Best lineup strategy for Sixers vs. Celtics Game 2 NBA Showdown

The Boston Celtics took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series against the Philadelphia 76ers with a convincing win in Game 1 on Monday. The Sixers will look to tie things up in Game 2 on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET on TNT. The Celtics won’t have the services of Gordon Hayward, who went down with a Grade 3 sprained ankle late in Game 1. That will impact how we approach this contest quite a bit. Let’s go over some picks for the Showdown on DraftKings. Set your DraftKings lineup here.

Captain’s Pick

Joel Embiid ($16,800)

If I was Brett Brown after that Game 1 loss, I’d be screaming at my team to get Embiid the ball more. The big man only had 15 field goal attempts in Game 1. That is absurdly low for one of the most dominant centers in the NBA who is facing a team with NO SIZE AT ALL. Daniel Theis and Enes Kanter. That’s it. I’d expect in Game 2 the formula for tying the series is get Embiid the ball early and often. I think we see a vintage 30-15 game from Embiid and he smashes here.

Fade of the Game

Kemba Walker ($8,800)

This might blow up in my face — yeah it definitely will. Walker’s price jumped up significantly from Game 1. This is mostly because he was incorrectly priced before. The thing is, after seeing him in Game 1, he wasn’t quite the same Kemba. Walker was productive, but shot poorly from outside. The Sixers have guards who can matchup well against Walker. The Celtics should funnel most of the offense to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. At this price in the FLEX, Walker would need to score around 40-45 DKFP to return value. I just don’t see it.

Value Picks

Alec Burks ($6,000) — Like Walker, Burks was underpriced in Game 1 and now he’s been corrected a bit. We wanted to feel out Burks and how much he was going to play. It was 28 minutes which resulted in 28 DKFP. The Sixers really need a guard to step up with Ben Simmons out and Burks could be that guy off the bench. We could see Burks slowly overtake Shake Milton as the primary PG.

Robert Williams ($1,200) — With Hayward out, somebody off the bench is going to be forced to play more than 10-12 minutes. That could be Williams, who had stretches of decent play in Game 1. He only saw 13 minutes of floor time, but had six rebounds. Extend that out to say, 15-18 minutes and Time Lord could give us a decent 15-20 DKFP game. Like, Williams played 13 minutes and Semi Ojeleye didn’t play at all, yet Ojeleye is $3K? Huh?