NBA DFS Building Blocks for Saturday, January 15 | Today, 1/15/22

Saturday, Jan. 15, has nifty nine-game main slate beginning at 7 p.m. ET. Let’s look at the player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Do not forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content.

NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Saturday, Jan. 15

Yahoo Play of the Day — Darius Garland: Cleveland Cavaliers at Oklahoma City Thunder

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 34.88 | DraftKings: 37.59
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 25.8% | FanDuel 5.2% | DraftKings 12.6%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $28 | FanDuel $8,100 | DraftKings $7,900

Darius Garland is receiving a rare back-to-back Yahoo Play of the Day recommendation. Last night he was outstanding with 32 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists along with a block and a steal on his way to 53.8 Yahoo points in San Antonio. While this will be his third game in four days and this is the sixth straight road game for Cleveland, he gets an even better matchup against the Thunder in Oklahoma City.

Rajon Rondo was a late scratch last night and he is questionable against tonight. That means Garland may once again be the only real point guard available with Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio both out for the year with knee injuries. As previously mentioned, in the first 20 games that Garland played without Sexton, he averaged 34.6 minutes and 16.9 field goal attempts. This has resulted in 21.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 1.5 combined blocks/steals per game. Garland then missed four games in the health and safety protocol, during which Rubio was also lost for the season. In his six games back, as the only lead guard, Garland is averaging 35.5 minutes, 19.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.1 combined blocks and steals. In five of these games he has surpassed 36 fantasy points, and that should once more be considered his baseline for tonight’s matchup.

Alec Burks: New York Knicks at Atlanta Hawks

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 30.51 | DraftKings: 30.96
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 47.2% | FanDuel 25.6% | DraftKings 21.3%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $18 | FanDuel $5900 | DraftKings $5800

Recently acquired Cam Reddish will not be available to face his former team, while Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker are still out. That means Alec Burks should continue to see 34-37 minutes covering a variety of positions while also taking a turn as a non-traditional facilitator. In the five games he has played since being re-inserted in the starting lineup, Burks is averaging 34.6 minutes with 10.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.4 combined blocks and steals. The upside for Burks will depend on his scoring and in this recent stretch he has been absolutely miserable with a 28.3% success rate. For his 11 year career spanning eight stops, Burks has averaged 41.9% from the field. Tonight he should be able to flirt with 40 fantasy points with a baseline of 28-30 which is a bargain for his current Yahoo salary.

Washington Wizards vs. Portland Trail Blazers

Washington finally has a healthy frontcourt with Thomas Bryant back after missing a full calendar year with a knee injury and Rui Hachimura recently returning to action. Daniel Gafford and Montrezl Harrell round things out making this a crowded crew to stay away from. Bradley Beal is in the health and safety protocol for the second time, so we should see heavy minutes for Spencer Dinwiddie and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the backcourt. Kyle Kuzma continues to get it done at the bucket and though the rebounds will be tougher to come by with all of his teammates available, he does see an uptick in his assist rate when Beal is off the court.

Anfernee Simons will be back with Portland after missing a game to attend to a personal matter. This is a boost for the Blazers who will be without Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Norman Powell, Larry Nance Jr. and Cody Zeller. This opens up major minutes and opportunities for Nassir Little, Robert Covington, Dennis Smith Jr. and CJ Elleby. Jusuf Nurkic is a core option tonight and with his discounted salary he should be able to compete with the likes of Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Jarrett Allen and Jonas Valanciunas on a points per dollar basis,

According to Awesemo’s expert NBA projections, Little is in line to record 7.4 rebounds tonight against the Wizards. However, the books are offering his NBA player prop for rebounds at over/under 5.5. Taking the over here seems like the way to play it, especially when the OddsShopper expected win rate is 75%.

San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Clippers

Derrick White and Tre Jones are still doubtful, but there is a chance they could rejoin the lineup after being in the health and safety protocol depending on how their conditioning is progressing. Jakob Poeltl was a mid-afternoon downgrade to doubtful with a sore back and he is unlikely to play after logging 33 minutes last night. Dejounte Murray is at a lofty salary, but it has definitely been earned with his outstanding play this season. If White remains out, Devin Vassell, Lonnie Walker and Keldon Johnson should see similar opportunities. If Poeltl is out, Jock Landale and Drew Eubanks would enter the fray as bargain options. This slate is loaded with centers, so we will want to be prudent with our selections.

Justise Winslow and Luke Kennard are both out tonight, though there is a chance that Isaiah Hartenstein is able to return. This is a lost season for the Clippers who of course are without their two franchise players in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. It feels like we are due for an unexpected rest day for Marcus Morris, but as long as he is starting, this is a great matchup against the team he stiffed at the as a free agent a couple seasons ago. Ivica Zubac, Reggie Jackson, Terance Mann, Amir Coffey and Nicolas Batum are all neutral options on the mains slate, though they all are above average options on the later game sets – depending on your DFS site of choice, the order of preference varies based on positional need and budget constraints.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Saturday, Jan. 15 Slate

For the two late games we will need to watch for the Orlando starting lineup as they have been thin on their frontcourt for the last three games and Wendell Carter Jr. and Mo Bamba are both questionable again. Denver could be dealing with another COVID outbreak as JaMychal Green went in the health and safety protocol this afternoon. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a slam-dunk play on Yahoo may be a below-average NBA DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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