NBA Today: Banged Up Wolves Get Blitzed

This week, Victor Wembanyama went off for 19 points and 15 boards as San Antonio bounced back big time after getting shocked in Game One; Jalen Brunson had another solid game as the Knicks grabbed a 2-0 lead over Philly; and Jaylen Brown shot down any notions about being frustrated with the Celtic organization, saying he’d like to stay for the long haul. Other Fantasy basketball stories we’re tracking include…

Ayo Dosunmu Returns

In 2024-25, the Minnesota Timberwolves won seven fewer games than the previous season, yet still made it to the Western Conference Finals before being dispatched in five games by eventual champion OKC.

This season, the T-Wolves again managed just 49 wins, but are still hanging around, earning a split on the road to begin their second round series against the Spurs. While they were pummeled by San Antonio by 38 in Game Two on Wednesday, the good news is that Ayo Dosunmu (heel) did in fact suit up after being out since Game Five of the Denver series.

The bad news? He played just 10 minutes and failed to score a point (in part due to yet another Wemby block — see video below), managing just one steal and one block.

A Wire Troll All-Star back in 2023-24, Dosunmu showed modest improvements in an injury-plagued 2024-25 and then excelled in more of a sixth man role in Chicago this season before getting dealt to Minny, where he never shot in better from the charity stripe.

When healthy, he’s been a beast in the playoffs so far as his bucket count is up and he continues to be virtually automatic from the line. If the Timberwolves have any hope of upsetting the Spurs, they need Dosunmo (and Anthony Edwards of course) healthy enough to handle a usual workload.

Dosunmo had a career best 60 per cent effective field goal percentage this season and really seemed to come into his own after the trade, performing at a top 80 player level on a per-game rate.

Tobias Harris Again Steps Up in Playoffs

Just over a year ago, we talked about the Detroit Pistons’ long rebuild finally paying off with a playoff berth. This season, they’ve taken another massive step forward, winning an Eastern Conference leading 60 games, and making it to the second round for the first time since 2007-08.

One of Detroit’s few challenges has been finding consistent secondary scoring behind star Cade Cunningham. The good news is that veteran Tobias Harris – as he is wont to do – is stepping up in the playoffs.

His role has diminished since beginning his second stint in Motown in 2024-25 as his touches have dropped in each of his two seasons with the team. But it’s been a different story in the playoffs as the veteran seems to have dipped into the fountain of youth.

Harris scored 20 points with eight boards and two steals in Game One and has now managed 20 or more in six straight games. Small wonder he’s pretty much a slam dunk to score at least 10 points in Game Two on Thursday (-1800 as per FanDuel).

Okay, so Harris is no longer a 30 Fantasy points per game player in the regular season, put come playoff time, he’s gold, and that’s not new for him. Over his long career, he’s averaged almost a point per game higher in the postseason, but this season the spread is really notable (13.3 in the regular season vs. 21.1 in the playoffs).

Harris’ timing is superb with free agency looming this summer. There’s talk the Lakers could be interested, assuming that is that Detroit doesn’t re-up with the soon-to-be 34-year-old. This could be the final contract of Harris’ career, so it will be interesting to see where this highly underrated player winds up.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

French jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty has been active since 1958 and is still going at age 83 (or at least is still alive). Among his multitude of studio albums is 1976’s Imaginary Voyage, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. “Once Upon a Dream” is a typical taste of his jazz fusion work.