The Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers have been polar opposites from a fantasy basketball perspective this season. The Heat have numerous sell-high candidates at the moment and the Cavs are well-rounded, providing value throughout their roster.
These two teams squared off on Monday night, with the Cavs receiving a monster performance from Kevin Love to end up knocking off the Heat, 105-94.
From a fantasy basketball perspective, the game was interesting from the jump. Miami is missing several of their key contributors, while Cleveland is operating at nearly full capacity.
Kyle Lowry, who is the Heat’s best fantasy player with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo missing, continued his categorical dominance for Miami.
Posting a line of 22 points, three rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block, and a shooting split of 50/50/100 that included four triples, Lowry was a monster for the Heat in this one. Once Butler returns, Lowry’s production is bound to dip though, so this may be a great sell-high window for the aging point guard.
Kyle Lowry has been playing insane for the injured Miami Heat. Can he keep this up once everyone is healthy, or is he a prime target to sell high?
On the other side, the Cavs’ most dominant player was Kevin Love. Despite not scoring in the first half, Love ended with 23 points, nine boards, one assist, and a shooting split of 60/63/100 with five triples and in only 23 minutes of work.
If Love played the Miami Heat every game, he would be a no-brainer, must-roster player. Unfortunately, Cleveland does not exclusively play Miami and Love is just a high-value streaming option on most nights.
Other players who provided extraordinary value on the night were Jarrett Allen, P.J. Tucker, and Isaac Okoro.
Allen, who did not miss a shot in this game, has been a fantasy breakout all season. He is posting top-25 value on the year.
His value in the past two weeks, alone, places him in the top-10 across the league. To say that he is an All-Star candidate would be an understatement.
If you drafted Allen, enjoy the sweet ride into the playoffs. You earned it.
For P.J. Tucker and Isaac Okoro, these were more of an abnormality than a standard showing. Both men led their respective starting lineups in scoring, which is not the usual lead at the top of a box score.
Okoro and Tucker also canned four and five three-pointers, respectively, which is a massive increase over their season averages. Overall, there is not much to see outside of an excellent surprise-scoring outburst from these two.
As far as the topic at hand though, it’s an interesting one. You wouldn’t be wrong to move Lowry at the right price.
However, with the Heat’s hopes, Bam Adebayo being down for a bit longer, how he’s played so far with added opportunity, and the fact that this is year one of his tenure, meaning he’s the freshest he might be in Miami— you should probably hold on to him for now.