This week may be the toughest week of Lillard’s professional career.
The Portland Trailblazers
To the naked eye Portland with their rare five-game week seems like the best play. Do not be deceived. Having multiple games is usually a good thing in fantasy. However, if players tire out their percentages often take a hit and thus can damage your fantasy scores.
Four of Portland’s five games come against tough defenses that will absolutely wear theirplayers down. With every single one of their games being on the road I expect Portland’s players will be exhausted by the end of the week. Fortunately, anyone on Portland’s roster worth playing is under 28 years old so they will hold up better than older guards like Steve Nash would.
If you are not concerned about efficiency and are just looking for raw numbers, Portland is your best play. Otherwise, you can play some Blazerss this week but be careful, and throw some ultra-efficient guys (think a healthy Tyson Chandler, James Harden and Kosta Koufos) to help balance your percentage categories.
The Philadelphia 76ers
The Sixers’ four-game week is less appealing than it looks. I expect that Portland, Denver and the Clippers will lock down the entire starting line-up. Jrue Holiday started to get hot and break out of this slump last week. This week I expect he will return to slumping-form as defenses only need to pay special attention to him.
Even when the Sixers finish the week against the lowly Kings I cannot say I love the match-up. The Kings have been playing surprisingly well lately (they lit up the Bulls last week somehow). Also, it is a away game for the Sixers. It is fair to expect a tough week from your Sixers players and to look elsewhere.
The Washington Wizards
Beal’s shooting will make him a nice asset this week.
The Wizards have four games this week, all of which are away. However, I like the Wizards this week again as teams like the Suns and the Bobcats do not pose particularly threatening defenses. Dwight Howard has been playing well of late so it is tough to say how the Wizards will do against the Lakers. The Warriors defense has fallen apart since the first half of the season, I expect the Wizards will take advantage.
The Wizards offer interesting fantasy prospects this week that could pay off huge dividends or potentially the Warriors defense could step up (if there was ever a time for them to do so, it would be now) and Dwight could shut down all their penetration and post-play. If you are a gambler, the Wizards might just work out for you this week.