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Portland Trail Blazers C Hassan Whiteside has been ruled out for Saturday’s game vs. the Los Angeles Clippers due to a hip strain.
Hassan Whiteside (left hip strain) is our for today’s game vs. the LA Clippers.
— Jamie Hudson (@JamieHudsonNBCS) August 8, 2020
Whiteside had been sent to the bench to start the bubble restart with the return of Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins. Nurk has been playing out of his mind, so there hasn’t been much need for the Blazers to use Whiteside off the bench. Over three games in the bubble, Whiteside hasn’t played more than 17 minutes and hasn’t scored in double figures in each game. Let’s break it down.
Fantasy basketball and betting impact
With Portland running a “playoff” type of rotation anyway, this injury isn’t very impactful. We may see Mario Hezonja off the bench again after he was a DNP-CD against the Nuggets a few days ago. At $3,000, he really isn’t anything more than a GPP punt play. Really, this makes Nurkic ($8,900) and Collins ($4,300) more appealing. The Clippers lack front court depth and won’t have Kawhi Leonard (load management). Damian Lillard ($10,000), Nurk, CJ McCollum ($7,800) and Gary Trent Jr. ($4,800) all make for great GPP plays.
The lines aren’t impacted much either. The Blazers are favored by 4 points with no Kawhi out there and everything to play for in the hunt for the 8-seed. Whiteside doesn’t do anything to move the needle in any direction. Maybe, you take another look at some Nurk or Collins props? Collins’ rebounding total is at 6.5 (-130) and Nurk’s points, rebounds and assists is at 35.5 (-115). Nurk’s rebounding prop is at 12.5, so if Vegas thinks he can eclipse that, you’d only need Nurkic to score 23 points or get to 20 points with a few assists to hit the over.
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