NBA

Daily Fantasy Basketball Stats Watch: Trevor Ariza Is on Fire

Trevor Ariza has been lights out from deep lately, but can that continue?

Basketball is a game of streaks. Whether it's wins or losses, makes and misses, or court time and bench time, the numbers can get skewed over small samples, and guys can sometimes just defy logic with a hot streak of shooting.

You can reap the benefits from a positive trend and weather the storm when the numbers are bad in season long basketball more often than not, but in daily fantasy basketball, you need to have a pulse on how things are changing.

These are some examples from the past few weeks of players whose stats are trending up or down.

Minutes

Up:  E'Twaun Moore drew two consecutive starts for the Bulls in their past two games and played 36 and 30 minutes, respectively. Moore posted 16.9 and 20.7 FanDuel points in those starts, meaning he essentially hit value in each contest. Aaron Gordon has averaged 30 minutes per game over seven contests in the past two weeks. His 19-point, 14-rebound, 5-assist, 2-block game in 39 minutes against Boston on Sunday should help him continue to carve out a bigger role as a starter.

Down: C.J. Miles has averaged just 20 minutes per game over the last two weeks. Miles can get hot from three-point range, but his minutes have taken a hit as the Myles Turner experiment has taken off in recent games.

Points

Up:  Trevor Ariza has averaged 16.6 points per game over the past two weeks (eight games), up from his season average of 12.2. Ariza also saw an uptick in minutes (37.7 compared to 34.5 for the season). Helping him greatly was his ability to shoot 50 percent from three-point range on 7.3 attempts per game. His season average is 37.7 percent on 6.1 attempts, so expect some regression. Danilo Gallinari has averaged 23 points per game in the past two weeks (seven games). He's averaged 19.5 for the season. Jeff Green scored 30, 21, and 29 points in his past three games (23.3 per game), up from his 11.8 points per game average on the season.

Down: LeBron James has averaged 22.2 points per game over the last three weeks, down nearly 3 full points from his season average of 24.9. Similarly, over the same span, Paul George's scoring dropped 2.5 points per game: from 23.5 to 21 per game. Detroit teammates Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond have seen similar point plunges. For Jackson, he's down 2.9 points per game in the past three weeks (16.5 points) from his season average (19.3). However, in four games last week, he's been above his season long mark, scoring 21 points per game. Drummond's 17.2 points have dropped to 14.4 in the past three weeks and 15.6 over the past week.

Rebounds

Up: Aaron Gordon managed 5.5 rebounds per game this year, but over the past week, that mark has been 10.3. Nikola Jokic pulled down 9.5 rebounds per game over four games last week and 6.3 over his past 10, up from a mark of 5.7 per game for the season. Julius Randle has averaged 11.3 boards per game over the past two weeks (seven games), up from his already-great 9.7 boards per game this season.

Down: Anthony Davis has averaged 8.5 boards per contest in his past six games, down from his 10.3 mark for the season. Paul George's 7.1 season average has dropped to 5.2 over the past two weeks.

Assists

Up: Norris Cole averaged 6.3 assists per game in three contests last week. Sporadic play limited him to just 2.8 assists per game for the season, so this is one to monitor, as Cole has topped 30 minutes in five of his past seven games. James Harden, on the back of monstrous performances, upped his assists per game to 8.5 over the past two weeks, up 1.5 per game from his season average. Ish Smith keeps trending upward. He averaged 9.2 assists per game over the past two weeks (6.6 on the season).

Down: Darren Collison has averaged 2.3 assists per game in his past 10 games (26 minutes per game). That's down from his 4.5 per contest for the season. Elfrid Payton racked up just 8 assists last week in four games but has averaged 5.6 helpers per game this season. He played a tough Boston backcourt twice, so expect a bit of an uptick.

Fantasy Points

Up: Jrue Holiday has managed 24.5 FanDuel points per game this season. In his past 10 games, he's averaged 33.9, and last week (three games), he averaged 43.7. Teammate Ryan Anderson also trended up, turning his 27.2 FanDuel points per game on the season into 30.2 over the past 10 games and 43.4 over the past three. Monta Ellis averaged 41 FanDuel points in three games last week, up from 27.3 on the season. Chandler Parsons (21.2 FanDuel points per game) has scored 31 over his past 11 games. Myles Turner has jumped up to 26 points per game over his past 10, up from 17.7 on the season.

Down:  Kawhi Leonard's 35.9 FanDuel Points per game  on the season dropped to 28.4 over the past three weeks of action -- and even lower, 27.3, over his past three games. Andre Drummond, a 40.7-point per game scorer, has managed just 33.6 over his past four games. Serge Ibaka's decline continued last week. He's averaged just 25.5 FanDuel points per game this year but managed just 19.5 over his past three games.