NBA DFS Picks: Damian Lillard is in the ZONE! (March 1)

Wednesday’s NBA action highlights the middle of the work week with a nine-game featured slate locking at 7:00 p.m. ET on both DraftKings and FanDuel. There are several options in the player pool worth analyzing to find the top NBA DFS building blocks and NBA DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel lineups, including Damian Lillard.

NBA DFS Picks Today: Wednesday, Mar. 1

Tonight there are seven teams that played yesterday, which means we will need to be cognizant of all moving parts leading into lock. Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jalen Green, Ja Morant and Desmond Bane are the initial players to watch. Antetokounmpo, along with Bobby Portis and Khris Middleton, are rest candidates for the Bucks, who are 7.5-point favorites in Milwaukee, and this trio is not necessary in order to dispatch the visiting Orlando Magic.

Morant played 34 minutes last night as Memphis took down the Lakers on the strength of a 47-point third quarter, and Bane saw 30 minutes of action. They are not on the early injury report, though considering Memphis is a double-digit road favorite in Houston tonight, one could receive the night off and both may not see their full complement of minutes if the Grizzlies take care of business. Similarly, Green played last night but only saw 18 minutes, and he could get a respite this evening.

Davis is the wild card, as it is only a matter of time before he ends up with some sort of injury. And with LeBron James out, D’Angelo Russell doubtful with an ankle injury and yet another loss last night, Los Angeles is likely to fold up the tent on this season sooner rather than later.

Update: Anthony Davis has been ruled out.

Core Play of the Day — Damian Lillard: Portland Trail Blazers-New Orleans Pelicans

Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 59.98 | FanDuel: 55.57
Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings 22.8% | FanDuel: 31.3%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $11,900 | FanDuel: $11,000

Portland disappointed last night losing 123-105 in San Francisco to a short-handed Golden State squad. This is also the third game in four days for the Trail Blazers. However, Damian Lillard has played in just two games over the last 15 days, along with the All-Star Game and 3-Point Contest. Lillard does not expend a lot of energy on defense, so he has the fewest questions regarding his ability to play at a high level tonight. While he has a lofty five-figure salary on both DraftKings and FanDuel, it is well deserved and there should be plenty of value options to facilitate him being today’s core building block.

The veteran of 11 NBA campaigns is averaging a career-high 32.1 points per game, and 11.3 of his 20.6 field goal attempts are coming from downtown. Tonight he will be saying hello to former backcourt mate CJ McCollum, which should make for a fun viewing experience as the two prolific longball specialists go back and forth.

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Chicago Bulls-Detroit Pistons

The Detroit front office has to be ecstatic after San Antonio made a tactical error last night by besting the Jazz 102-94 in Utah. While that ended a 16-game skid, it also brought the Spurs up to a 15-47 record that is equal to the Pistons, with both teams two games ahead of Houston for the opportunity to have the most entries in the upcoming lottery drawing for the 2023 NBA Draft. This weekend should be a wonderful disaster as the Rockets and Spurs play a home-and-home series, Saturday and Sunday.

DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic are definitely in the mix tonight, though there are a plethora of center options. DeRozan is helpful on sites where he can be employed as a small forward, and gamers are likely to shy away after his recent string of disappointing game logs. The same assessment can be made for Zach LaVine. Detroit is a disaster on defense, and one of Chicago’s “big three” should have a viable tournament fantasy score.

Chicago does not have much of a defense either, and with Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Isaiah Livers all out tonight, several Detroit options look intriguing on the different DFS sites. Hamidou Diallo and Jaden Ivey lead the way on both DraftKings and FanDuel, with Alec Burks and James Wiseman looking stronger on the former.

Latest NBA DFS Content

Chris Paul has been assigned an 8.5 over/under assists prop. The 18-year veteran led the league in assists with 10.2 per game last year, and he has been strong this season with 8.9 per game and 10.0 per 36 minutes. Tonight Kevin Durant should be making his Phoenix debut, which will provide another scorer on the receiving end of Paul’s passes.

NBA Bet Pro has Paul projected for 9.6 assists, which works out to a 56% win probability. BetMGM currently has this wager available at -120, giving it a decent 3% expected ROI. While this is not overly sexy, keep in mind that Paul has nine or more assists in 23 of 41 (57%) games and Charlotte has been playing at the second-fastest pace in the league over the last three weeks.

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Los Angeles Lakers-Oklahoma City Thunder

Regardless of Davis’ status, several Lakers are strong options as the team fills in the void left by James and Russell. Malik Beasley, Dennis Schroder and Jarred Vanderbilt are strong options if they remain in the starting lineup.

Oklahoma City has allowed 117.2 points per 100 possessions over the last three weeks, which is among the bottom 10 defensive efficiency ratings across the league. In this same stretch, the Lakers are playing at the fastest pace in the league with 104.4 possessions per 48 minutes, with the Thunder ranking fifth at 102.3 possessions.

Austin Reaves, Lonnie Walker IV and Rui Hachimura are differentiation options from the bargain bin, though the path to success for each player relies on the whims of coach Darvin Ham and a hot-hand approach.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (ankle) is out again, and this could be the catalyst that turns the Thunder back into a tanking squad. In the last three games, Josh Giddey has played 24, 32 and 20 minutes, with the lowest figure coming last night against Sacramento. Oklahoma City has now lost five of six games, and it is becoming tricky to trust any particular player given coach Mark Daigneault’s ever shifting rotation.

Tread lightly with Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams, Kenrich Williams, Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams, which is the preferred order of preference, as the four not named Kenrich are likely to join Giddey in the starting lineup.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks Building Blocks Today

Tonight has a very frontloaded slate, with eight of the nine games tipping off within the first 60 minutes. Be sure to get all the latest analysis and information by tuning in to the Stokastic Deeper Dive and Live Before Lock shows at 5 p.m. ET on YouTube, brought to you by No House Advantage.

Author

Eric MacPherson

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].