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          Fantasy NBA Daily Notes: Who will shine after All-Star snub?

          After dealing with incessant trade rumors, Kemba Walker didn't get an All-Star berth. Will he take it out on opponents soon? AP Photo/Chuck Burton
          • Andre Snellings, ESPNJan 24, 2018, 01:34 PM

          Every year at this time, the NBA All-Star reserves are announced. This is a fun time of year, and there are a lot of first-time All-Stars this season representing the growing crop of new superstars in the league.

          On the flip side of the coin, every year at this time, there are players who thought they deserved to make it who are angry at being left off the team. This is fun in fantasy circles, because often the bet is that the snubbed players will use the rejection as motivation for an explosive game immediately after the teams come return to action.

          It used to be that Damian Lillard was the card-carrying angry man after repeated snubs, but he's an All-Star again this season after a two-season absence, so he doesn't have to play his annual revenge game. Let's go through some of the bigger names to be left off this season's team, and look at their likelihood to explode in their next outings.

          Paul George was one of the big-named snubs out west, with teammates and pundits alike weighing in on his absence. He's the only player on this list to have already played after getting the news that he missed the team, and he did go pretty big on Tuesday: 28 points (9-20 FG, 9-11 FT), 9 rebounds, 1 3-pointer, 1 assist, 0 TO

          However, the Thunder have settled into Russell Westbrook running the show, which caps George's upside but is better for the team's success.

          Lou Williams was the snub who most surprised me, as he's been a monster for quite awhile now and has kept the LA Clippers in the playoff hunt through mass team injuries. Here's one summary of his All-Star credentials:

          On top of that, he's one of the ones who seems most publicly irritated to be left out:

          I'm looking for him to get medieval on the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.

          Andre Drummond also left a series of tweets like this one voicing his displeasure at missing the team. He also plays on Wednesday but has a tough matchup against Rudy Gobert that might make it hard for him to take revenge.

          Kemba Walker has been listening to trade rumors for weeks, with team owner Michael Jordan re-fanning those flames just this week, and then he didn't make the team on top of it. Plus, he has a great matchup on Wednesday against an often generous New Orleans Pelicans perimeter defense. After Williams, he seems most likely to put a big revenge number on the board on Wednesday.

          Finally, there's no doubt that Chris Paul is one of the best 12 players in the Western Conference. For the second year in a row, first-half injuries have kept him off the team. But he's got bigger fish to fry this season as he aims at a championship, so I'm not expecting any kind of revenge game from him on Wednesday.

          Tuesday recap

          Box scores

          Highlights:

          Kyrie Irving, Boston Celtics: 33 points (13-24 FG, 3-3 FT), 4 assists, 4 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 1 TO, +16 on-court

          Kyle Kuzma, Los Angeles Lakers: 28 points (10-16 FG, 3-5 FT), 5 3-pointers, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 27 minutes

          Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors: 32 points (9-19 FG, 6-6 FT), 8 3-pointers, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 1 TO

          Garrett Temple, Sacramento Kings: 34 points (14-17 FG, 2-2 FT), 5 assists, 4 3-pointers, 2 rebounds, 2 TO, 40 minutes

          Dejounte Murray, San Antonio Spurs: 19 points (8-15 FG, 3-4 FT), 10 rebounds, 7 steals, 3 assists, 4 TO

          Lowlights:

          Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics: 4 points (1-6 FG, 1-2 FT), 5 rebounds, 1 3-pointer, 3 TO, -2 on-court

          Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors: 9 points (4-10 FG, 1-2 FT), 4 assists, 2 rebounds

          Carmelo Anthony, Oklahoma City Thunder: 10 points (4-12 FG, 2-2 FT), 8 rebounds, 1 block

          Tuesday takeaways

          • LeBron James had a good game on Tuesday, one that would be a monster effort for pretty much anyone else, with 28 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 3-pointers and 1 block. But his biggest news was the history that he made by scoring his 30,000th career point to join a very exclusive club. The last person to join that club was Dirk Nowitzki, and he welcomed James via Twitter:

          • While teammate George had a strong game immediately after not being named to the All-Star team, presumably Melo has moved on from that part of his career, because he responded to not being on the All-Star radar with a dud performance. Westbrook got his, of course, with 32 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Steven Adams was the third fantasy-relevant Thunder player, chipping in 14 boards, 3 steals and 6 points.

          • Irving continued to put up huge scoring numbers in games that the Celtics are struggling to win, and Al Horford flirted with a triple-double with 13 points, 12 boards, 6 assists, 3 3-pointers and 2 blocks. Marcus Smart (available in 64.7 percent of leagues) had his second straight big game off the bench with 22 points, 8 assists, 4 3-pointers, 2 rebounds and 1 steal. He seems to be stepping up for the slumping Tatum.

          • The Lakers were led by their bench unit on Tuesday, getting 50 combined points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 3-pointers and 2 steals from the combo of Kuzma and Jordan Clarkson. Larry Nance Jr. (available in 75 percent of leagues) was strong again with a near double-double off the bench, and Julius Randle did contribute a 14-point,14-rebound double-double to pace the starting unit.

          • Temple (available in 99.1 percent of leagues) got extra run off the bench on Tuesday, playing a team-high 40 minutes due to injuries in the backcourt and his hot hand. Meanwhile, Willie Cauley-Stein was the biggest impact player on the floor for the Kings, scoring 21 points (9-18 FG, 3-4 FT) with 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 assists, 1 steal and a whopping +27 on-court +/- that led the Kings by a huge margin (second on the team was +6).

          • Solid team effort for the Orlando Magic, who got 22 points, 4 assists and 2 3-pointers from Evan Fournier; 21 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and a trey from Elfrid Payton; and 16 points, 12 rebounds, 2 treys and 2 assists from Aaron Gordon.

          • Murray (available in 74.5 percent of leagues) got the game ball for the Spurs with his near triple-double in his first game as the official starting point guard, but LaMarcus Aldridge was strong as well with 30 points (12-18 FG, 6-7 FT), 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and 2 TO.

          Injuries of note

          • Kristaps Porzingis twisted his knee in practice on Monday, and was unable to play on Tuesday. The injury is being called "left knee irritation", which doesn't sound serious, so consider him day-to-day for now. His absence is good news for the stock of Michael Beasley (available in 52.8 percent of leagues), who moved into the starting lineup on Tuesday and produced 21 points (8-15 FG, 5-5 FT), 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 35 minutes.

          • De'Aaron Fox had to leave Tuesday's game in the second quarter with an abdominal injury, and he didn't return. Temple started the second half at point guard, because George Hill was sitting on Tuesday to rest. Consider Fox day-to-day, and if he has to sit, keep an ear out for what the Kings will do. They announced that they were going to sit Hill more so that they could focus on young players, but without Fox they may decide to go back to the veteran Hill. Or, they could stay with Temple, who obviously exploded with his extra playing time (see above).

          • Pau Gasol sat out Tuesday's game with a wrist injury that he has been battling, but that previously hadn't kept him out of game action. This was the first game of a back-to-back for the San Antonio Spurs, so keep an eye out for word on Gasol's availability on Wednesday.

          • T.J. McConnell will sit out on Wednesday for personal reasons, reportedly to attend the funeral of his father-in-law. Ben Simmons should get more run than usual at the point guard, and Larry Drew II was just signed to a 10-day contract and could see some run as well.

          Analytics advantage for Wednesday

          As I look through Wednesday's NBA lineup, several games just look like they could produce some big stat lines even without analysis: New Orleans Pelicans at Charlotte Hornets, Phoenix Suns at Indiana Pacers, Celtics at Clippers, and Chicago Bulls at Philadelphia 76ers all feel like big numbers waiting to happen.

          I'll focus here on the Bulls at the 76ers, though, as the Bulls just gave up a historic 78 points, 33 rebounds and 15 assists to two ultra-skilled big men on Monday. Simmons can't shoot as well as either DeMarcus Cousins or Anthony Davis, but Simmons and Joel Embiid are perhaps the most skilled set players 6-foot-10 and over on a team east of New Orleans.

          The Bulls' issues with the Pelicans' bigs didn't come from nowhere, as on the season they have allowed the third-most opponent rebounds (45.8 rebounds per game) and the eighth-highest opponent field goal percentage on 2-point shots at 52 percent. On a fantasy front, they have allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to opposing centers during the season (unsurprisingly, the most over the past five games) and the tenth-most fantasy points to opposing power forwards. This just shapes up as a friendly game for the 76ers' tall, skilled frontline, including Dario Saric.

          Top players to watch tonight

          • Davis and Cousins have taken turns putting together historical games during the past 10 days. It almost seems like they actually do take turns, as compromise seems to be the only way that two such high-talent/high-usage big men could thrive together. Either or both could explode on Wednesday as well, but my personal hunch is that it's Davis' turn.

          • Speaking of Davis and Cousins going nuts, the Bulls' defense that allowed it to happen was featured in the "analytics advantage" section for a reason ... things seem primed for some combination of Embiid, Simmons and/or Saric to go big on Wednesday.