NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Is Houdini in the House?! (May 31)

Tonight could be the last NBA until Thursday, so enjoy Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals at 8:00 p.m. ET. Let’s break down the top NBA DFS picks and key lineup building blocks on FanDuel and DraftKings. These plays reflect the most up-to-date data — and for live updates, check out our NBA DFS Starting Lineups Page.

NBA DFS Picks Today – Building Blocks: Saturday, May 31

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NBA DFS Picks Today: Building Blocks

Jalen Brunson was excellent once again and it helped that Aaron Nesmith (ankle) played just 15.9 minutes, spread out across four rotations. He will have had another 48 hours of treatment, but is unlikely to be at full strength. Karl-Anthony Towns (knee) is looking worn down after averaging 35 minutes across 72 regular season games, which was the most he had played since 2017-2018, when he was seven years younger. Add in 17 playoff games this year and another 16 last year and we can see how this is a grind.

KAT is still crucial and he has managed to put up 24 points in each of the last three games, along with 13, 12 and 15 rebounds. It is just the mind numbingly silly fouls that have prevented him from doing more.

Mitchell Robinson started for a third consecutive game, though his overall playing time really hasn’t changed for the series. In Game 1 he had 21 minutes in the overtime loss, with 29 off the bench in Game 2, which led to 29, 19 and 20 as a starter. In the last two games, he has not been on the floor in the fourth quarter, so expect another 20-to-22 minutes tonight if he remains with the first five.

Josh Hart has been on the floor for between 34 and 36 minutes since moving to a reserve role, which is not that different than when he was a starter. Pretty much he comes in partway through the first and third quarters, playing to the end of the half. If he goes back into a starting role, he will have a chance to play 36-to-40 minutes.

Excluding late-game mop-up duty, both Delon Wright and Landry Shamet saw their minutes in the first three quarters increase for another game, this came at the expense of Miles McBride, and it looks like this trend may continue on this trajectory tonight.

McBride is up $200 to $1,400 on FanDuel, which has him projecting to be on around 5% of all tournament rosters, with Wright and Shamet, who are at the $1,000 blue site minimum salary on less than 1%. DraftKings kept the salaries the same for this trio with McBride ($2,800), Shamet ($2,000) and Wright ($1,600) projecting to be on 19.1%, 10.2% and 4.9% of all tournament rosters, respectively.

Lather, rinse, repeat: Mikal Bridges is always live to lead the team in minutes, but we know his DFS production is heavily skewed by his ability to put the biscuit in the basket. O.G. Anunoby and Hart remain steadier plays, particularly when factoring in salaries.

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Pascal Siakam was the only starter who tallied double-digit points, in a game that went off the rails early. Obi Toppin had 11 off the bench in 18 minutes, while Bennedict Mathurin did in fact catch lightening in a bottle for a second straight game, putting up a team-high 23 points, with nine rebounds in 25 minutes. The other surprising thing in reviewing the box score is that this trio attempted 13, 10 and 10 shots, which also were the most on the team.

Andrew Nembhard has seen his minutes slide the last two games, with his full series workload being 35, 37, 38, 29 and 27 minutes. New York went after him on offense, which when combined with Nesmith not being at full strength, further exposed the backcourt defense. This led to Jarace Walker getting two rotations and a blowout stint, after not seeing the court for the first four games. Who knows if Walker gets in the game tonight, but that potential further erodes the appeal for Nembhard and a dinged up Nesmith.

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The rest of the reserves saw similar stints as the last two games, with T.J. McConnell playing the minutes that Haliburton is off the floor, along with a few together. Mathurin has had the advantage of his offensive outbursts, though he can be invisible as well.

Ben Sheppard has been the first player off the bench in the last two games and he saw more minutes, helping out for Nesmith. He is a low-usage player, who will likely hoist up a couple of shots if he is open and collect a rebound or three. Tony Bradley played just 5.4 minutes in two rotations, with Thomas Bryant getting 3.5 minutes in the third quarter and then mop-up duty. There is not enough for this duo to share a role and provide anything noteworthy, so there needs to be foul-trouble for Myles Turner for either to have a chance at relevance, as it will be Toppin on the court in offensive situations over both.

One other thing to think about is that Bradley did suffer a strained hip flexor, which could consolidate the minutes to Bryant, but we may not have have clarity. Walker could also be in the mix for these minutes, but so too could be a shortened rotation with Turner, Siakam and Toppin eating up the floating minutes.

Today’s Top Sports Betting Picks

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Towns has 24-plus points in four of the five games this series, but between potential foul trouble, renewed Pacers defensive passion at home and variance, getting the under at plus money is a positive expected ROI.