What’s up everyone and welcome to Ben’s Building Blocks! If you’ve never read my content before, welcome. To those that have, welcome back. I truly appreciate everyone that reads and supports during NBA season. This article is designed for me to highlight the top plays of the day. Obviously, things can change rapidly in the NBA with injury news close to lock, so I would be sure to subscribe to our premium package for access to our Final Thoughts cheat sheet, our premium discord channel and my core plays. Our Core Plays product gives you the ability to tail all of our analysts in your contests each night. We do the work for you, and you simply plug and play with our premium Core Plays. With that being said, let’s hop into the plays…
Building Blocks
Zach LaVine
LaVine was a popular play on Wednesday, and will be one again with DeMar DeRozan still sidelined for the Bulls. I noted the other day that Vucevic is the best fantasy player with DeRo off the floor, but LaVine is underpriced for his role and will see all the shot attempts he wants against a bad OKC defense. This game should be fast-paced, and the Bulls shouldn’t have a problem scoring on the Thunder with them being on a back-to-back. LaVine sees the biggest usage increase with DeRo off the floor and he should be one of the chalkiest plays on the slate once again. I don’t consider him a must in GPPs, but would want to build around him in cash games.
Jamal Murray
Denver will be without the best player in basketball tonight, which is obviously going to thrust the rest of their starters into the conversation. That being said, nobody sees a huge per minute boost with him off the floor so I’m not going to call anyone a must play. Murray leads the team in usage rate with Joker off the floor — getting a 7% spike to 32%. There’s going to be some more shot attempts available, and he should be able to take on a larger role as a facilitator and soak up some of Jokers dimes. Overall, I think he’s one of the best plays on the slate since he’s priced like Jokic is playing and I will be building around him in cash games tonight.
Value Plays
Andrew Nembhard + Pacers
With Tyrese Haliburton out for the Pacers – tons of value has opened up here specifically with the guards. Both Andrew Nembhard and TJ McConnell are projecting inside the top-five in OWN% tonight — and will be tough to avoid in cash game and single entry formats. We saw Nembhard post some elite usage earlier this season without Haliburton and he should have the volume to post a nice game even in a tough individual match-up. McConnell is in play regardless, but would be a tough fade if he cracks the starting lineup.
OwnersBox Top Play
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Alperen Sengun
I wrote him up in this exact match-up on Wednesday and he responded with a huge 10-10-10 triple double against the Kings. I am not expecting that again, but I love this match-up for him and I think he should see more shot attempts tonight. Sacramento has been really bad against opposing big-men and in the paint over the last month – which is great news for Sengun. He does most of his damage inside, and if the minutes continue to be strong he could be one of the best point per dollar plays on tonight’s slate.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
