NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks: Pair of Pivotal Game 5s Await (May 9)

Tuesday’s NBA slate brings a pair of pivotal games with both series tied up at two apiece. Contests lock at 7:30 p.m. ET on 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 Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker and more.

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NBA DFS Picks Today: Tuesday, May 9

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Core Play of the Day — Jamal Murray: Denver Nuggets-Phoenix Suns

Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 44.42 | FanDuel: 42.04
Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings: 44.9% | FanDuel: 36.6%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $8,100 | FanDuel: $9,200

Nikola Jokic is once again the best point-per-dollar option on both DraftKings and FanDuel in addition to having the highest median projection. He will likely be on around half of all tournament rosters on DraftKings. That figure will be around one-third on FanDuel. The savvy gamer will want to be over the field on both sites.

Okay, now that I’ve stated the obvious, let’s turn our attention to Jamal Murray, who is in the midst of a phenomenal postseason run. He is averaging 39.0 minutes and 21.9 field goal attempts with a 46.2% conversion rate through nine games. This has resulted in 26.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 1.3 combined blocks and steals. Look to the Denver duo as excellent core options tonight.

Devin Booker: Phoenix Suns-Denver Nuggets

Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 46.91 | FanDuel: 45.42
Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings 15.8% | FanDuel: 22.1%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $10,100 | FanDuel: $10,500

Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are separated by only $100 in salary on DraftKings, which makes this a pick’em. Over on FanDuel, Booker has a $700 discount, which is just enough to give him the headline for this section. The real answer is to do your best to play both members of this pair along with Murray or Jokic from Denver.

Even with the discount for Booker on FanDuel, Durant’s eligibility at both forward spots has him (30.7%) slightly more popular than Booker (22.1%), who is only available as a shooting guard. Each player scored 36 points on Sunday, while Booker had a 47-39 edge on Friday.

Chris Paul is still out and the Suns managed to take care of business in Phoenix by tying up the series at 2-2 even without their veteran leader. Tonight Booker and Durant are each likely to get two dozen field goal attempts while also racking up 15-plus combined rebounds and steals. Simply said, this is fantasy gold.

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Joel Embiid: Philadelphia 76ers-New York Knicks

Stokastic’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 54.14 | FanDuel: 53.54
Stokastic’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: DraftKings 36.6% | FanDuel: 28.4%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $9,700 | FanDuel: $10,900

The only reason that Jokic is not pre-installed on every roster is that there is a new sheriff (errr, MVP) in town. Joel Embiid has posted 55 and 60 fantasy point efforts in his last two games, and even though he is still visibly troubled by his sore knee, he has been effective enough to warrant consideration in all fantasy formats tonight. The Celtics are favored by 7.5 points in Boston, but that is not going to dissuade Embiid and James Harden from doing everything in their power to steal Game 5.

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Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today

Tonight’s set of matchups are simply amazing. But as a note, when you start to build your DFS lineups, be sure to let us do the heavy lifting for you by tuning into the Stokastic NBA Deeper Dive and Live Before Lock shows at 5:30 p.m. ET on YouTube, brought to you by PrizePicks— new customers sign up by going through this link and receive 30 days of Stokastic+ Premium and a deposit match up to $100.

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].