THE HANGOVER: DRAFTSTARS WEEKLY WRAP

Can you believe it is December already? December means a few things, particularly in Australia. One, test cricket. Which starts Thursday and for which Draftstars has a $5,000 contest. Two, the weather gets hot. Three, Christmas.

So, in the spirit of the festive season, let’s imagine the week just gone as a gift. A gift to everyone who engaged in any of the Draftstars contests throughout the week and weekend. If you didn’t… Coal in your stocking.

Whether it was NBA, NFL or EPL, there was a glut of entertaining battles and fierce rivalries which kept our eyes affixed to our respective screens.

Don’t cash your cheques now, but Toronto are on an eight game win streak, just knocked off a semi-resurgent Warriors side and may have the star power to actually make some noise in the playoffs. They are likely to top the East for the second consecutive year and Kawhi Leonard has made himself a seemingly happy home in Canada.

Aside from that, an early Christmas present came in the form of the Nuggets and Trail Blazers matchup. Two exciting young squads fought it out on Sunday with the Nuggets coming away with the W and the top seed in the West.

The NFL on Monday proved as eventful as ever. The Chiefs covered the release of Kareem Hunt and chalked up victory number 10 for the season over the Raiders. It was not without a scare though as their defence again conceded over 30 points.

The Bears, without Mitch Trubisky, had their five game winning streak snapped by the topsy-turvy Giants and the Texans extended their win streak to nine.

Green Bay sacked coach, Mike McCarthy, after he was unable to beat the hapless Cardinals despite calling the shots for Aaron Rodgers. And just before that, the Jaguars and Colts fought out the antithesis of the Rams/Chiefs game, totalling six points for the entire match. In that match, the Colts were shutout for the first game ever with Andrew Luck under centre.

The NFL contest was won by Cigars43 who took home $976.59 for his 198-point effort. NBA Saturday’s $1,000+ first prize was snared by Jclark16 while MOO took out Sundays $1,140.

NBA COMPETITIONS

Waking up Saturday and Sunday morning’s, we were welcomed to the Christmas tree with two huge new, fancily wrapped parcels. Twelve games on Saturday and another nine on Sunday brought tears of joy to the eyes. This followed Friday’s instant classic in the North between Toronto and the Warriors.

In that match, KD put up an extremely Draftstars friendly 51 points, 11 rebounds and six assists and top scored in Friday’s contest.

Over the weekend the NBA continued to be an offensive showcase. 22 sides went off for over 100 points and nine of those scored over 120. And real life points translate to Draftstars points.

Saturday’s contest saw nine players rack up over 50 with AD topping the list with a huge 64 points. His effort came on the back off an efficient 41 points (15-23), nine rebounds and four blocks. However, it was DeMarre Carroll who had the most value.

Remember DeMarre? He was a near All-Star with the Hawks in 2015 then went to Toronto on big money and got injured early on. Anyway, he notched up a season high 44 DS points on Saturday as his Brooklyn side almost pulled off a heist over Memphis.

On Sunday, the 50+ point outings cooled slightly but Gordon Hayward still managed to output 58.25 DS points. Besides from his contributions to your Draftstars side, Hayward’s game marked a return to his old-self with all round contributions to his side, and his stat line. Priced at just $9,550 after a lean start to the season, Hayward was also the best value selection across the whole contest.

NFL $10,000 + MONDAY

After an adjusted schedule last week due to Thanksgiving, Monday was host to 14 games this week. So I am thankful for that. I am also thankful for Todd Gurley. Man’s a walking touchdown.

After the Rams exuded some first half, post-bye week rust, Gurley exploded in the final quarter, scoring twice and winning his side the game.

The best present of the week though, and the gift that keeps on giving, is Travis Kelce. Playing in the Chiefs 40-33 victory, Kelce was the difference. His 168 yards and two scores gave him 38.8 DS points and his highest score for the year. He has been in the top two tight ends all year and his $13,280 salary is one to strongly consider, especially playing at such a thin position.

The best value selection, picked in 1% of entries, was Buffalo receiver Zay Jones. He scored 24.7 DS points by way of his 67 receiving yards, two scores and two-point conversion reception. He was QB Josh Allen’s go to scoring guy and should be considered in matchups featuring the Bills against lesser defences, particularly at $5,000.

Speaking of Josh Allen, he was arguably the best selection at quarterback this week. He notched up 30.74 DS points to be the second highest scoring QB of the contest. The highest scoring? Pat Mahomes with 33. Mahomes was valued $21,980, Allen just $11,860.

His aerial figures (231 yards, 18/33, 2 TD, 2 Int) were only okay but he also rushed for 135 yards, backing up his 99 yards from week 12.

Josh Allen GIF from Josh GIFs

Looking ahead, the Chargers hold a number of DS scoring cards in their deck in week 14. Playing the leaky Bengals, all of Keenan Allen, Phil Rivers and Austin Ekeler or Justin Jackson have the potential to score well. And, at 9-3 the Chargers are rolling. Phil Rivers came out and said he feels like this team is the real deal.

Written by Brin Duggan

By Latest, NBA, NFL