The NBA has five games on Thursday for the DFS fantasy basketball competitions. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.
There are five games on Thursday night, with lineups locking for the first game at 7:30 p.m. ET with the Cavaliers at the Bulls. Thirty minutes later, the Clippers are at the Grizzlies and the Spurs are at the Thunder. The 76ers are at the Trail Blazers at 10 p.m. ET, followed by the nightcap at 10:30 p.m. ET with the Lakers at the Suns.
The storylines for Thursday start with Russell Westbrook. I had a discussion with a friend on fading Westbrook on Tuesday, with the logic that he had “only” averaged about 60 fantasy points in two previous meetings against Tuesday opponents the Trail Blazers. Instead, he exploded for 79.1 fantasy points … only his second best effort in the last three games. What will he do against a strong Spurs defense?
In non-Westbrook storylines, we’ve got the question of whether Mike Conley takes a Limitless pill every time he’s about to play the Clippers; Kawhi Leonard is in the midst of a late MVP push for the Spurs; and both the 76ers at Portland and the Lakers at Phoenix shape up as potentially fantasy friendly contests between high-scoring teams that don’t play a lot of defense. Fun stuff.
My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s FanDuel 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 the short version is that more stars means more confidence in the selection on a points-per-dollar basis.
Important note: 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 FanDuel as well as one specifically designed for usage on DraftKings. In this post, all salary and “fantasy points” references are to FanDuel 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 or find me on my home turf of The Hoops Lab.
Let’s take a look at your best options for both studs and value players at each position.