What’s up everyone! We had a massive night last night collectively as a community, and that leads us into an under-whelming five game slate tonight. Normally we get a big 7+ game slate on Monday’s, but I will go ahead and break down my general thoughts on the slate, let’s get it!
Jam Them In
Trey Burke (gulps)- Well, well, well. We got some mid-day injury news that Kyrie Irving will be out tonight, which certainly opens up the slate even more. To start out, I’m going to be plugging in Trey Burke, even though he plays for the Knicks and this goes against everything I stand for. Both of Emmanuel Mudiay and Frank Ntilikina are out tonight for the Knicks, which leaves Burke to be forced into heavy minutes as the primary ball-handler, unless, you know, Fizdale does Fizdale things. He’s absolutely going to be highly-owned, so I can see pivoting to Allonzo Trier in GPPs, but I don’t see how Burke can really hurt you at this price tonight.
Tobias Harris/Montrezl Harrell- Danilo Gallinari is out again for the Clippers tonight, which has me focused on both of Harris and Harrell against the Atlanta Hawks. With the Irving news, we certainly have enough value to fit them both in, and this is 100% going to be the most attractive game on the slate with a 232.5 O/U in Vegas. The Hawks play at the fastest pace in the NBA and feature a bottom-seven defensive rating as a team. Harrell himself thrives in pace-up matchups, and I think stacking them together is a viable strategy in cash games on Monday night.
2nd Value Point Guard- I was back and forth whether or not I just wanted to make this one section, with Burke included, but I still think he will be the highest-owned of the trio so I feel comfortable picking him, and then looking to add-in one of Pat Beverley or Terry Rozier. Beverley has played no less than 34 minutes in the games that Gallinari has missed, and he gets the dream matchup with the Hawks backcourt defense. Rozier has been a target all season long when Irving has missed, and on DraftKings I can easily see locking in all three of these guys. On FanDuel, decisions need to be made where you can only play two, and this truly could be what cashing vs not cashing comes down to if one has a significantly better game than the other. Right now my lean is Rozier over Bev, but I will update any thoughts if they change.
Nikola Jokic- Since we have all of this value, I think that we should easily be able to afford a stud and Joker is my target as of right now. This isn’t the greatest game environment with a 206 O/U, but Joker is coming off a monster triple double, and I think he has the highest overall ceiling on this slate. I’m not sure how high-owned I expect him to be, but he is most-likely going to be a staple in my cash build.
GPP Plays
John Collins/Trae Young- Since we are so interested in the Clippers, it only makes sense to run it back with a Trae Young/John Collins game-stack in GPPs.
Warriors- Draymond Green is another star that won’t be suiting up tonight, and that immediately bumps up the other four all-stars on the Warriors roster. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Boogie Cousins all fall under the tournament only category while Kevin Durant can be considered another cash game option at under $10,000 on FanDuel.
Pacers- As I noted above, Draymond is out, and for some reason this spread is down to Warriors -7. I’m really not sure why, even with Draymond out, but it makes a game stack mighty appealing, especially now that Tyreke Evans is out. I could see a build of stacking up Curry, KD, Iguodala and running it back with two or three of Collison, Bogdanovic, Young and Myles Turner.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
