The Week 13 fantasy basketball schedule is an interesting one, in that every day has between six and nine games. However, that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t any quirks for fantasy managers to navigate. The Lakers have the first five-game week of the season, while four teams are only playing twice during Week 13. <\/p>\n
Add in the back-to-backs, injuries and teams looking to improve their draft lottery odds, and it\u2019s clear that the \u201csilly season\u201d is not far away. In fact, is it starting up earlier than in previous years? Washington acquired Trae Young, and it\u2019s unknown when he\u2019ll make his first appearance in a game. And Ja Morant has been out while his name has come up in trade rumors. Here\u2019s a look at the Week 13 schedule breakdown and some of its key storylines.<\/p>\n
Week 13 Games Played<\/p>\n
5 Games: LAL<\/p>\n
4 Games: BKN, CHA, CHI, DAL, DEN, HOU, IND, NOR, POR, SAC, TOR, UTA<\/p>\n
3 Games: ATL, BOS, CLE, GSW, LAC, MIA, MIN, NYK, OKC, PHI, PHX, SAS, WAS<\/p>\n
2 Games: DET, MEM, MIL, ORL<\/p>\n
Week 13 Back-to-backs<\/p>\n
Sunday (Week 12)-Monday: BKN, PHI, SAC, TOR<\/p>\n
Monday-Tuesday: LAL<\/p>\n
Tuesday-Wednesday: CHI, DEN, NOR<\/p>\n
Wednesday-Thursday: DAL, NYK, UTA<\/p>\n
Thursday-Friday: HOU<\/p>\n
Friday-Saturday: IND, MIN, WAS<\/p>\n
Saturday-Sunday: CHA, DEN, LAL, POR<\/p>\n
Sunday-Monday (Week 14): BKN<\/p>\n
Week 13 Storylines of Note<\/p>\n
– Week 13 is a good week to roster Lakers players.<\/p>\n
After a poor fantasy schedule in Week 12 because they didn\u2019t play on Saturday or Sunday, the Lakers have an excellent slate for Week 13. They\u2019ll play five games, including Monday\/Tuesday and Saturday\/Sunday back-to-backs, which boosts the values of some of the team\u2019s low-rostered players. Even if Rui Hachimura can return from his calf injury during Week 13, Jake LaRavia will be worth a look in fantasy leagues due to the back-to-backs. Marcus Smart, as enigmatic a fantasy option as he can be, also has added value because of the schedule. As for Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and LeBron James, their workloads will be worth tracking. Do they play all five games, or will the Lakers look to give them at least one night off? The answer will have a significant impact on fantasy basketball leagues next week.<\/p>\n
– Be ready to move on from Bucks players after Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Bucks are one of four teams playing only twice during Week 13. However, unlike the other three teams discussed below, Milwaukee plays its games on Tuesday and Thursday. Does the schedule give fantasy managers added motivation to trade Myles Turner, whose \u201csell high\u201d window slammed shut during Week 12? What happens with Bobby Portis after the end of the games on Thursday? While he\u2019s been more productive than Turner recently, the combination of the schedule and his reserve role may make Portis expendable in the eyes of some fantasy managers. At this point, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Porter Jr. are the two players who must be held onto, no matter what the schedule looks like, with Ryan Rollins also in that discussion. As for the others? It\u2019s probably time to either make a deal or drop them to the waiver wire for the final days of Week 13.<\/p>\n
– Detroit, Memphis and Orlando don\u2019t play their first game of Week 13 until Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Pistons, Grizzlies and Magic won\u2019t play their first games of Week 13 until Thursday, with the former playing its second on Saturday. Memphis and Orlando will play their final game of the week on Sunday as part of a six-game slate, making them teams worth mining for streaming value ahead of those contests. Detroit has been hobbled by injuries recently, with Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Tobias Harris all sidelined. While players like Daniss Jenkins and Paul Reed, to name two, have stepped up at various points, holding on to them until Thursday could be challenging. Hopefully, that\u2019s enough time for some of Detroit\u2019s main options to get back onto the court.<\/p>\n
Memphis\u2019 injury situation is complicated by recent trade rumors involving Morant. Will the team be able to find a new home for him before the trade deadline? Also, how will the rumors affect his availability before something happens? Cam Spencer has been a valuable option at point guard, whether he starts or comes off the bench, while Santi Aldama and Jock Landale have added importance due to Zach Edey\u2018s injury. Orlando remains without Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs, but Moritz Wagner will make his season debut on Sunday as he returns from a torn ACL. Anthony Black is a player who fantasy managers should hold onto despite the poor early schedule, but Wendell Carter Jr. may not be in some formats.<\/p>\n
– The Nuggets have two back-to-backs during Week 13.<\/p>\n
The Lakers aren\u2019t the only team that has two back-to-backs to navigate. Denver is one of the others, and the Nuggets are still awaiting the return of Nikola Joki\u0107. He still has a few more weeks on the shelf, but the back-to-backs will impact the availability of some of Denver\u2019s other fantasy mainstays. Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon and Spencer Jones all missed time during Week 12, and that could also be the case in Week 13. And with all four of the Nuggets\u2019 Week 13 games being part of back-to-backs, this could be a case where players are only available for two games. While Murray may be able to offer three (or four) games\u2019 worth of production in two appearances, that won\u2019t be as easy for Braun or Gordon to do, especially with their minutes being restricted.<\/p>\n
– The Nets also have two back-to-backs; what does that mean for Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas?<\/p>\n
Brooklyn also has two back-to-backs, one of which begins with the final day of Week 12. Porter was ruled out of Sunday\u2019s matchup with the Grizzlies; hopefully, that means he will be available for Monday\u2019s matchup with the Mavericks. If so, Week 13 could be a three or four-game week for MPJ, as the second back-to-back is another Sunday\/Monday set. As for Thomas, not only are the back-to-backs a concern, but so is his playing time. He hasn\u2019t surpassed 24 minutes in any of the six games he\u2019s played since returning from a hamstring injury. And Thomas being available for Sunday\u2019s game likely means that he won\u2019t play in Dallas on Monday. There\u2019s a chance he\u2019s only active for two games in Week 13; add in the restriction, and this could be a challenging week for those who have him rostered. Nic Claxton is someone else to watch; Week 13 could be when fantasy managers receive a preview of what\u2019s to come in Brooklyn during the \u201csilly season.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Dallas\u2019 four-game week will get very interesting due to Anthony Davis and P.J. Washington missing time due to injury.<\/p>\n
Davis, another star who has been the subject of trade rumors recently, suffered a left hand injury during Thursday\u2019s loss to the Jazz that\u2019s expected to cost him six weeks minimum. And that\u2019s if he doesn\u2019t need surgery. As for Washington, he\u2019s missed the last two games with an ankle injury. Add in Brandon Williams sitting out Saturday\u2019s loss to the Bulls with an illness, and the Mavericks head into a four-game Week 13 down three rotation players.<\/p>\n
As much as it\u2019s been reported that decision-makers would like to see what a trio of Davis, Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving would look like on the court together, would that be good business for the Mavericks? The 2026 first-round pick is the last that they\u2019ll have complete control over until 2031. Week 13\u2019s schedule includes a midweek back-to-back; fantasy managers may get some clues about what the Mavericks plan to do the rest of the season, even though the team is only three games out of the final play-in spot in the loss column.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Week 13 fantasy basketball schedule is an interesting one, in that every day has between six and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-406314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}