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
Russell Westbrook + Lakers
The Lakers are at the center of today’s slate with the news that LeBron James and Anthony Davis both out against the Nets. All three of Russell Westbrook, Dennis Schroder and Thomas Bryant average 35+ fantasy points per game without James/Davis this season and they are three of the strongest plays on the slate. Brooklyn are pretty heavy favorites here, but a game-stack is in play for all formats with Kyrie Irving and Nic Claxton on the opposite side. We also have Rui Hachimura in play for a cheap price tag — and he’s catching a 30% ownership tag tonight. Overall, Russ + Bryant + Rui are virtual locks in cash games so it makes sense to get some Nets exposure on the other side.
Precious Achiuwa
Achiuwa has been absolutely balling as of late for the Raptors and is coming off a monster game after starting for the injured OG Anunoby. OG is out again tonight, which means we should get another 30+ minutes from Precious despite him being priced for his usual role. We have him projected for 34 minutes tonight and with his point per minute ability that’s enough to make him one of our top values on today’s slate. The match-up is pretty neutral, but he can stuff the stat sheet and this team has been firing on all cylinders over the last week. Achiuwa is one of my favorite plays in all formats on DK today.
Value Plays
Aaron Wiggins
Wiggins is one of the top value plays on the slate tonight with Lu Dort out for the Thunder. I foolishly pivoted off Wiggins in their last game due to the Desmond Bane news in Memphis, and I’m not going to make that mistake tonight. Wiggins isn’t a big point per minute producer, but he started in place of Dort and ended up logging over 30 minutes. He’s priced just over the minimum on DK tonight and we have him projected for around 27 minutes. Even if he doesn’t have the best game scoring the ball, he should be able to return value at this price-tag in those minutes.
Dallas Mavericks
We have some slate-defining news we are waiting on with Luka Doncic listed questionable to play. Even if he is able to suit up, they are still down Christian Wood which gives us value with some of their front-court players. We will need to wait and see on the news, but for now we can consider Dorian Finney-Smith and Dwight Powell viable value plays. If Doncic is also out, Hardaway and maybe even Josh Green become strong plays in all formats.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
