NBA DFS Picks and Fantasy Basketball Building Blocks for Today, Sunday | 5/22/22

Sunday, May 22 brings Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals in Dallas where the Mavericks have won five consecutive postseason games. The fun begins at 9:00 p.m. ET on DraftKings and FanDuel. Below, we will examine the player pool and break down the best NBA DFS picks today for DraftKings and FanDuel lineups.

DraftKings & FanDuel NBA DFS Picks Today (5/22)

Luka Doncic: Dallas Mavericks vs. Golden State Warriors

• Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 63.83 | FanDuel: 58.77
• Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 76.6% | FanDuel: 72.3%
• DFS Salary: DraftKings: $13,600 | FanDuel: $16,500

Game 2 was a major bounce-back performance for Luka Doncic, though his 42 points were not enough to topple Golden State. Through a dozen postseason games, Doncic is averaging 36.2 minutes and 22.9 field goal attempts with a 46.9% conversion rate. This works out to 31.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.3 combined blocks and steals. He has failed to record 50 fantasy points only once in these playoffs.

The real decision is how many lineups it will take before someone other than Doncic is in the highest multiplier slot. Using the Awesemo projections and running 50 lineups on FanDuel without any other limitations, Donic is the MVP in all but two, #27 and #41 – both of which have Stephen Curry as the MVP and Doncic as the Star.

DraftKings is a similar story with Jalen Brunson (5), Jordan Poole (2) and Maxi Kleber (1) the only other players landing in the Captain slot in the first 50 lineups. Doncic is still in the eight lineups where he is not the Captain.

Draymond Green: Golden State Warriors vs. Dallas Mavericks

• Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 30.22 | FanDuel: 30.16
• Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 35.1% | FanDuel: 35.3%
• DFS Salary: DraftKings: $7,800 | FanDuel: $11,500

Draymond Green is coming off a poor performance where he fouled out after just 28 minutes. If he is not in foul trouble and this game is competitive as expected, he should see between 34 and 36 minutes. In the playoffs, Green is averaging just under a fantasy point per minute, so with a little luck, he could flirt with 40 fantasy points tonight.

• NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks: Jayson Tatum and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (April 24)
• FanDuel Fantasy Basketball Cheat Sheet: Best Picks From NBA DFS Contest Sims | Bam Adebayo (April 24)
• DraftKings Fantasy Basketball Cheat Sheet: Best Picks From NBA DFS Contest Sims | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (April 24)
• NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks: Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic (April 23)
• NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks: Triple-Double Watch! (April 22)
• Stokastic DFS on Youtube

Jalen Brunson: Dallas Mavericks vs. Golden State Warriors

• Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 35.24 | FanDuel: 33.95
• Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 48.3% | FanDuel: 40.8%
• DFS Salary: DraftKings: $8,400 | FanDuel: $13,500

This offseason, Jalen Brunson is going to get a major contract offer from Dallas or some other team since he is an unrestricted free agent. Friday’s performance with 31 points, seven rebounds and five assists only buoys interest in the 25-year-old guard. Brunson’s salary dropped by $200 on DraftKings, though it did see a $1,500 increase on FanDuel. He is the clear second option for the Mavericks and while we are paying a premium, he is an intriguing option in tournaments.

Jordan Poole: Golden State Warriors at Dallas Mavericks

• Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 29.04 | FanDuel: 27.61
• Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 48.0% | FanDuel: 30.0%
• DFS Salary: DraftKings: $6,400 | FanDuel: $11,000

Speaking of contracts, while the Warriors already exercised their team option for Jordan Poole keeping him with the team through next season, they are already talking about working out the details on a four-year $100 million extension. That does not have a lot of bearing on our decisions tonight, however, the DFS salary for Poole is appealing and he provides solid savings when compared to his counterpart in Brunson.

NBA DFS Discount Dandies

Dallas Mavericks

1. Maximilian Kleber: Early foul trouble cost Kleber around five minutes in the second quarter, though it also kept his salary in check. We should see something in the mid-30s for minutes, even coming off the bench as Dallas continues to tighten their rotation.
2. Frank Ntilikina: DraftKings only as he is still at the minimum salary of $1,000. Even though he did not have any fantasy points, he put up three shots in his four minutes on the floor.
3. Davis Bertans: DraftKings only and while he has a better shot at double-digit fantasy points, his salary is $1,600 more than Ntilikina and there is a risk that Bertans may not see the court.

Tonight Kleber also looks like a strong option in the NBA player props market. He has a 4.5 over/under on his rebound prop and the Awesemo NBA player projections have him for six rebounds, which gives him a 71% probability of surpassing the over. Though he has exceeded this threshold only twice in the last six playoff games, his increasing minutes should help tremendously.

Golden State Warriors

1. Otto Porter Jr.: Once again, Porter was outstanding in his 24 minutes of action. The journeyman nailed all four of his field goal attempts, corralled seven rebounds and dished out four assists. Plus he had a block and a steal for the cherry on top. We are unlikely to see any minutes increase, as that always seems to lead to injuries, but with his efficiency, Porter is still a fine option in all formats on Sunday.
2. Damian Lee: The Golden State version of Ntilikina, Lee should see half a dozen minutes and likely will get up a couple from behind the arc in his limited court time.
3. Jonathan Kuminga: The rookie was a DNP-Coach’s Decision in Game 2 and that will be a risk going forward as Kuminga may only see action in mop-up duty or a minute or two here and there as a spark off the bench.

Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!

[NBAPAGE]