NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks: Big Anthony Davis Night (April 4)

Tuesday’s NBA action kicks off the last six days of the regular season with a 13-game featured slate locking at 7 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 Anthony Davis.

NBA DFS Picks Today: Tuesday, April 4

Tonight will be wild with 26 teams in action after the association took Monday off as a courtesy to the NCAA men’s basketball championship. Eleven teams play again tomorrow, and with seven teams eliminated from the postseason, we will likely see a lot of news updates that reshape the slate multiple times today.

Core Play of the Day — Anthony Davis: Los Angeles Lakers-Utah Jazz

Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 50.68 | FanDuel: 51.15
Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings 0.7% | FanDuel: 3.0%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $10,900 | FanDuel: $11,400

The Lakers have a chance to move out of the Play-In Tournament, as they are now just a half-game behind the Warriors and Clippers with four games left in the season. They’ll play the Clippers on Wednesday and host Phoenix on Friday before wrapping things up against Utah on Sunday.

While we could see either LeBron James or Anthony Davis sit tonight in anticipation of tomorrow’s Battle for Los Angeles, it is unlikely both sit. The Lakers must also notch a victory tonight.

The Jazz have packed up the tents. Most of their key players have been shut down or are about to be in street clothes. We saw several upsets by double-digit underdogs on Sunday, which should remind head coach Darvin Ham not to get too cute tonight.

This is one of the last games of the night, so feel free to pivot and make changes if other unexpected news generates a better core play.

Brandon Ingram: New Orleans Pelicans-Sacramento Kings

Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 48.22 | FanDuel: 46.16
Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings 15.0% | FanDuel: 8.4%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $9,300 | FanDuel: $9,900

New Orleans is in a similar situation as the Lakers — the Pelicans have the same record with four games to go. It would be a major accomplishment if the Pelicans could avoid the Play-In Tournament line in a season that saw Zion Williamson play just 29 games, Brandon Ingram miss 37 and CJ McCollum miss seven.

Ingram has been phenomenal over the last 10 games, leading the Pelicans to eight victories. During this stretch, he is averaging 35.9 minutes and 20.8 field goal attempts with a 52.4% success rate. This has culminated in 29.5 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 0.8 combined blocks and steals. Though his salary is creeping towards the five-figure threshold, there will be plenty of value options that render this a non-issue.

Milwaukee Bucks-Washington Wizards

There should be some increased opportunities for the Bucks’ secondary options, as the team will host the Bulls tomorrow in Milwaukee. Khris Middleton and Grayson Allen are out, Jevon Carter is questionable with a sore knee, and it would not be a surprise if Giannis Antetokounmpo gets the night off along with Joe Ingles.

These musical chairs have Bobby Portis standing out as a tremendous option against one of his former squads. He could get ample work in the final frame with Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday likely to hit the bench first.

If Antetokounmpo gets a rest day, Holiday and Brook Lopez would see a major increase in their baseline fantasy projection. Pat Connaughton is another potential punt du jour, depending on who is available.

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Kyle Kuzma (7 games) and Bradley Beal (6 games) have each been put on the shelf. Neither is likely to play again this season. Kristaps Porzingis (2 games) has joined them after missing a pair of games with an “illness.” Monte Morris will also miss a second consecutive game with ankle soreness.

This opens up major opportunities for Delon Wright, Jordan Goodwin, Deni Avdija and Daniel Gafford. Currently, Kendrick Nunn is a placeholder value, though he will fall out of consideration as other discount dandies appear.

Rookie Johnny Davis is a wild card, and while he looks like an okay point-per-dollar option, his upside is questionable. He has topped 20 fantasy points only twice this season while also spending a fair amount of time in the G-League.

Additional NBA DFS Building Blocks Pick — Sports Betting Opportunities

Delon Wright is a strong option in the DFS world, and we can look to him in the sports wagering market as well: the books have set his the total for his steals to just 1.5.

For the season, Wright is averaging a career-best 2.8 steals per 36 minutes and 1.9 steals per game. In the 23 games in which he played at least 24.6 minutes, Wright recorded multiple steals 17 times.

NBA Bet Pro has the 30-year-old projected for 32.6 minutes and 2.38 steals. This equates to a 54% chance of a multi-steal game, and the current line of +115 at BetMGM provides a solid 4% expected ROI.

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Portland Trail Blazers-Memphis Grizzlies

Portland is yet another team that has given up on the season. Starters Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic and Jerami Grant have been shut down for the season, and even secondary options like Nassir Little and Keon Johnson have suffered injuries over the last week. Cam Reddish and Trendon Watford have also missed time.

Whoever is available for the Blazers is going to be a strong option, but we still need further clarification of their lineup. Five of their remaining players currently carry questionable tags.

Memphis comes into this game as a 17.5-point home favorite. The Grizzlies will then head to New Orleans to square off against the Pelicans tomorrow. The Grizzlies have mostly solidified the second-best record in the Western Conference with a two-game lead over the third-place Sacramento Kings. This would be a good spot for them to rest Ja Morant, which would hand the keys for the offense to his very capable understudy, Tyus Jones.

Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke have been out for a while, so with Dillon Brooks questionable, there could be extra mop-up duty available for Xavier Tillman, Luke Kennard and Santi Aldama.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks Building Blocks Today

Gear up for a crazy six-day sprint to the end of the season. Tonight we get the games in three major waves with four matchups tipping off at 7 p.m. ET, five at 8 p.m. ET and then a pair of West Coast nightcaps at 10 p.m. ET.

Get ready for the slate with all of the latest analysis and information by tuning in to the Stokastic Deeper Dive and Live Before Lock shows at 4:45 p.m. ET on YouTube, brought to you by Bet365.

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].