DraftKings daily picks: Fantasy basketball lineup – April 21

The NBA Playoffs continue with three games on the schedule on Thursday. Get your DFS fantasy basketball team in the game with FanSided’s DraftKings daily picks.

The big question on the night is how much switching venues to the lower seeded teams’ home courts will affect how the players perform in Game 3 vs the first two games. In the first game of the night starting at 7:00 PM ET, the Bulls will look to put a strangle-hold on their series against the Celtics. They won both of the first two games on the road, with Rajon Rondo and Jimmy Butler dominating the action, and if they hold their home court in Game 3 the series is essentially over. On the flip side, expect the Celtics to play their best game because they know that this game is essentially for their season.

And what about the Thunder? After getting blown out in Game 1, they showed up in Game 2 with a clear chip on their shoulders led by Russell Westbrook, who absolutely dominated through three quarters. However, the Rockets were able to take that punch and reply late, eventually wearing down the Thunder to go up 2 – 0. This game is back in Oklahoma City, though, and the Thunder have their backs to the wall. While Westbrook (probably) can’t take it up another level past the 97 fantasy points he put up in Game 2, being at home might help his role player supporters to be able to better support his efforts. This game goes at 9:30 PM ET.

The Clippers and Jazz play the only game of the night in which the squads come in tied at a game apiece. The Jazz took Game 1 in dramatic fashion behind Joe Johnson, but the Clippers were able to bounce back to win a hard-contested Game 2. The Clippers took better advantage of Rudy Gobert’s absence in the interior in Game 2, with DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin combining to make 20 of 32 shots from the field and grab 20 rebounds. Gobert is still out, but the game is in Utah which may help the Jazz role players to step up and help them pull out another win. We’ll see which side gains the advantage in the late game, which tips at 10:00 PM ET tonight.

My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s DraftKings daily picks. Each day in order to offer a variety of price points at each position, you can find two slides for each position–one for high-salary options and one for high-value options. Each pick is ranked on a scale of 1-5 stars to indicate the confidence in the pick. The final slide of this post has more detail on what each level means, but in short, more stars means more confidence in the selection on a points-per-dollar basis.

Important note, every day the goal of this post is not to give you a copy-and-paste lineup. Instead, each selection is given while highlighting the factors you need to consider when building a customized lineup for yourself. If you want to see an example lineup, you can find it on the final slide of the post, but I suggest you adjust your lineup to fit your personal taste.

To keep up with all of FanSided’s DFS NBA coverage head over to the fantasy basketball hub where each day you can find a post like this tailored for DraftKings as well as one specifically designed for usage on FanDuel.  In this post, all salary and “fantasy points” references are to DraftKings scoring system and salaries. If you have any additional questions or thoughts or are looking for updates as we approach tipoff, follow @FanSidedFantasy on Twitter or you can follow my account @ProfessorDrz.

Let’s take a look at your best options for both studs and value players at each position.