NBA DFS Picks, Projections & Ownership DraftKings & FanDuel Lineups

A lot of eyes will go the second game of the series between the Lakers and the Suns tonight. After dropping the first game of the series, the Lakers are in a bit of a hole and could find themselves in real trouble if they lose and fall behind in the series 2-0. This should lead to extended minutes for LeBron James and Anthony Davis, making them two of the stronger NBA DFS picks on FanDuel and DraftKings. The playoffs are off to a great and entertaining start.

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NBA DFS Deep Dive: DraftKings + FanDuel | May 25

Guard Stud

Chris Paul ($7,600 DraftKings/$7,600 FanDuel) — There is a leap of faith that comes with rostering Paul tonight. He crushed in the first half of Game 1 against the Lakers and appeared destined for a massive fantasy game. That was until Paul got injured in the second half. Clearly hampered by a shoulder injury, Paul finished the game, but he was compromised and struggled to produce down the stretch. The good news here is that the injury was labeled as a stinger and he wasn’t listed on the injury report. This is encouraging news that indicates Paul is feeling healthier. He should return as the player who scored over 20 fantasy points in the first half of Game 1.

Guard Value

Patrick Beverley ($3,500 DraftKings/$4,100 FanDuel) — Finding guard value tonight is no easy task. At least with Beverley, he is starting, which in theory gives him playing time upside. Unfortunately, Beverley only played 17 minutes in the first game of the series. He wasn’t awful in those minutes and made the most of his playing time by scoring 15 DraftKings points. The Clippers might need his gritty defense to keep Luka Doncic and the Mavericks at bay, so Beverley is more likely to see an uptick in minutes than a downtick. Cheap and starting is enough to make any player a viable value at this point in the season.

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Forward Stud

Kawhi Leonard ($8,300 DraftKings/$9,400 FanDuel) — The Clippers and Lakers are in similar positions tonight. Both lost opening games to fall behind. While this should mean increased minutes for LeBron James, Leonard still looks like the slightly stronger play of the two because of his price. Leonard comes with a significant price discount of the two All-Stars, which is massively important for this particular slate. Value is tough to come by, so building around Leonard is a bit easier than building around James. Despite the loss, Leonard played 40 minutes and scored 56 DraftKings points in the opening game of the series. There is also a pace of play benefit that Leonard has. The Clippers game has a total that is 6 points higher than the total in the Lakers game.

Forward Value

Jae Crowder ($4,300 DraftKings/$4,800 FanDuel) — Rostering a chalky Crowder on Sunday wasn’t exactly a smash, but he wasn’t awful either. Crowder ended up playing 29 minutes and scored 18.5 DraftKings points. For this slate, that might not end up as a terrible result due to the lack of value. On the positive side, he started for most of the season and produced better results for the Suns in the role. Crowder averaged 23.43 DraftKings points in his 43 regular-season starts. The upside here isn’t massive, but minutes and floor are more important for cheap players than the ceiling for today.

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Center Stud

Anthony Davis ($9,600 DraftKings/$10,100 FanDuel) — Davis is going to play better in Game 2 than he did in Game 1. This isn’t much of a bold statement after he scored 13 points on Sunday, but there’s nowhere for him to go other than up. Due to his struggles in Game 1, he is also coming with quite the ownership discount according to the Awesemo Ownership Projections. On DraftKings, Davis is projecting for just 12.2% ownership, while he’s projecting for 20.6% ownership on FanDuel. This isn’t the best matchup in the world for Davis, but he played 39 minutes in the Game 1 loss. He oddly posted just a 21.9% usage rate, which should change going forward. Davis finished the regular season with a 28.3% usage rate, so it stands to reason he will end up more involved in the offense tonight.

Center Value

Robert Williams ($4,600 DraftKings/$5,800 FanDuel) — Williams was a wrecking ball in the first game of this series. The Celtics lost, but Williams was one of the bright spots for the Celtics. He blocked nine shots, coming just one block and one rebound shy of a triple-double. He did all this despite coming off the bench. Boston should consider starting Williams after his Game 1 performance, although if he doesn’t, he flashed this kind of upside while playing just 23 minutes over the weekend. It is hard to imagine his minutes going down given how well he played, and his price is still much cheaper on FanDuel and DraftKings than it was when he was healthy during the regular season.

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Author

Greg Ehrenberg

Greg is a former stand up comedian who quit telling jokes to pursue a career in the world of DFS. He started playing fantasy sports in 6th grade when Greg and his friends would skip classes to meet in the bathroom for 20 team fantasy basketball drafts. Considering his current career path, it was the best education he could have asked for.