Sunday, Feb. 6, wraps up the weekend with five-game NBA slate tipping off at 6 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: DraftKings, FanDuel & Yahoo Building Blocks Today | Sunday, Feb. 6
Yahoo Play of the Day — Luka Doncic: Dallas Mavericks at Atlanta Hawks
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 53.05 | DraftKings: 57.54
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 30.6% | FanDuel 39.2% | DraftKings 36.4%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $54 | FanDuel $11,600 | DraftKings $12,000
Kristaps Porzingis (knee) is slated to miss his fourth straight game so once again Luka Doncic will be carrying the load for the Mavericks. This season without Porzingis on the court, Doncic sees a slight uptick in his fantasy production from 1.37 points per minute to 1.48 points. In the 23 games this season that Doncic has played without Porzingis, he is averaging 35.5 minutes with 20.7 field goal attempts. All told this works out to 26.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 9.1 assists with 1.9 combined blocks and steals for 52.3 Yahoo Fantasy points. It seems that the budding superstar is finally in shape and he has four straight games with at least 60 fantasy points.
The NBA player props market for Clint Capela against Dallas tonight is one to exploit as Awesemo has him projected for just over 10 rebounds. Currently his rebound prop is over/under 11.5 which is intriguing as there is a 68% chance of Capela falling short of this mark. In 7 of his last 9 games, Capela has single digit rebound efforts with 11 and 12 in the other two. During this stretch he has not exceeded 26 minutes despite starting as Onyeka Okongwu has been cutting into his minutes with John Collins and Danilo Gallinari also seeing some minutes as the nominal center in small-ball lineups.
Giannis Antetokounmpo: Milwaukee Bucks at Los Angeles Clippers
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 50.12 | DraftKings: 51.74
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 13.8% | FanDuel 26.7% | DraftKings 11.7%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $55 | FanDuel $11,400 | DraftKings $12,200
While this is a back-to-back for the Bucks, they last played on Tuesday prior to destroying the Trail Blazers last night in Portland. This was such a laugher that not only did the starters not play in the fourth quarter, but only Jrue Holiday (27.1) was on the court for more than 25 minute. Milwaukee’s next game is Tuesday against the Lakers, so they will not have any upcoming travel after Sunday’s matchup. Even playing 25.6 minutes last night, Giannis Antetokounmpo still cruised to a 50.8 fantasy point performance. The Clippers should put up more of a challenge than the Blazers, which in turn means a better chance for more minutes and of course additional fantasy opportunities. Bobby Portis, Khris Middleton and Holiday are tournament plays on the main-slate and core options on the late-slate.
New Orleans Pelicans at Houston Rockets
This matchup is shaping up to be a matchup filled with fantasy goodness for the Pelicans. Over there last 15 games, the Rockets are allowing a league worst 118.6 points per 100 possessions while also playing at the fastest pace in the league with 102.4 possessions per 48 minutes. Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas are phenomenal options and anything less than 40 fantasy points for either of them is going to be a disappointment. Josh Hart (knee) has missed the last two games, but if he returns tonight he should see his full minutes. Willy Hernangomez and Garrett Temple are both in the health and safety protocol so there will be trickledown minutes benefiting Jaxson Hayes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Herbert Jones. Devonte’ Graham is a solid option with Hart and a fringe core option if Hart misses a third consecutive game.
Houston is mostly healthy at this point which means none of their players are seeing a particularly heavy workload. This matchup against New Orleans is a decent one for Christian Wood and Alperen Sengun as they have begun to see half a dozen minutes or so on the court together. The Pelicans have been playing a bigger lineup recently as well with Hayes and Valanciunas both starting, which could lead to this quartet of behemoths getting a few more minutes than usual. Aside from the two-game late slate, the rest of the Rockets are not particularly interesting, unless someone is ruled out.
Indiana Pacers at Cleveland Cavaliers
There are a lot of open questions with these two teams tonight. Fortunately they are among the six teams tipping off in the first wave of games, so we will have the information needed to make appropriate decisions. Currently Domantas Sabonis (COVID-19) and Malcolm Brogdon (Achilles) are questionable with Sabonis missing the last three games and Brogdon not taking the court in just over three weeks. Myles Turner (foot) is out for the next month and Isaiah Jackson (ankle) is out for at least a week. Goga Bitadze (foot) is questionable, but he has not played in four games and conditioning could be an issue when he does return. If either Sabonis or Brogdon remain out, Caris LeVert is an excellent option. The rest of the Pacers fantasy prospects depend entirely on how many players are ambulatory tonight.
Darius Garland has missed the last week with a back issue, though if he returns he is a phenomenal option across the DFS sites for tournament differentiation. If he remains out, the Brandon Goodwin becomes one of the best value options in the player pool. Lauri Markkanen (ankle) is unlikely to play which means that Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Kevin Love should feast on a thinned out Indian frontcourt.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Sunday, Feb. 6 Slate
Four of the five games tipoff in the first hour and then there is a two-hour gap until the Sunday nightcap. 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.
