Which fantasy basketball players can you count on to play the most down the stretch?

Earlier this week, Jaren Jackson Jr. underwent season-ending knee surgery. Last week, it was announced that Zach LaVine’s season was over with a hand injury. On Wednesday, Shams Charania reported that Kyrie Irving will not return from his ACL injury this season after all. After being traded to the Wizards, reports came out that Anthony Davis was not expected to play again this season.

The All-Star Break is typically thought of as the unofficial halfway point in the NBA season, but it really is more of a two-thirds marker in the season. There are less than two months of season remaining, and the teams still vying for the playoffs will be working on finishing strong to solidify their seeding. But those teams that aren’t likely to make the playoffs may have different motivations for the end of the season, as evidenced by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s decisions to fine two teams last week for sitting healthy players in order to improve draft positioning. Each of the players mentioned above that have been reported as out for the season are veteran players on teams headed to the lottery.

So, what does this tell us from a fantasy hoops perspective? Well, since our fantasy hoops squads depend on the availability of NBA players, we need to pay attention to what factors may impact that availability moving forward. If being a veteran on a bad team is one risk factor and players with an extensive history of injury absence is another, there are also commonalities for players that tend to be safer plays down the stretch.

Veteran players on teams contending for the playoffs that are still battling for playoff positioning, for example, tend to be more likely to play in most games. On rebuilding teams, young players with upside, particularly rookies, tend to get more consistent playing time after the All-Star Break.

Here, we’ll look around the league with these criteria in mind to identify some of the safer fantasy plays down the stretch. Important: “safer” doesn’t guarantee availability, because injuries can happen to anyone. But here’s a list of players likely to play in most games down the stretch.

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Mikal Bridges, New York Knicks: Bridges hasn’t missed a game in his NBA career, an iron man streak now over 600 games long and counting. Plus, he plays on a Knicks team that will be battling for playoffs seeding and will need his contributions.

Derrick White, Boston Celtics: White has played at least 73 games in all three full seasons he has been a Celtic and has played in 52 of the 54 games this season. The Celtics are battling the Knicks for the top spot in the Atlantic Division and will likely be relying on White’s contributions down to the wire.

Harrison Barnes, San Antonio Spurs: Barnes and the Spurs will be fighting for seeding in the top-heavy Western Conference. He has played in all 82 games for each of the past three seasons, two with the Kings and one with the Spurs, and has played in all 54 Spurs games this season.

Nique Clifford, Sacramento Kings: Clifford is a rookie on a Kings team that has already shut down one veteran wing for the season in LaVine. Though he averaged only 21.3 MPG before the All-Star Break, Clifford averaged 32.7 MPG in his last 10 games before the break and is likely to continue to get heavy minutes down the stretch.

Jabari Smith Jr., Houston Rockets: Though Smith missed 25 games last season due to injury, that has been the outlier in his career thus far. He started 79 and 76 games in his first two seasons, has started in 52 of the Rockets’ 53 games this season, and is being relied upon heavily this season for a team right in the middle of the Western Conference playoffs race.