FanDuel daily picks: Fantasy basketball lineup – April 21

The NBA playoffs continue with three games in Thursday’s DFS fantasy basketball competitions. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.

The NBA had three games on Thursday, with two of the home teams winning and a third game that required the biggest second half comeback in NBA playoff history by the defending champions to prevent another home win. So it certainly appears that, in that limited sample size, home court has mattered to the lower seeded teams. This will be tested again on Friday when all eyes will once again focus on three Game 3s on the lower seeds’ home courts: the Celtics tip at the Bulls at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Rockets are at the Thunder at 9:30 p.m. ET, and the Clippers are at the Jazz at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Each Game 3 is a different scenario. The Celtics are the top seed in the East, but lost both games on their home court and enter Game 3 on the road with their backs absolutely against the wall. That, plus the injury to Rajon Rondo, could lead to big performances by the Celtics as they try to stay alive … and also likely mean big games from Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade as they try to seal the series. The Rockets and Thunder are also at 2 – 0, but with the higher seeded road team in the lead. The Thunder should return home with some confidence, as they controlled ¾ of Game 2 on the road until Russell Westbrook had to take a breather at the end of the third quarter and the Rockets came alive. Expect Westbrook, and the other Thunder players, to be at their best on their home courts to try to get back in the series. Finally, the tied series has the Clippers and Jazz facing off with both teams fighting to get back in charge of the series. The top three players on the Clippers are playing well, and DeAndre Jordan has dominated the interior with Rudy Gobert off. The Jazz will need another strong effort from players like Joe Johnson and Gordon Hayward to lead the offense to another victory over the tough Clippers.

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’s 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.