The NBA has seven games on Sunday spread throughout the day, but FanDuel has five games scheduled 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 two early games and five on the main schedule. The early games, the Raptors at the Knicks at 12:00 PM ET and the Cavaliers at the Hawks at 3:30 PM ET are on the FanDuel “Early” schedule and not written about here. The main contest slate will be the primary focus of this article.
Line-ups lock for the “Main” game schedule at 5:00 PM ET with the Thunder at the Nuggets. An hour later, three more games tip-off: the Mavericks at the Suns, the Pistons at the Grizzlies, and the Rockets at the Kings. Finally at 9:30 PM ET, the Timberwolves play at the Suns in the late game.
Storylines for Sunday. Russell Westbrook is fresh off of clinching a triple-double for the season, and will have the chance to break Oscar Robertson’s record for triple doubles in a season against a Nuggets team that still has something to play for but also has a weak perimeter defense. The Mavs and Suns have nothing to play for, but the Suns have embraced their role of lottery fodder and have some young players playing very well…especially Devin Booker. The Pistons are playing out a bitterly disappointing season, but the Grizzlies are locked into their playoff slot and have nothing to play for themselves. The Rockets are similarly locked into their spots, but if no rests are announced this could be a last chance for James Harden to give MVP voters something to think about to counter rival Westbrook’s triple-double history. Finally, the Timberwolves and Lakers are two teams that have both embraced their lottery-bound fates but have lots of young players that are trying to finish the season strong.
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.