The NBA has six games on Thursday for the DFS fantasy basketball competitions. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.
There are six games on Thursday night, with line-ups locking for the first game at 7:00 PM ET with three games: the Bucks at the Pacers, the Bulls at the 76ers and the Nets at the Magic. The Wizards tip at the Knicks thirty minutes later, followed thirty minutes after that by the Celtics at the Hawks. Finally, the late game pits the Timberwolves at the Trail Blazers at 10:30 PM ET.
The first game that catches my eye on Thursday is the late game, as the Timberwolves and Trail Blazers are both fantasy friendly teams, and this will be the third time that they’ve played each other in the last few weeks. Karl-Anthony Towns has two of his worst games of the season against the Trail Blazers, but he did better in the last game…is he finally over that hump? Meanwhile, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paul George try each other on for size again in a clash of two of the most athletic whatever-position-they-play players in the NBA. Jimmy Butler had a down game for him in his last outing, can he bounce back against the 76ers? The Nets have flirted with becoming a much stingier defense, but are they enough to know Elfrid Payton off his triple-double pace? Who on earth will play, or sit, for the Knicks? It changes from game to game. Finally, the Celtics just got torched by the Cavs in their chase for the top seed, so they will presumably be trying to bounce-back against a Hawks defense that has its own holes. As always, lots of good stuff to explore.
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.
Let’s take a look at your best options for both studs and value players at each position.