Fantasy Basketball at the All-Star Break: Schedule Notes, Nets Fire Vaughn, All-Star Weekend Recap + More

Here are some key storylines and thoughts that you might have missed over All-Star Weekend, as well as a look at what some of the impacts may be as we enter Week 18 of the NBA season. While it was a slow news weekend, the Nets have a new coach, which could have some fantasy impacts. 

Beware the one-game week

While most teams only play two times this week, there are some one-gamers and three-gamers out there, as well. Memphis and Miami only play one time this week, meaning you can roll with Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Vince Williams and Jaren Jackson on Friday night, but that's it.  

Embrace the three-game week

The Hornets, Cavaliers, Nuggets, Warriors, Rockets, Clippers, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder, Magic, Sixers, Suns, Spurs and Wizards all play three times this week, while the remaining teams only have two games. 

Thursday (12), Friday (10) and Sunday (11) all feature at least 10 games so if you're making moves, try to find a player who goes on Saturday, when there are only three games. Otherwise, you may not be able to even use the player you pick up if they play on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. And in a spoiler alert, every three-game team this week goes on Thursday, Friday and Sunday except for the Orlando Magic. They play on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, so picking up a Magic player with three games is the only real advantage you'll have to getting a three-game player this week.  

Both ESPN and Yahoo! combined last week with this one to make one big week, so that is also worth taking into consideration. Just take a close look at your team's schedule before making moves so you can utilize it to the fullest. You can check out RotoWire's full, customizable schedule grid for more insight.

Other schedule notes 

The Nets play four times next week and then play five times the following week. 

The Cavaliers, Grizzlies, Heat and Timberwolves play four times in each of the next two weeks starting on Feb. 26. 

The Cavaliers finish up the season 4-4-3-4-4-4-3, which is nice. The Heat finish 4-4-3-4-3-4-4, the Blazers go 3-4-4-4-3-4-4, the Kings finish 3-4-3-4-4-4-4, the Raptors go 4-3-4-3-3-4-4, and the Wizards go 3-4-4-3-4-4-3 to finish out the season. Those are the four-game heavy teams the rest of the way in fantasy. 

Jacque Vaughn let go as coach of the Nets

Jacque Vaughn was fired on Monday meaning the Nets will have an unknown interim coach going forward. It looks like a 50-point loss to Boston last week was the final straw and Vaughn was under fire for how he's used Cam Thomas, among other players that he'd reportedly "lost" over time. I think this will end up being good news for Thomas going forward and am hoping that he might be a little more stable and consistent with a new coach leading the way. 

There are a lot of injured players who may or may not be cleared to play this week so be sure to keep an eye on the RotoWire News Feed this week. Players like Onyeka Okongwu, LeBron James, Bradley Beal, Gordon Hayward and Jimmy Butler will all be worth keeping a close eye on for the next couple of days as the NBA gets ready to re-start on Thursday. 

All-Star Weekend Recap

All-Star Saturday was fairly entertaining with the LED court in Indy and some exciting action. 

Bennedict Mathurin was named the MVP of the Rising Stars game in Team Jalen's 26-13 win over Team Detlef in the final. Mathurin also had 18 points in 13 minutes in the earlier semifinal game despite missing Indy's final regular-season game before the break. Hopefully, this means he's good to go this week and will have some extra confidence coming in. 

Tyrese Haliburton, Mathurin and Myle Turner took home the Skills Challenge trophy for the Pacers, beating a team of All-Stars (Scottie Barnes, Tyrese Maxey and Trae Young) and No. 1 picks featuring Victor Wembanyama, Anthony Edwards and Paolo Banchero. 

Damian Lillard repeated as the 3-point champion with 26 points in the finals, edging out Trae Young (24) and Karl-Anthony Towns (22). Haliburton had 26 points to nearly qualify for the Finals but was knocked out in a tie breaker by Lillard, Young and KAT. 

The Dunk Contest saw some questionable scoring from the judges, who seemed to love everything Jaylen Brown did, but the GLeague's Mac McClung held on to repeat as champion. His first dunk, when he jumped over a dude on another dude's shoulders, passed an alley-oop back to himself and then dunked was a highlight, followed by a similar move over the head of Shaquille O'Neal. The scoring was crazy, but the right guy won in the end. 

And then there was the All-Star Game itself on Sunday night. Even though Adam Silver promised a more competitive game, what we actually got was a defenseless mockery of a basketball game that resulted in a record-breaking score of 211-186 in favor of the East.

I really thought Haliburton was going to win the MVP in his hometown behind his 32 points, seven rebounds, six assists and 10 3-pointers, but Lillard came away with the hardware after his 39-point performance and the win. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 50 for the West and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 for the losers.

The All-Star Game has become nearly unwatchable and Silver was not happy after the game. You have to think changes may be coming but the NBA has done this to themselves by making the rules favor offensive players so heavily. And it doesn't help that today's All-Stars simply have no interest in playing defense in the showcase. Something tells me that won't be the case next year, but we'll have to wait and see.

Overall, I thought the weekend was fairly entertaining but Sunday's big game should really be the focal point and a highlight, instead of actually just making people angry. Silver will be on the warpath next year to make sure his guys are going to take the game seriously and play some D.  Thankfully, we can get back to focusing on our fantasy teams on Thursday.