The NBA has nine games in tonight’s DFS fantasy basketball competitions. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.
The NBA has a solid nine games of action on Friday night. Line-ups lock at 7:30 p.m. ET with two games: the Heat at the Raptors and the Hawks at the Cavaliers. Thirty minutes later, the Pistons tip at the Rockets and the Knicks at the Grizzlies. At 8:30 p.m. ET the Spurs are at the Mavericks, then half-hour later the Pelicans are at the Nuggets and the Timberwolves are at the Jazz. Finally, on the late schedule, the Thunder are at the Suns at 10:00 p.m. ET, and the Kings are at the Lakers at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Some things I’ll be watching for on Friday night: the best defenses in the NBA all play on Friday, with the Jazz, the Grizzlies, the Heat and the Spurs all in action. This could lead to more controlled point totals on Friday, though there are also five other games that seem a lot more fantasy friendly. Plus, the Spurs are sitting all of their impact players for rest on Friday, which means that their defense may not be as intimidating, even against a Mavericks team that has also started resting their veterans now that they are out of playoff contention. The Cavaliers seem to have kicked it into gear this week, if their demolition of the Celtics on Wednesday is any indication, which means that their game against the Hawks could be a similar blowout.
The Pelicans face the Nuggets again, and that match-up of star big men often produces interesting results. Karl-Anthony Towns will be on the second half of a back-to-back AND facing Rudy Gobert and the Jazz, so he is a riskier play than usual. On the other hand, Russell Westbrook gets to take his one-man band on the road against a bad but fast-paced Suns defense that might let him go for 100…fantasy points, that is. Finally, the Kings and Lakers are two more fantasy friendly defenses, young teams that might just put together some fun numbers on the night.
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.