Kyrie Irving ruled out Thursday vs. Pacers

The Brooklyn Nets are listing PG Kyrie Irving as out for Thursday night’s game vs. the Indiana Pacers due to a groin injury. Brooklyn clinched a playoff berth on Tuesday with a win over the Toronto Raptors, so we may see the Big 3 in and out of the lineup (Irving and Kevin Durant). James Harden (hamstring) remains sidelined and his return may not come until closer to the end of the regular season. The Nets are also without Bruce Brown and Nic Claxton.

Durant ($8,500) is going to be a decent play on DraftKings. It’s tough to gauge though. The Nets may not play Durant a full amount of minutes in a game that isn’t too important. The Pacers are down front court bodies in Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner. Durant’s price is very low for what we’re used to seeing. In the event KD plays 30+ minutes, he could return some value in tournaments.

Mike James ($3,200) and Tyler Johnson ($3,100) will likely be chalk value with Irving sidelined. Johnson should end up starting and could play 25-30 minutes, especially if the game tilts one way or the other. He’s also got a pretty good ceiling at this price to return 10x value. Joe Harris ($5,400), Blake Griffin ($4,900) and Jeff Greeen ($4,800) are all strong options as well. The Pacers are on the second half of a back-to-back and just got torched by the Blazers.