FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – March 28
Welcome to the Tuesday FanDuel NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for tonight’s eight game slate which kicks off at 7:00PM EST!
As a reminder, the concept behind FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots is to first identify key building blocks that can be used for any roster construction and then identify pivot points to help differentiate your lineup in hopes of a big payday!
Monday’s winning FanDuel NBA GPP lineup dropped 382.8 points on the back of 65 points from Russell Westbrook and a monster 71 FD points from Anthony Davis. Over the first 127 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.4 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Over the first 127 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.4 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Monday Night’s Picks and Pivots lineup was built around a Cavaliers core in a prime time match-up against the Spurs and the fact that Kyrie Irving scored only 11 FanDuel points tells you all you need to know about our night! Kawhi Leonard (47) and the Spurs absolutely dominated the reeling Cavaliers with a 30 point blow out win which left us well below the cash line on this night.
Tuesday Night’s slate is loaded with five of the eight games projected to score 215 or more combined points so we have a ton of routes to go in our roster construction. Let’s get to our top plays!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Damian Lillard ($9,400) The Trailblazers and Nuggets square off tonight in a massively important game as these teams are currently tied for the eighth and final playoff spot. This game has the second highest combined team total (226) on the slate and only a 2.5 Vegas spread so we are going to want to have heavy exposure to both sides of this contest.
Portland has the fourth highest team total on the slate and Lillard has two 50+ FanDuel point outings against the Nuggets already this season. Denver is ranked 28th in DvP to opposing PG’s on the season and Dame comes into this game in elite form with 40+ FanDuel points in each of his last eight games including two 50+ point outings. With the season on the line tonight, I expect a massive outing from Lillard and he will be the first player in every single one of my lineups tonight!
Tyler Ullis ($6,000) The Suns are becoming one of the best DFS teams to target down the stretch as they have an incredibly tight rotation and are simply running their young guys out for massive minutes each night. Ullis has now played 40+ minutes in five of his last six games and has put up 34+ FD points in four of those six games.
Tonight, Ullis takes on an Atlanta Hawks team that is ranked 26th in DvP versus opposing PG’s and Ullis gets one of the best individual match-ups with Dennis Schroder who has one of the worst individual defensive ratings of any PG on the slate. This game is projected to have the third fastest pace on the slate and with so many high upside mid-range plays, it is a great way to fill out your roster for GPP play tonight!
If you are looking for a pivot play, Ish Smith ($4,500) will once again see all the run he can handle for the Pistons as Reggie Jackson will sit out once again tonight. Ish started and played 35 minutes last night against the Knicks while putting up 30.7 FanDuel points which is nearly 7x value at this price point. I intend to use Ish as a pivot play in multi-entry GPP’s which will allow me the flexibility to spend up elsewhere!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
C.J. McCollum ($6,900) I do not normally look to stack both Lillard/McCollum on the same roster as they tend to take away from each other’s usage, however in this must win game against a Nuggets back-court ranked 29th in DvP to SG’s, I think this is a great spot to stack the Portland guards.
This match-up has actually proven to be a spot where both guards can excel as earlier this season both McCollum and Lillard dropped 50 FanDuel point outings in the same game. With the expected pace increase and nearly 7 point scoring bump, I want to get as much exposure as I can to Portland tonight and the best place to attack the Nuggets is with guards which matches up perfectly with the Portland stars!
Tim Hardaway Jr. ($5,900) One of my favorite teams to target tonight is the Atlanta Hawks who currently sit in 5th place in the Eastern Conference however they are tied with the Bucks and Pacers so they could easily slide down to the 7th spot which would mean a first round match-up with either the Cavs/Celtics. It will be critical for the Hawks to stay out of that first round match-up and tonight they get to face off with the Phoenix Suns which we all know is DFS gold!
The Hawks get one of the largest pace increases and projected point bumps on the slate and with a bevy of injuries to players like Paul Millsap, Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore, there is a TON of usage to spread around!
THJ is playing massive minutes for the Hawks with 36 or more minutes of court time in each of his last three games and has averaged over 33 FD points during that stretch. Hardaway has double-digit shot attempts in each of his last seven games and with the expected pace boost, this could be a spot with Hardaway goes off and crushes his mid-range price tag.
From a pivot perspective, I mentioned Ish Smith at PG and I would look to utilize those salary savings if you want to stack Klay Thompson ($7,00) and James Harden ($12,500) at shooting guard tonight. Not surprisingly, the Warriors/Rockets have the highest team total on the board so it is not a spot I think you can fade entirely and would recommend pairing them up if you want a high upside SG stack!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
T.J. Warren ($6,400) and Taurean Prince ($3,800) Heading back to Atlanta versus Phoenix, I am going to use this game to stack my SF spots on FanDuel and take advantage of the projected high scoring fast paced game!
Warren continues to chuck for the Suns with double-digit shot attempts in each of his last 10 games and has 34+ FanDuel points in four of his last five games. The Hawks rank dead last in DvP to opposing SF’s on the season and Warren has shown he has the upside to differentiate your GPP lineups each time he steps on the court.
Prince has been a popular value play over the last week or so and tonight is expected to make his second straight start for the Hawks after dropping 33 FanDuel points in his last start against the Nets. This match-up tonight is just as favorable and any time I can target a player with legit 10x upside in a game environment like this, it becomes a lock and load play for me in all formats!
The price point on both of these players is reasonable and both have the kind of 6x upside we want to target in tournament play so I have no issue building a mini-stack in this game which could get our lineups off to a quick early start!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Nikola Jokic ($10,300) I am starting every roster I have tonight with a Lillard-Jokic combo a high tempo must win game for both teams! If there is one spot we can attack Portland at it is in the paint and Jokic will be looking to make a statement against his one time teammate – Jusuf Nurkic.
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Jokic put up 55 FD points earlier this season (prior to Nurkic arriving in Portland) and although he has been inconsistent in recent games, this may simply help to keep his ownership down and we all know the 50-60 FD point upside Jokic has. At this point in the season I am looking for match-ups and motivated teams to build my roster around and there is no more important game on tonight’s slate in my opinion then this one and I will have heavy exposure to it!
Noah Vonleh ($3,800) Vonleh has been a great GPP punt play in recent games, sitting right at 6x value in four of his last give contests while playing 25-30 minutes a night for Portland. I like this spot tonight for Vonleh as a way to get additional exposure to this game as part of a stack but he has also shown he can be a consistent 20+ FD point performer which is all you can really ask for at this price point!
Dwight Howard ($7,200) Heading back to Atlanta, I am all over Dwight Howard tonight as he continues to just dominate for the Hawks inside since Paul Millsap went down. Howard has 30+ FD points and double-doubles in each of his last five games and tonight should be able to get whatever he wants against Alex Len and Alan (foul a minute) Williams. As I mentioned earlier, the Hawks need to win this game to avoid dropping to the 7th spot so I expect them to continue to ride Howard tonight until they can start getting their players back from injury!
The one pivot play that works perfectly in this lineup is Jusuf Nurkic ($6,700) who has the perfect revenge spot against the team that traded him away tonight. Nurkic is a great correlation play with Lillard and fits into an overall game stack in our lineup build. Nurk has 30+ FanDuel points in seven straight so he makes for a solid cash game play with the GPP upside that could separate us from the field tonight!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!