Welcome to our NBA DFS Building Blocks article! Each day, we will dissect injury news and breakdown our favorite plays at each position. We also provide Core Plays nightly for our subscribers, as well as projections and a premium discord channel. You can sign up for access to today’s Core Plays and projections by clicking HERE — and can get access to a single day pass for just $5 HERE. Now, let’s get into today’s slate…
Hope everyone is having a great week so far. It’s been a busy week for me with attending the PGA Wells Fargo event (thanks Draftkings!) and going to Rehoboth Beach. I’m finally back home and ready to go heavy at NBA for the last few weeks of the playoffs. Hopefully we can make some money to close out the year.
INJURIES
- Joel Embiid – Q
- T Herro – Q
- Max Strus – Q
- PJ Tucker – Q
- Gabe Vincent – Q
- Caleb Martin – Q
- Dewayne Dedmon – Q
There isn’t much news we’re waiting on as I expect Embiid and all the Miami players to play tonight. Dedmon is truly questionable but he doesn’t have much of an impact on the slate. Make sure to monitor starting lineups, just last night we got Steven Adams listed in the starting line-up and he came in only 7% owned in large field GPPs. For those of us that swapped onto Adams after lock, this was one of the biggest edges of the year. Hopefully we get some late starting line-up news today that could shake up the slate.
GUARDS
I really like the spots for the home teams tonight and expect both to get big Game 5 wins. This has me leaning towards rostering a lot of Miami and Phoenix players. My favorite guard on the slate is Devin Booker. He’s priced at $8,600 coming home for a massive Game 5. Booker just played 43 minutes and put up 51 fantasy points and I’m expecting similar minutes and production tonight. He’ll be chalky but I’ll be making sure to get overweight in this spot. Luka Doncic again projects out for the most fantasy points on the slate, but I do see some merit to fading him in GPPs since I can see Dallas getting blown out in this spot. Luka priced at an $11,400 price tag has a few paths to fail in GPPs: Dallas could get blown out and Luka’s minutes are cut short but also the value is ugly on this slate so even if Luka goes off for 60+ fantasy points, the value you need to jam in may still keep Luka from being in the optimal line-up. I’ll probably play Luka in cash but for GPPs I’ll be underweight the field on Luka this evening. The other guard situation I’m looking at is in Miami. This early in the day I like Tyler Herro at $6,300. With Lowry out this helps solidify the minutes for Herro and I’m expecting him to close tonight and play approximately 32-34 minutes. He’s around a fantasy point per minute producer and he’s got major upside at this price tag.
FORWARDS
At Forward I like getting to Mikal Bridges as a needed source of salary relief. He’s priced at a slightly discounted $5,700 price tag. Mikal did not play well in Dallas and was dealing with foul trouble in the last game. Tonight I’m expecting 40+ minutes from Bridges and it’s hard to disappoint when you get that many minutes. He can fill up the stat sheet and has shown some upside recently with a 51 fantasy point game already in these playoffs. The other forward I like getting to that may come in somewhat low owned for a 2 game slate is Jimmy Butler. He’s priced up at $9,500 on DK, but this should help keep the ownership in check. He’s turned into Playoff Jimmy and is doing it all for the Heat. In his last seven games he’s gone over 50 fantasy points in six of them and I see no reason for that to stop tonight with basically the biggest game of the season for the Heat coming back home. I’ll be making sure to get overweight on Jimmy in this spot even if it’s at the expense of getting to Luka.
CENTER
Center actually has limited options on this slate. I don’t like the spot for Embiid so I’ll side with either Ayton or Bam tonight. Both are in good spots coming home, so I don’t really have much of a preference between the two. Ayton is the cheaper of the two and looks to be coming in with lower ownership so I’ll pick Ayton but I do like both plays this evening and will have some line-ups with Double-Center builds. I also like Maxi Kleber as a salary saver on this slate. Kleber is priced up to $5,100 but his minutes continue to climb as this series goes along. The last two games he’s played 33 and 34 minutes and I don’t think this changes tonight with Powell just not producing in this series and having a horrible +- rating. Kleber will be chalky but there just isn’t much other reliable value to choose from tonight.
The rotations are getting very condensed this late in the playoffs so I wouldn’t try to go too far off the board with some 1% owned play tonight. I’ll be building my exposures tonight based on Phoenix and Miami both winning and I really like betting the Suns as 6 point favorites. It’s been a fun playoffs so far and I’ve had some nice profits so hopefully we can keep riding the momentum tonight.
Cash Plays: Devin Booker, Luka Doncic, Mikal Bridges, Maxi Kleber, Bam Adebayo
GPP Plays: Jimmy Butler, Devin Booker, Tyler Herro, Deandre Ayton, Bam Adebayo, Maxi Kleber
