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The Los Angeles Lakers are the top ranked team in the Western Conference and are expected to make a deep run in this year’s NBA playoffs. However, the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers could put up a real fight in the first round of the playoffs. DraftKings has Showdown contests centered around Game 1 of the Lakers-Trail Blazers series on Tuesday, and we’ll go over the best lineup strategies here.
Captain’s Picks
LeBron James ($17,400) is hardly ever not the most expensive player in a Showdown contest. While the James didn’t play like he’s capable of in seeding games, expect him to take it up a notch not that it’s playoff time. Portland is a great offensive team. but Carmelo Anthony shouldn’t come close to containing James in this series.
The Lakers don’t have a dominant center and rotate between JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard. That means Jusuf Nurkic ($15,000) could have a field day in the post. The Lakers have had serious problems defending point guards, but Damian Lillard ($18,300) is too expensive to make much work.
FLEX Options
The Trail Blazers could have a tough time containing Anthony Davis ($11,200) in the post. Starting power forward Zach Collins won’t play, and you don’t want to lack post depth against a dynamic scorer like David. On the other hand, this means Portland could be forced to play Hassan Whiteside ($5,400) more. We can’t forget that Whiteside averaged more than 40 DKFP per game throughout the regular season. He’s cheap for a player with such a high ceiling and notched double-doubles with ease against the Lakers earlier in the year.