Welcome to 2026! We're back with the first High Score perfect lineup of the New Year. We hope you all made resolutions that you plan on carrying out in 2026. Perhaps one of those resolutions is to win your fantasy basketball league. If that's in High Score and you're a Joel Embiid manager, you're happy the Sixers big man finally showed some signs of life this season.

Below we're going to go over the top scorers from Week 11 with a recap of each of their performances: 

Cade Cunningham, guard: With Nikola Jokić sidelined for the next month or so, someone is going to have to pick up the slack as the top dog in fantasy. Cunningham has a shot at that as a frequent visitor to this article. On New Year's Day, he had a near-triple-double with 31 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists and five stocks against Miami in a losing effort. With Jalen Duren and Tobias Harris dealing with injuries, Cade will be tasked with doing more on offense as Detroit tries to stave off the Knicks for first in the conference. 

Tyrese Maxey, guard: It had been a bit since we saw Maxey; the last time he eclipsed 70 fantasy points was back at the end of November. But he enters next week with at least 34 points in three straight games, including 36 in a win over the Knicks on Saturday. Maxey scored 34 points with eight boards, 10 assists and four stocks on New Year's Day against Dallas to get into this lineup. 

Kawhi Leonard, frontcourt: This is the best stretch of basketball we've seen from Leonard in a while — perhaps his entire career, but definitely since he joined the Clippers back in 2019-20. Los Angeles was on a six-game winning streak before Jaylen Brown's 50 points ended that on Saturday.

After scoring 55 last week to post a High Score of 94 fantasy points, Kawhi had 45 against the Jazz to start 2026. Leonard has now played in 18 straight games and is singlehandedly lifting the Clippers out of the basement in the Western Conference. 

Deni Avdija, frontcourt: Avdija has quietly been a top-five fantasy asset this season and ranks ninth in fantasy points per game in High Score with 51.4. He may be one of the better floor plays in fantasy, averaging over 25 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game while playing heavy minutes for a rebuilding Portland squad that's starting to compete. Avdija has at least 60 fantasy points in four of his past five games, all of those wins for the Blazers. 

Joel Embiid, frontcourt: Ahhhh, we finally get to Embiid. The Philly big's top score for the season was 57 going into last week. After missing most of October and November, Embiid played in seven games in December, averaging 25.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.3 blocks per game over 31.3 minutes. Embiid hasn't been efficient from the floor scoring the rock in years, but was able to reach his ceiling thanks to eight assists against the Grizz. He also scored 34 points with 10 rebounds and three stocks. Don't get accustomed to seeing Embiid in this story but it was nice of him to say, "Hi."

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Derrick White, utility: This is the first time we're seeing White's name in this story as well. He just sneaks on after tying Donovan Mitchell last week. White is another underrated fantasy asset this season who has stepped up with Jayson Tatum sidelined for the Celtics. It's the Jaylen Brown show but White offers a lot of fantasy upside given his stocks production; he's averaging almost 3.0 steals + blocks per game this season. 

Donovan Mitchell, utility: Mitchell hadn't posted a fantasy score this high since the season opener (69 points). He dropped 34 points with 10 rebounds, seven assists and three stocks against the Suns on New Year's Eve to make it onto this list. The Cavaliers have struggled this season, which has impacted Mitchell's consistency from a fantasy perspective. His clear path to ceiling games comes from volume scoring since he lacks elite peripheral stat production.