NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks: Stars and Wizards?! (March 19)

Tuesday brings a dispersed five-game featured slate with a 7 p.m. ET lock time 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. Let’s dig into the NBA DFS picks and core plays like Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama and other recommended options.

Subscribe today for access to our industry-leading resources, including our lineup generator (available for NFL, NBA, MLB and PGA), our DFS simulation tools (available for NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA, MMA and NASCAR) and our industry-leading projections for every sport.

React App

NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Tuesday, March 19

NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks

Luka Doncic: Mavericks at Spurs

Stokastic’s Fantasy Point Projections
DraftKings: 68.61 | FanDuel: 64.35
Stokastic’s Rostership Projections
DraftKings: 33.2% | FanDuel: 27.1%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $12,500 | FanDuel: $12,700

Luka Doncic is at an apex salary, midway into the $12,000 range on both FanDuel ($12,700) and DraftKings ($12,500). Only two other players are within 20 median fantasy points of Doncic’s projection.

Dallas is within a half game of both Phoenix and Sacramento, with the latter holding the sixth seed and currently escaping the Play-In Tournament.

Even with Kyrie Irving back, this duo is still desirable for DFS tournaments, as they can each clear 50 fantasy points in the same game with their consolidated usage. Since this is a medium-sized slate, Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington are both in play on DraftKings, with Washington looking good on FanDuel.

This game has a healthy 234.5 projected total, and since the Dallas defense is lacking, we can look at a few San Antonio players. Rookie Victor Wembanyama had another amazing game, this time posting 33 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and seven blocks against the Nets while also playing 36 minutes. Yes, this was an overtime game, but we are looking at the French phenom to have a 50-fantasy point median projection going forward — simply ridiculous.

Tre Jones is dealing with an illness, so if he is out, then there will be some additional opportunities to be absorbed by the backcourt. Zach Collins (concussion) is out as well, though he is only playing around 16 minutes per game as Wembanyama’s minutes have ticked up. Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson are solid options who will get a slight uptick if Jones misses.


Anthony Edwards: Timberwolves vs. Nuggets

Stokastic’s Fantasy Point Projections
DraftKings: 32.21 | FanDuel: 31.51
Stokastic’s Rostership Projections
DraftKings: 42.9% | FanDuel: 75.1%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $5,600 | FanDuel: $5,100

Last night Anthony Edwards had one of the most impressive in-game dunks, going over the top of John Collins in such a fashion that, if you have not seen the highlight clip, words cannot actually do it justice.

Karl-Anthony Towns remains out, Rudy Gobert missed the last two games with a rib injury and Naz Reid only got in 17 minutes before leaving with an injury last night. The latter two are questionable for tonight, but it looks like Edwards is going to be carrying the offense.

Kyle Anderson has been playing through right shoulder pain, but he has not missed any time with the injury. If Gobert and/or Reid are out, he will pick up extra frontcourt responsibilities. Mike Conley looks better on FanDuel than DraftKings, so we will need to see how all the pending news plays out.

Nikola Jokic joins Doncic and Wembanyama as the players with median fantasy point projections over 50, and it is wild that each has a strong chance at 60 tonight, with Jokic seeing the clearest path towards 70 fantasy points, particularly if the Minnesota frontcourt is missing all three regulars. While it has been three games since Jokic had a 50-fantasy point outing, he is too good to stay down for much longer.

Looking for more NBA DFS picks and advice? You’ve come to the right place. Sign up for our NBA DFS Premium Package for access to our player projections, ownership projections and our state-of-the-art NBA DFS simulation tools.



NBA DFS Picks: Key Games

Washington Wizards vs. Houston Rockets

The Wizards are nearly double-digit home dogs to the Rockets, which is just embarrassing. Deni Avdija, Tyus Jones, Marvin Bagley III, Bilal Coulibaly, Eugene Omoruyi and Landry Shamet are all out, and Kyle Kuzma (left shoulder) is at risk of missing a second consecutive game. If Kuzma plays, consider him a full-go since there is absolutely no benefit to rushing him back into action.

Jordan Poole, Corey Kispert and Richaun Holmes are the trustworthy options. After that things get a little messy and tenuous with minutes and opportunities, which will be available, but a variety of deep rotation players will be in the mix. Justin Champagnie and Jared Butler seem the most likely to get developmental minutes, but there are plenty of available options to spread things out in a thin manner.

The Rockets just hammered Washington 135-119 in Houston last Thursday, and the team is 7-1 over the last eight games. Sadly, this still has Houston three games out of the Play-In Tournament. Keep in mind that Alperen Sengun and Cam Whitmore are out and that the production has really consolidated with the Houston starters. Fred VanVleet, Jabari Smith and Jalen Green are the most likely players to have a foray to the 40-fantasy point plateau. Amen Thompson tends to have his biggest DFS impact when posting multiple “stocks,” and this is a game environment that should have both. For what it’s worth, he did have a trio of takeaways in the last meeting against Washington.

Dillon Brooks is always a dart throw since he tends to cap out with a 30-fantasy point ceiling, and Jock Landale may not break 20 minutes as the Washington frontcourt really does not have any centers. He could still find his way to a couple dozen fantasy points, but this play is not for the faint of heart.


Today’s Top Sports Betting Pick

Tonight Vasilije Micic and the Charlotte Hornets are in Orlando facing a tough Magic defense. This has the under 6.5 assists prop looking like a great wager on bet365, where it is currently available at odds of -135.

By using OddsShopper to do the heavy lifting when researching favorable bets, we can quickly spot inefficient lines like this one, and having accounts at multiple sports books allows us to pivot to the best number in kind.

Per the true odds of -152 (how OddsShopper measures the potential expected ROI of a given wager), this opportunity has a terrific 4.9% positive expected ROI as a function of the inefficient line.

NBA Bet Pro currently has Micic projected for 31.9 minutes and 5.48 assists. Over his last eight games since moving into the starting lineup, Micic has averaged 31.9 minutes and 5.6 assists. Tre Mann missed three of those games, but he is now back in the starting lineup, which puts another ballhandler into the mix. Combining this with the excellent Orlando defense and slower pace of play, we can see several paths leading Micic to fall shy of seven assists.

React App

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today

Check out the Stokastic NBA Deeper Dive and Live Before Lock Shows starting at 5:30 p.m. ET on YouTube, breaking down all of the key elements for today’s slate. Brought to you by Sleeper – new users, use this link to receive a $500 first deposit match! Full details here.

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].

Premium Data

Single-Game & Showdown NBA DFS Ownership

NBA DFS Boom/Bust Probability

NBA DFS Ownership: Night Slate

NBA DFS Ownership – Main Slate

Yahoo! NBA Ownership

FanDuel NBA DFS Ownership

Stokastic’s NBA DFS Rankings

NBA DFS Projections

DFS Winners from the Stokastic Community

Subscribe to the Stokastic newsletter

DFS advice, exciting promos, and the best bets straight to your inbox

Stokastic.com - Daily Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting Data, Tools, & Analytics

Please play responsibly. Only customers 21 and over are permitted to play. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.