NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Jaylen Brown and Friends! (May 14)

Wednesday features what is likely the final two-game NBA slate with a 7:00 p.m. ET lock on both FanDuel and DraftKings. Let’s break down the top NBA DFS picks and key lineup building blocks. These selections reflect the most up-to-date data — and for live updates, be sure to visit our NBA DFS Starting Lineups Page.

NBA DFS Picks Today – Building Blocks: Wednesday, May 14

NBA DFS Picks Today: Building Blocks

It is a little surprising to see Jaylen Brown under 70% projected tournament representation, so it would not be a shock if that gap narrows throughout the day. He is a player that we will want to have ample shares of in our player portfolio and more than the field. He has been managing a sore knee, but in this win or go home game, that is an afterthought.

Jrue Holiday and Derrick White are going to be crucial offensive options, with the expectation that coach Joe Mazzulla is going to be targeting Jalen Brunson on switches most of the night. It is likely the point guards will be shadowing each other, which is good for Holiday and not so good for Brunson on the other end of the court.

Payton Pritchard is likely to push for close to 30 minutes tonight, with the Celtics needing all hands on deck to replace the scoring vacated by Tatum. Kristaps Porzingis is still dealing with his intermittently recurring long-term mystery illness, though he did play a series high 24 minutes in Monday’s 121-113 loss. That was only the second time he played more than 14 minutes and keep in mind this ailment appears to be something that he just can’t push through, making it tricky to expect more than 25 minutes from him tonight. His $5,000 salary on DraftKings does have him projecting to be the second most popular player, landing on nearly half of all lineups.

We also do not know the starting lineup yet and it could be Porzingis, Pritchard or Sam Hauser who gets the spot start. Hauser (ankle) has not played since Game 1. Luke Kornet is another candidate to start, which would make him a strong value option and give a path to mid-20s minutes. Fortunately, this is the first game of the night, so be sure to tune into Stokastic’s NBA Live Before Lock at 6 p.m. ET tonight for all of the up-to-date analysis and breaking news.

Veteran Al Horford will gamely do his best to help contribute, though he has topped seven points in this series once, despite averaging 34 minutes per contest.

Brunson was sublime in Game 4, dropping 39 points on 14-of-25 (56%) from the field. In the first three games of the series, he was 38.1% on an average of 21 field goal attempts per game, averaging 24.3 points. He is going to need to push for 30 again, if the Knickerbockers want to close things out tonight.

Karl-Anthony Towns put up his sixth-consecutive double-double in the last game and he will benefit from the absence of Tatum. That does not mean it will be a walk in the park for him tonight, since he is the other weak link in the New York defense, so he will still have his work cut out for him on that end of the court.

Mikal Bridges also was a key contributor to the Game 4 victory, finally finding his shot and scoring 23 points on 11-of-21 (52%) from the field. It is still tricky to put trust in him, since he managed to score just 34 points in the first three games, going 15-of-41 (37%) and looking out of sorts.

OG Anunoby and Josh Hart get some benefit from Tatum being out, since that is one less rebounder they will need to contend with, as well as losing a lengthy defender who can close out on their long-range shots. This duo is not one that The Masses have been going to regularly and the Stokastic Boom/Bust Tool has Anunoby as the best “positive” leverage on DraftKings, and just inside the top-five on FanDuel.

Mitchell Robinson will continue to play around 20 minutes, though giving up the center position for him on FanDuel may be hard, depending on expectations for Kornet. Miles McBride is limited by his defense and inability to create his own shots, leaving him as a tertiary target, who needs something unfortunate to happen to Brunson or one of the wings in order to free up minutes.

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Jimmy Butler is going to go down swinging, in a good way — while Draymond Green may go down swinging in a not so good way. Trayce Jackson-Davis started each half on his way to 19.2 minutes, though he had only one 3.5 minute rotation in the second quarter. If he continues to start, he is semi-trustworthy. It is crucial to remember in Game 3 when he was with the first five he started each half, and had 73 seconds of blowout run to get him over 11 minutes.

Jonathan Kuminga is likely to see around 30 minutes off the bench, though he is one defensive lapse or boneheaded move away from being banished to the bench. Brandin Podziemski should get mid-30s minutes as he tries to run the offense, while Buddy Hield will be in the game as long as he is making his shots.

We know that coach Steve Kerr is going to be mixing and matching everyone, much as he has since Curry went down with his hamstring injury. That means even the recent uptick in minutes for Kevon Looney and the loss of playing time for Moses Moody and Quinten Post could reverse course yet again. Caveat Emptor!

Anthony Edwards has been surging the last two games, racking up a combined 66 points in 76 minutes of run. He is probably the “safest” player in action today, though we need to remember he did tweak his ankle in the first half of Game 2. Julius Randle has really leveled-up over the last three games, averaging 38 minutes, 26.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and a whopping 8.7 assists, with a solid 1.6 stocks.

Mike Conley has mostly looked like a 37-year-old point guard this series, meandering to low-20s minutes most games. It is hard to see much upside for him on the two-game slate, but he is in play for the single-game nightcap contests. Nickeil Alexander-Walker has provided defense off the bench, though his offense has been mercurial at best with his points swinging from zero, to 20, to zero and then 13 on Monday. That is fine for a dart throw, but be ready for another donut.

Donte DiVincenzo has been terrible all series, though in theory he could drop a handful of 3-pointers at any moment. Rudy Gobert is another wild card, with this being more of a Randle and Naz Reid series, though it felt that was also the case against the Lakers, before the four-time Defensive Player of the Year closed out the series with 27 points and 24 rebounds.

Last but not least, we have Jaden McDaniels, who has steadily been providing double-digit points, with a handful of rebounds, along with his usual defensive contributions. He is losing out some offensive opportunities to Randle, though if it ain’t broke, don’t expect coach Chris Finch to try and fix that.

Today’s Top Sports Betting Picks

If you’re serious about winning in NBA DFS, you know the edge comes from having the right tools. The same principle applies to sports betting — and that’s where Portfolio EV steps in.

Take Josh Hart under 24.5 points + rebounds + assists (PRA) tonight, for example. It’s a +EV bet, meaning it has positive expected value when compared to the best odds available across the market. But the real strength of Portfolio EV isn’t about finding just one good bet — it’s about consistently finding dozens. With the Mass Entry tool, you can scale up, place a high volume of +EV bets, and let the math do the heavy lifting.

Just like you wouldn’t count on one DFS lineup to ship a GPP, you don’t count on one bet to carry your night.

Portfolio EV is built for long-term profitability. It helps you spot market inefficiencies, compare lines across books and generate a steady stream of +EV bets. It doesn’t chase heaters, but rather trusts the numbers, follows a process and builds sustainable profit over time.

Getting this wager at close to “even money” is a nice bonus, with Hart currently projecting for 23.7 PRA.