The NBA has six games on Sunday but one is early, leaving five games for the main DFS fantasy basketball contests. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.
The NBA has a split schedule on Sunday, with one early game: the Bulls at the Celtics at 3:30 PM ET. While FanDuel does have some “all day” game options featuring all six games, the “Main” contest slate starts with the 6:00 PM games and thus will be the main focus of this article.
Line-ups lock for the “Main” game schedule at 6:00 PM ET, with the Heat at the Pacers and the Knicks at the Nets. There’s then a three hour gap before the next two games tip, the Cavaliers at the Rockets and the Trail Blazers at the Suns. The last game of the night starts a half-hour later, with the 76ers at the Lakers.
The game that immediately draws my eye is the Trail Blazers at the Suns, two teams that can be explosive offensively but don’t do a whole lot on defense. Next, the “battle” for New York lets the Knicks skill players loose against the team that allows the most fantasy points to pretty much every position. I’ve personally got my eye on the Cavaliers on Sunday…LeBron James and Kyrie Irving both played major minutes on Saturday, and LeBron has been sitting on the second half of back-to-backs recently. Granted, it’d be a good match-up against James Harden and the Rockets, but I’m definitely watching for official word before putting LeBron in the line-up. Finally, the 76ers and the Lakers is another battle of teams with little-to-no defense, which could lead to more fantasy friendly action.
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 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 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.