The statistical story of Monday in the NBA was Stephen Curry delivering 50 points while propelling the Golden State Warriors to a 9-1 record in a win over the Atlanta Hawks. At 33 years, 240 days old, Curry became the oldest player with at least 50 points and 10 assists in a game in NBA History, passing Wilt Chamberlain.
As for the Warriors, this is the fourth time in franchise history they started a season 9-1 or better through 10 games and their point differential through 10 games only trails 2015-16 for the highest in franchise history. While Curry's narrowly edging Nikola Jokic as the top name on the Player Rater, he's not alone in driving Golden State's success, as backcourt peer Jordan Poole has been impressive as a starter this season.
Poole can be found at 15th among shooting guards on the Player Rater this season thanks to some impressive scoring stretches, including averaging 24.5 PPG during the last four games, all wins for the Warriors. Poole is lofting 10.5 3-pointers per game during this stretch and sinking 42.9% of his shots beyond the arc, confirming he's a worthy shooting specialist for fantasy purposes.
Monday recap
Highlights
LaMelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets: 25 points (8-19 FG), 15 rebounds, 11 assists
Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors: 50 points (14-28 FG), 7 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 steals
Lowlights
Clint Capela, Atlanta Hawks: 2 points (1-5 FG), 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Kyle Lowry, Miami Heat: 0 points (0-8 FG), 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 TO
Monday takeaways
Carmelo Anthony continued to shine off the pine for the Lakers on Monday. Anthony sank seven 3-pointers in an overtime win over Charlotte, tied for the second-most makes from deep in his career. Anthony's 29 points tied his career high for points off the bench in an NBA game and pushed his average to 17.6 PPG this season, his most since his last All-Star appearance in 2016-17. With LeBron James ailing and the Lakers needing Anthony's microwave scoring binges, he's actually reclaimed some fantasy value.
In the loss to the Lakers, Charlotte's Ball became just the second player in Hornets history with 25 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists in a game, joining Larry Johnson, who did so in 1993. And at age 20 years, 79 days old he's also the youngest player in NBA history with 25 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a game. It's safe to say Ball is making the leap to full-scale superstar. Sticking with Charlotte, Kelly Oubre Jr. can be released to free agency in most fantasy formats now that he's been pushed to the fringe of the rotation.
The Pelicans' Josh Hart starting to produce as a starter logging heavy minutes for the Pelicans. The Villanova product scored a season-high 22 points in a loss to Dallas last night and over his past four games has averaged 14.6 PPG and 7.0 RPG. One of the better rebounding guards in the league, Hart likely merits more attention from fantasy managers.
Curry might extend his lead on the Player Rater over Jokic in the coming games if the big man nets a suspension for dropping a shoulder on Markieff Morris in last night's chippy win over the Heat. It will be worth monitoring the fallout for Jokic.
Injuries of note
Denver's Michael Porter Jr. will be out for the foreseeable future due to a lower back injury. This is clearly disconcerting news for a gifted young player with a history of back issues. With Porter sidelined, fantasy managers might want to acquire Will Barton where possible. The veteran wing is serving a large offensive role for Denver that should only grow with Porter's absence.
Analytics advantage for Tuesday
Adjusted rebound chance percentage sounds like a complicated metric, but it's really just the percentage of rebounds a player gathered when given a rebounding chance on defense, while excluding all deferred rebounds. A rebounding chance is defined as being the closest player to an available rebound between when the ball has crossed below the rim to when it is fully rebounded.
With Joel Embiid facing a COVID-19 diagnosis, Andre Drummond started at center for Philadelphia last night and produced his seventh career outing with as many as 25 rebounds. For the season, Drummond sports an elite adjusted rebound chance percentage of 72%, a clip higher than almost all of the league's leading rebounders this season.
Likely to flirt with well over 20 rebounding chances in place of Embiid this evening, Drummond -- rostered in just 42% of ESPN leagues -- makes for an impact interim addition to fantasy rosters.
DFS discussion
Furkan Korkmaz, Philadelphia 76ers: The Sixers will be without Embiid, Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle, Ben Simmons, and Isaiah Joe this evening against the visiting Bucks. Given the depleted rotation, Korkmaz figures to serve a larger scoring and creation role from the perimeter for Philadelphia.
Norman Powell, Portland Trail Blazers: The floor can prove pretty low for scoring-dependent players like Powell, but he's also consuming a pretty rich usage rate most nights. This suggests he's consuming plenty of possessions for Portland and should be busy against a Clippers team allowing the 11th-most DraftKings points per game to shooting guards.