The NBA Playoffs begin with four games on the main DFS fantasy basketball schedule on Saturday. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s DraftKings daily picks.
Happy NBA Playoffs day, everyone! The postseason begins on Saturday after the marathon regular season. No more “DNP-rest”! No more “could have played if he had to,” no more risky stars playing only half the game, and no more “who-the-heck-is-that?” players getting run for teams that have nothing to play for. No, we’re finally to the part of the season where all of the games count and everyone is playing hard.
The REAL season begins on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET, when the Pacers play in Cleveland. The second game is the Bucks at the Raptors at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed at 8:00 p.m. ET by the Grizzlies at the Hawks. The nightcap game pits the Jazz at the Clippers.
Storylines for Day 1 of the playoffs: Paul George and LeBron James lock horns again, after combining for 160 fantasy points in their last meeting. And as a bonus, Lance Stephenson is back to try to get under LeBron’s skin again like old times. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been monstrous all season, and will have to be so again in the playoffs to even give his team a shot against a stronger and now healthy Raptors squad. Big brother meets little brother, both figuratively and literally, as the Spurs and Pau Gasol host the Grizzlies and Marc Gasol. Both are perennial playoff performers that play defense first from the inside out, but like Pau, the Spurs have the rings while the Grizzlies continue to look on hungrily. Finally, the Jazz boast arguably the best defensive player in the NBA in Rudy Gobert, but the Clippers have beaten them every time they’ve played this year and wrested HCA with a surge down the stretch. All told, should be a fun day of action.
My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s DraftKings 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: 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 DraftKings as well as one specifically designed for usage on FanDuel. In this post, all salary and “fantasy points” references are to DraftKings 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.