NBA Player News

Cunningham did not play in Wednesday’s win over the Bulls, which moved Jaden Ivey into the starting lineup. However, Ivey only played 20 minutes despite no longer being under a minutes restriction. Daniss Jenkins played 28 minutes off the bench and dished out a career-high 15 assists.

After a three-game absence, Leonard is available and back in the starting lineup. His return means that Kobe Sanders will head back to the bench, where he offers minimal fantasy value in redraft leagues. That’s the lone change to the starting lineup.

Wagner made his season debut less than two weeks ago, so this was his highest scoring performance since 2024. He was an excellent reserve scoring option for the Magic to start last year before tearing his ACL. This was a new season high for him in just 15 minutes. He’ll continue to be a reliable scoring option off the bench, but with Wendell Carter Jr. and Goga Bitadze both healthy, he won’t play enough minutes to provide value in standard leagues.

Powell was downgraded from probable to questionable earlier in the day, which can be an indicator that a player is trending towards sitting out. However, that won’t be the case here. Powell will continue to play his typical role, where he’s scored at least 20 points in four of his last five games.

Kuminga appeared to injure his left leg on a drive to the basket during the second quarter of Thursday’s game. While he remained in the contest after shooting his free throws, the Warriors’ forward was ruled out just before the start of the third quarter. Kuminga finished with 10 points (3-of-3 FGs, 4-of-4 FTs), one rebound, two assists and two steals.

Kawhi will return to the lineup after missing the last three games for the Clippers. Kobe Sanders has been starting in his place but should head back to the bench with Leonard available.

Reaves has been out since suffering a Grade 2 left calf strain during a Christmas Day loss to the Rockets. According to Redick, the Lakers guard has “looked like Austin” in the 3-on-3 sessions, and “stay ready” games (5-on-5) should be happening soon. Marcus Smart will continue to start with Reaves out, but he offered limited streaming value in that role.

Including Thursday’s game against the Trail Blazers, Ware has missed Miami’s last two games with a strained left hamstring. With the 7-footer returning to Miami to undergo further treatment, the expectation is that he will miss at least the remainder of the road trip, which concludes with a Saturday/Sunday back-to-back against the Jazz and Suns. With Ware unavailable, the Heat will have to go small when starting center Bam Adebayo isn’t on the floor, likely resulting in more minutes for Nikola Jović and Simone Fontecchio.

Due to the expectation of inclement weather in the Charlotte area, the start time for Saturday’s game has been moved up to 12 p.m. Eastern. Fantasy managers need to be mindful of this when setting their lineups for that day.

Williams is back after sitting out Portland’s last game, which was the second leg of a back-to-back. He’ll be back for this one, but he will likely be sidelined again on Friday against Toronto. Yang Hansen and Duop Reath should play more in that game after seeing smaller roles against Miami.

While Cissoko has started Portland’s last seven games, that may change on Thursday. Deni Avdija, Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant are all available, and either Holiday or Grant could join the starters. If so, Cissoko is the likely odd man out.