How to keep your fantasy basketball playoff hopes alive while dodging (and dealing) with injuries

[ad_1]

Ah, the fantasy basketball playoffs. It’s the most wonderful (and stressful) time of the year for hoops managers. The stakes are sky-high, every matchup feels like life or death, and then bam! An injury throws everything into chaos. But don’t worry — I’ve got you covered.

Here’s how to keep your playoff run alive while dodging the injury curveballs NBA players love to throw our way.

1. Stay on Top of Injury Reports

First things first: you need INTEL, and you need it fast. Injuries can come out of nowhere, so make it part of your daily routine to check the NBA injury report that’s updated every hour or follow accounts like Underdog NBA. These sources are gold for nightly updates on who’s in, who’s out, and who’s a game-time decision.

[Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem is back: Enter for a shot to win up to $50K]

Example? Just look at the Nuggets on Monday. Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun were all late scratches, leaving fantasy managers scrambling. If you’re not keeping tabs on injury updates, you’re already playing from behind.

2. Don’t Panic-Pickup After an Injury

It happens to the best of us. You see a player’s injury notification pop up on the Yahoo Fantasy app, slam the waiver wire and grab the “next man up.”

But hold up. Sometimes an injury doesn’t mean immediate production for the backup. Sit tight, evaluate the situation, and wait for the dust to settle.

Take the Grizzlies for example. Ja Morant (hamstring) was ruled out ahead of Monday night’s contest with a hamstring injury while his valuable backup, Scotty Pippen Jr., was listed as questionable all day. He was eventually ruled out, which opened up more minutes and opportunity for Luke Kennard. Had you picked up Pippen and he not played, you would have wasted a transaction. By waiting, you give yourself a chance to evaluate and weigh other options that could be more viable for replacement-level players.

3. Stream on Light Days

If there are players on your bench playing on heavy slates, consider dropping them to stream on the slates with fewer games. In Week 20, that’s Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Why? Because the more…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/article/how-to-keep-your-fantasy-basketball-playoff-hopes-alive-while-dodging-and-dealing-with-injuries-180907817.html

Author : Dan Titus

Publish date : 2025-03-18 18:09:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.