NBA Player News

He scored 16 points with five boards on Thursday and also scored 16 last Monday. James has had a solid summer and will be hoping to at least land a two-way deal with Orlando. He was the 40th pick of the 2019 Draft by the Sacramento Kings and has bounced around the G League for the last couple years.

Fox bounced back after scoring only 14 points in the loss to the Cavaliers Monday to drop 25 points in the win over the Knicks Wednesday. The 28-year-old point guard once again struggled from behind the three-point line. Over the last two games combined, Fox is 2-of-14 from behind the three-point line. A 38 percent three-point shooter this year, he’ll look to add some threes to his otherwise excellent stat line against the Pacers Friday.

Champagnie dropped a career-high 36 points in this one. The 24-year-old small forward’s 11 three-pointers are the second-most anyone has had in a game this year, trailing only Stephen Curry with 12, and a Spurs franchise record. On a night when the Spurs trailed by nine entering the fourth quarter and lost Victor Wembanyama to injury not even two minutes into the fourth quarter, Champagnie kept the Spurs afloat and led the late comeback. With Devin Vassell (adductor) set to miss a few games, Champagnie is rewarding managers that chose to stream him.

Wembanyama landed awkwardly gathering a rebound with about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The 21-year-old center left the game and didn’t return. The Spurs were already in the middle of a fourth quarter comeback, but prior to leaving Wembanyama was highly efficient with 31 points on 12 field goal attempts. We’ll have an update on Wembanyama’s health when more information is available. The Spurs have back-to-back games against the Pacers and Trail Blazers later this week.

Okoro is known for his defense more than his offense, but he made an impact as a scorer in this game. This was his highest-scoring game as a Bull and the second-highest scoring game of his career. Okoro had an excellent game and helped Chicago get the win. He’ll continue to start, but he won’t continue to score at this rate. He isn’t worth picking up based on this performance.

There were two open spots in the starting lineup for Chicago with Josh Giddey (hamstring) and Coby White (calf) both set to miss time, and head coach Billy Donovan opted to roll with a two-big starting unit that featured Smith next to Nikola Vucevic. With how well it worked, it would be surprising if Donovan didn’t stick with it, which would make Smith a must-roster player until White or Giddey returns to the lineup. He’s currently rostered in just eight percent of Yahoo! leagues.

With Josh Giddey (hamstring) set to miss at least two weeks and Coby White (calf) out at least one week, Jones filled one of the open starting spots in Chicago. He was excellent as a starter earlier this season and picked up right where he left off with an uber-efficient double-double in the win. Jones is available in 77 percent of Yahoo! leagues but should be considered a must-roster player as long as Giddey and White are sidelined.

There were certainly questions about how effective Queen would be as a defender in the NBA, but he has actually been impactful on that end as a rookie. He also made an impact in this game on the box score defensively. His five blocks and seven total “stocks” were both the best marks of Queen’s career. He wasn’t able to do as much offensively in this one, but he has shown that he can throughout the season.

Poole continues to come off the bench, but he also continues to make an offensive impact. This was his second straight game scoring exactly 26 points for New Orleans, though the end result for the Pelicans was the same. Poole is more than capable of making a big impact for fantasy managers, but it hasn’t come consistently this season. Poole will look to keep this going against the Trail Blazers on Friday.

Two days after scoring a season-high 32 points against the Knicks, Williamson fell one point shy of matching that mark for a second straight game. He has been a consistent scorer when available all season, but these were the first two 30-point outings for him this year. He had been coming off the bench during his first seven games back after missing timed with a strained adductor, but he has started during these last two games. He’ll look to stay hot against the Trail Blazers on Friday.

Love has been ruled out due to “rest” for a third straight game, so whenever he ends up playing again, he should feel quite refreshed. With Jusuf Nurkic sidelined as well, Oscar Tshiebwe may return to the rotation to fill the backup center minutes behind Kyle Filipowski.