- The NBA regular season has come to a close and as expected many teams locked into either their playoff or lottery position took this time to dish out some minutes to players that didn't see much burn over the course of the 82 game grind.
- Unfortunately, half of the participants didn't jump on the silly train and were left with poor old Last Man In Willy Hernangomez. The Pelicans big man earned Colin (whose original pick Kyle Lowry didn't suit up), Lou, and Ryan 19 PRA in 20 minutes of game action against Golden State.
- The other three picks came from everybody's favorite 10-day contract haven, Oklahoma City. Al got himself a nice 52 RBPRA piece of pie from Georgios Kalaitzakis against the Clippers, yet could only find a silver medal in his daily trophy case.
- And that gold went to our top two scorers thus far as both Matt and Trevor selected Zavier Simpson. After his 66 RBPRA night, he now has a 100% percentage turning picks into top scores after also doing the deed when Al selected him two days prior.
- Before I get to the optimal scorer and bench bargains, I just want to say how fun it was to comb through these final day box scores. Seeing guys get more minutes in one game than they had all season warms the cockles of my heart and even more so when those same guys put up stupid numbers in those minutes. There were three triple-doubles on the night with one being Memphis' John Konchar. Jalen Green continued his fine end-of-season form with 90 PRA but Milwaukee's Sandro Mamukelashvili matched him in that regard. It was pure, lovable basketball chaos. But without further ado, let's get to the optimization station. Austin Reaves put up an unreal 114 RBPRA with his triple-double in an overtime win against the Nuggets. His 31 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists were all career highs. He hit all 14 of his free throw attempts. Kevin Love showed some of the old Kevin Love with 44 PRA against Milwaukee but unfortunately his side couldn't get the home play-in game they had hoped for. For the rookies, Memphis' Santi Aldama and Detroit's Luka Garza each had 68 RBPRA in their regular season finales.
- EDITOR'S NOTE: I'll be sending out player availability messages over the course of today so keep an eye out for them.
Image Credits: Kalaitzakis, Hernangomez (ESPN), Simpson (G-League Twitter)