Fantasy Weekend: OKC Thunder face a pair of rematches
By Sinjin Snope
It finally seems like the OKC Thunder are hitting their stride. They look to continue their momentum into the weekend.
Welcome one and all, to your weekly fantasy breakdown. Their is positivity in the air as the OKC Thunder are a season-high eight games above .500 going into the weekend. Last night’s victory over the Washington Wizards has Oklahoma City sitting at 28-20; two games behind the coveted third seed.
This weekend features two previous OKC Thunder opponents, which both pose interesting threats to the boys in blue.
Saturday, OKC travels to Detroit to take on a Pistons team that broke their heart earlier in the year. If that wasn’t tough enough, the OKC Thunder have to turn around and host the 76ers on the second night of their back-to-back.
You all remember that triple overtime thriller last time those two teams met, I have a feeling we are in store for another classic.
Enough with the rambling, here are the four players bound to ball out this weekend.
Russell Westbrook
Originally, I wasn’t going to select Westbrook due to the fact you could honestly pick him in this spot every weekend. That would normally be pretty lazy, but then Russ had his game against the Wizards and I just had to put him here.
If you didn’t see already, Westbrook scored a season-high 46 points on a ridiculous 19-29 from the floor. He scored 21 in the 4th quarter alone!
If that isn’t a great primer for a big weekend, I don’t know what is. Westbrook also notched a triple-double in both of the previous games against Philly and Detroit this season.
So yeah, play Russell Westbrook in fantasy if you want to win.
Ben Simmons
Speaking of triple-doubles, Ben Simmons recently earned his second of the season just a few nights ago. The young LSU product is having a tremendous rookie season, as he is averaging 16.4 points, 7.4 assists and 8.1 rebounds per game.
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In the last matchup against the OKC Thunder, Simmons nearly had one of those aforementioned triple-doubles with 12 points, 11 assists and 9 boards. I have a feeling that we will see Simmons post similar numbers against the OKC Thunder on Sunday.
Andre Drummond
While everyone was (rightfully) in an uproar about the omission of Paul George and Lou Williams from the all-star team, Andre Drummond quietly got snubbed as well.
The big man out of UCONN is averaging an absurd 14.7 points and 15.3 (!) rebounds per game. He also recently had a game where he scored 30 points and snagged 24 boards. How he got left off the team is a mystery to me.
Drummond is one of the better young centers in the league, and he looks to continue his strong play against the OKC Thunder. In his last game against OKC, he scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. I expect more of the same.
Terrance Ferguson
Our sleeper selection for the week is rookie guard, Terrance Ferguson. He hasn’t quite exploded like many thought he would after his great game against the Lakers, but he appears to be improving each game. With more experience, I think he could be a big part of the rotation going forward.
Ferguson is only averaging 2.8 points per game, so it’s a risk putting him in this spot. However, he has shown the ability to light up the scoreboard before. I’m rolling the dice but don’t be surprised if Ferguson scores 15+ points in one of the games this weekend.