 33.5 MPG. For the full season, only James Harden and Russell Westbrook are averaging at least as many points, rebounds, assists and steals as "Sato's" recent 12-game stretch as a starter.
Thursday recap
Highlights
Jrue Holiday, New Orleans Pelicans: 22 points (9-19 FG), 9 rebounds, 13 assists, 5 TO
Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder: 23 points (9-19 FG), 17 rebounds, 16 assists, 2 steals, 4 TO
Tomas Satoransky, Washington Wizards: 20 points (8-13 FG), 3 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 TO
Lowlights
Josh Jackson, Phoenix Suns: 6 points (2-10 FG), 9 rebounds, 1 TO
Josh Okogie, Minnesota Timberwolves: 9 points (2-14 FG), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 TO
Derrick Rose, Minnesota Timberwolves: 6 points (3-7 FG), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 TO
Thursday takeaways
The Lakers dropped to 5-10 in games without LeBron James this season, including three straight losses. The rare bright spot for the Lakers Thursday was the return of Rajon Rondo, who had missed the previous 14 games with a sprained finger. Rondo tallied 15 points, 6 rebounds and 13 assists and should provide immense value as an elite distributor as long as Lonzo Ball is sidelined.
Ivica Zubac earned the start at center for the Lakers last night and nearly notched a double-double in 20 minutes of action. During the past four games, Zubac is averaging 17.8 PPG and 7.8 RPG, thanks to hitting 70 percent of his shots during this stretch. It's unclear how Zubac will factor into lineups when LeBron returns, but it's become obvious he's the team's best interior scorer from the pivot.
Westbrook produced his sixth career 15-15-15 game on Thursday in downing the Pelicans, good for third most in NBA history behind Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain, per Elias. Westbrook now has seven career games with at least 15 rebounds and 15 assists, more than all other players during the past 30 seasons combined (six).
Jake Layman might just be a competent rotation wing for Portland. The soft-shooting small forward produced 20 points on 15 shots as the Blazers' offensive microwave off the pine. Given how often his workload fluctuates (often dips below 20 minutes), I'm hesitant to endorse Layman past being an intriguing DFS play or deep-league spot play, but it's worth mentioning he's averaged 14.3 PPG on 10.1 shots per outing his past seven games.
Injuries of note
Chris Paul has been upgraded to questionable for tonight's marquee matchup with Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors. Paul has been sidelined since Dec. 20 with a significant hamstring injury. It's unclear what Paul's workload would look like if active, but this is surely good news for Houston (if not for Harden's usage rate).
Brooklyn's Spencer Dinwiddie will miss four to six weeks with a torn thumb ligaments on his right hand. We'll see more usage from D'Angelo Russell going forward, while Shabazz Napier becomes an interesting streaming option in deeper leagues in the weeks ahead.
Derrick Rose suffered an ankle injury last night that limited him to just 12 minutes of play. If Rose misses any time and Jeff Teague and Tyus Jones remain sidelined, Jerryd Bayless, who scored 16 points with eight dimes on Thursday, becomes a viable streaming option.
Andre Drummond (concussion) is considered probable for Friday's matchup with the Mavericks after nearly playing Wednesday in New Orleans.
Deandre Ayton has missed multiple games with a lingering ankle injury and can be considered questionable for tonight's tilt with the Nuggets.
De'Aaron Fox (toe soreness) and Nemanja Bjelica (back) are expected back in the starting lineup for tonight's game in Memphis.
Analytics advantage for Friday
Brooklyn is fifth in the league in pace (measured in possessions per 48 minutes) the past 10 games. The Knicks, for their part, are found at 15th in the league during this sample, suggesting tonight's meeting of metropolitan peers could prove up-tempo and offensively friendly. The Knicks are 29th in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) this season, setting up Brooklyn as a key rotation to source for streaming and DFS competition. This could be a fun night to build around Russell, especially given the uptick in usage sans Dinwiddie.
Both rosters are rife with streamable assets. Rodions Kurucs, Napier, and Joe Harris come to mind as players with strong offensive ceilings tonight for Brooklyn, while Jarrett Allen could feast on a patchwork New York frontcourt. For the Knicks, shares of Allonzo Trier and Noah Vonleh are comparably attractive. With a healthy opening point total of 224, this could be a sneakily rewarding game to target tonight.
Top players to watch tonight
Harden has averaged more than 43 points over his past 21 games while facing several different defensive coverages. But on Friday night on ESPN, he will look to continue his torrid stretch against former Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard, who has missed the past four games due to what the team has called "load management."
Per Second Spectrum tracking, Leonard has held Harden to 27 percent shooting in the halfcourt over the past five seasons, including the playoffs. Among the players who have defended at least 30 attempts, no player had had more success.
Leonard, meanwhile, will likely face PJ Tucker as his primary defender. Tucker, for his part, is ranked 11th in real defensive plus-minus among small forwards, revealing that both Leonard and Harden face formidable foes in primetime tonight.
