Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant, right, and Russell Westbrook celebrate their team's 100-99 win against the Los Angeles Clippers in an NBA basketball game, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Welcome to the daily updates and injury news article. We'll try and update it right up to line-up locks with as much information as comes across our desks. Let's get to it!
Last night's picks can be found here, so you can wrap your mind around what you need to be looking at before lineups lock tonight.
By the way - we keep our projection system updated with all of the changes as they occur throughout the day right up until lineup lock. Every day. If you want access to that system so you can cut out a lot of the research element, click the button below!
Note - I am going to be live updating anything that happens between 6:30 and 7:00. If any injury news breaks, you will be able to see it here. That will start at 6:30, which is 30 minutes before tipoff.
6:34 - Jaylen Brown will start for the injured Jae Crowder. I don't expect him to get too many minutes as he only played 8 last night when Crowder was injured in the first half. I don't mind it in tournaments, but tread carefully
While this is only a short 5 game slate, there is a good amount of news. The biggest of which is Al Horford being out, which opens up a ton of opportunity for minutes and shots. Tyler Zeller took the majority of those last night, and I like him again tonight against the Cavs, who can sometimes give it up to big men that can rebound. Aside from Zeller, Amir Johnson got a huge shot increase and took advantage with a monster game. While we can't expect those numbers again, we can look for a solid performance.
Jae Crowder burned a lot of us last night, and he will remain out for at least a week. This is going to force Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier into big minutes, and both are very relevant. The Celtics have been a fast team, and that opens up a lot more opportunities to rack up peripherals. Smart is the preferred play, though Rozier does have some upside. Cleveland is willing to run, so this game could be very high scoring tonight. Smart may draw the match up with LeBron, which could certainly be a challenge. That being said, James will not shadow him and he will get many other match ups.
Will Barton will also likely miss a few games with a bad ankle, and he will open up some opportunity as well. With Gary Harris remaining out, the bulk of the minutes will head to the likes of Jamal Murray and Malik Beasley. Murray will draw the start, and he immediately becomes a very good play on both sites. At minimum price, it is hard to not throw him in there in a game between 2 fast paced teams. Murray has shooting upside and I would not be surprised to see a big performance.
Tonight is going to be a lot of fun. While I consider myself to be someone that strays away from narratives, this is one you have to look at. Russell Westbrook is going to want to have a huge game here, and is going to do whatever it takes to get that done. We will touch on the other side of things in a minute, but let us just focus on Westbrook for now. H has been amazing to start the season, and is likely going to have a season that we have never seen before. if he continues to play these minutes, he is going to have a consistent floor of around 50-55 with a ceiling over 80. The Thunder are not a great rebounding team and Pachulia has done a terrible job protecting the paint.
On the other side of the game, we have Kevin Durant. Sure, he doesn't care. He is still friends with Westbrook and there is no bad blood. Nobody believes that, and we know Durant is going to want to have a huge game. I expect Curry to defer on offense and get Durant in spots to succeed. He has also been much better on the boards this year and that definitely increases his upside and safety. Outside of Steven Adams, the Thunder lack rebounders and can give up big games down low. If I had to pick 1, I would go with Westbrook, but have been able to fit both of them in the same lineup on both sites.
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