In a continued effort to reduce travel stress and provide players with more recovery time, the season will be extended by a full week. Stretches where teams play four games in five nights have been completely eliminated, marking the first time in the NBA’s 72-year history with no four-in-fives.

See more at: nba-early-start

Final playoffs picture:

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Russel Westbrook played another incredible game for 54 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists, including 5 steals, and the Oklahoma Thunder defeated Memphis Grizzlies (100-103). This means at least the 6th seed for Oklahoma in the West conference. This should be the big news but.....actually the big news for many people is that Westbrook missed his first opportunity to overcome Oscar Robertson's 41 triple-doubles in a season, as they are currently tied.

Westbrook has still 4 opportunities more to beat that mark, so hopefully he will be able to do it.

If the season ended today, Pau Gasol would have the best three-point percentage of any player in a single season in NBA history.
He has a current average of 54.7%, this is, 52 shots converted out of 95.

For the moment, the 3 best averages are:
1.Kyle Korver with a 54.6% (season 2008-2009)
2.Steve Kerr with a 52.3% (season 94-95)
2.Tim Legler with a 52.2% (season 95-96)

Gasol's average is still better if you only take into account the stats after the Allstar break. Since then, Gasol has an incredible average of 61.5% (32 out of 52).

We still need to see those averages when the playoffs come and the defences get stronger.

Derrick Rose's season is over early because of knee surgery again.

The New York Knicks guard has torn cartilage in his left knee and the team said he will miss the remaining five games.

Rose tore his left ACL in the 2012 playoffs and missed the entire next season. He made it through just 10 games in 2013-14 before he was sidelined by a torn meniscus in his right knee and missed 20 more games the following season because of trouble with the same knee.

Rose played in 66 games last season for Chicago, his most since his 2011 MVP season, and the Knicks took a chance on his health by acquiring him on the eve of the NBA draft in June. Rose, who didn't have to rehab last summer for a change, appeared to have regained much of his quickness this season while playing in 64 games and averaging 18 points.

But his contract expires after this season and teams will have to decide if Rose is worth another big deal given his injury history.

Season 2008-2009 - 88 out 89. He won the Rookie of the year award and his team is defeated by Celtics in first playoffs round in 7 games.

Season 2009-2010 - 83 out of 87. His has a minor wrist problem in March. They are defeated by Cavaliers in the playoffs.

Season 2010-2011 - 97 out of 98. He won the MVP award. They are defeated in East final against Miami.

Season 2011-2012 - 40 out of 72.. Starts with some minor injuries (foot, groin). He torn ACL of his left knee agains Sixers in the first playoffs round.

Season 2012-2013 - 0 out of 94.. He did not play, still recovering from his injury, in spite of the constant rumours of his return.

Season 2013-2014 - 10 out of 87.. After his return, he gets injuried again in November (meniscus broken).

Season 2014-2015 - 63 out of 94.. A couple of sprain ankle injuries and some other problems such as knee spasms. After the All Start he torn the meniscus and he is out for 20 games.

Season 2015-16 - 66 out of 82.. Some minor injuries. He is send to New York Knicks.

He was no guarantee to return to the Knicks anyway, given their preference to stick with the triangle offense in which Rose isn't completely comfortable. But he said he liked New York despite the team's disappointing season and was playing well down the stretch, scoring 24 points against San Antonio and 27 against Detroit in his last two games.

With Westbrook about to get the record of triple doubles in a season, there is some controversy going around. He is accused of being helped by his teammates so he can easily grab rebounds, and in order to do that, he has stopped defending the rival 3-point shots.

Check this out: westbrook-triple-double

We would not want to kick you now that you are down, but we wrote here some time ago you should seriously consider Nurkic for your fantasy team.

Jusuf Nurkic went off in a 122-113 win over his former team on Tuesday, scoring a career-high 33 points on 12-of-15 shooting (9-of-11 FTs).
He wanted this win in the worst way and his teammates swarmed him after his career night with the Blazer crowd chanting his name like a scene in Gladiator. He ripped down 16 rebounds with two assists and three blocks in 33 minutes, giving his team a 1.0 game lead over the Nuggets for the No. 8 seed in the West. He's been phenomenal since his move to Portland and he will likely be on a lot of championship rosters in fantasy leagues.

And here the last five games again:
Mar-28 @DEN:71
Mar-26 @LAL:37
Mar-25 @MIN:36
Mar-23 @NYK:40
Mar-21 @MIL:45

For only 5,380,000 $, he is still a bargain in the fantasy league.

Golden State Warriors reached yesterday night 60 victories with a brilliant Curry (32+10+7), and they have become the fifth team in history to reach 60 victories three years in a row.

At the same time, Steve Kerr became fastest coach achieving 200 victories in the four big leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB and MLS) in the USA.

San Antonio Spurs have been improving during the season. They are the second best team in the league at the time being, but there is a special bit of data that scares the rest of the teams. Spurs have played fourteen games against Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets, Wizards, Celtics and Raptors with an incredible balance of 13 victories and only one defeat.

vs Boston: 2-0

vs Cleveland: 2-0

vs Toronto: 2-0

vs Golden State: 2-0

vs Houston: 3-1

vs Washington: 2-0

We are definitely going to have fun in the playoffs.**

The Knicks will be without Joakim Noah for the rest of the season.
Noah, 32, will be suspended for 20 games for violating the league’s anti-drug program, according to The Vertical.

Source: nydailynews_noah

After historical Booker's 70 points yesterday against the Celtics, here the players with highest scoring in NBA history (note we have selected only the best score of every player just to avoid having Chamberlain getting all the attention):

10.- GEORGE GERVIN 63 points. 9th of April, 1978 against New Orleans Jazz… just playing… 33 minutes!.
10.- JERRY WEST 63 points. 17th of January, 1962 against Knicks
10.- JOE FULKS 63 points. 10th of February, 1949 against Indianapolis Jets. There was still neither posession rules nor 3-point line yet
9.- RICK BARRY 64 points. 26th of March, 1974 against Trail Blazers
8.- PETE MARAVICH 68 points. 25th of February, 1977 against Knicks
7.- MICHAEL JORDAN 69 points. 28th of March, 1990 against Cavaliers
6.- DEVIN BOOKER 70 points. 24th of March, 2017 against Celtics
5.- DAVID ROBINSON 71 points. 24th of April, 1994 against Clippers
4.- ELGIN BAYLOR 71 points. 15th of November, 1960 against Knicks
3.- DAVID THOMPSON 73 points. 9th of April, 1978 against Pistons
2.- KOBE BRYANT 81 points. 22nd of January, 2006 against Sixers
1.- WILT CHAMBERLAIN 100 points. 2nd of March, 1962.
He also scored 78 points, 73 (2 times), 72, 70, 68, 67 (3 times), 66, 65 (3 times).

Look at this interesting article on : Business Insider

Kevin Durant's (knee) progress has the Warriors hopeful he can return before end of regular season, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.
KD is doing some on-court work these days, but he still doesn't have a target date. He was expected to miss four weeks, which means his original target window will be at the end of this month. The Warriors would likely ease KD back in and perhaps do so in the first round of the postseason. If you're going to stash him, there's a decent chance he won't make much of an impact upon his return.

Source: rotoworld-durant

The controversy about players resting in the last games before the playoffs is on the table again. Fans, sponsors, everybody is getting mad about some key players resting which sometimes finally ends with a situation where two of the best teams of the NBA are playing each other, and when you are already sit there, you realize some player you paid to see is not even there.

Some old players as Karl Malone just said that the players must play and compared NBA players with police officers.

If we were to get this game to a point where the coach opinion does not matter anymore, what prevent us for even deciding that some players must always play because we just want them to? We already have the Allstar for that, and the goal of the season is the ring so every team tries to get to that point in the better shape. If that means resting some players on the final games, we'd better let them do it.

There are fans, there are sponsors, but they just can't decide on what happens on the court, otherwise.....then maybe Zaza Pachulia (no mean any disrespect to him) would have to get 40 minutes every game.

But as fantasy basketball players we are, we want our players to play every game, every minute!!! We demand that!!

Let's keep the controvery go on....

Richaun Holmes was plugged into the starting lineup Tuesday at Orlando and he delivered, finishing with 24 points and a career-high 14 rebounds in 42 minutes.
Holmes hit 11 of his 19 field goal tries while also adding four assists with a steal and a blocked shot. He certainly responded well to his return to the starting five and he will likely remain there until Jahlil Okafor (knee) is ready to return. Since there is no real reason to rush Okafor back it could be an extended period of starting for Holmes which is great news for his short-term fantasy appeal.

His last 5 games:
Mar-20 @ORL:62
Mar-19 @BOS:44
Mar-17 @DAL:38
Mar-14 @GSW:35
Mar-12 @LAL:24

Source: rotoworld-holmes

Tyler Ulis double-doubled vs. Detroit on Sunday, handing out 11 assists while scoring 17 points on 7-of-24 shooting.
Ulis stats included three rebounds, three steals and just two turnovers. Though his FG percentage is not good, he might be a useful player in your fantasy team.

His fantasy points the last 5 games:
Mar-19 @DET:44
Mar-17 @ORL:36
Mar-15 @SAC:47
Mar-12 @POR:25
Mar-11 @DAL:24

Here an interesting article on the Russell Westbrook's chase of Robertson's tripled double record: espn-westbrook-chase