After a thrilling 10-game slate featuring a battle for the MVP award between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder and Nikola Jokić’s Denver Nuggets yesterday, the NBA will offer a more modest four-game showing tonight. But it’s not as if there aren’t good teams playing; the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers will go for their 15th straight win against the Brooklyn Nets at 7 p.m.
Finding value options allows you to stack stars on a night where options are limited. Here are my three favorite options for under $5,000.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $300K Fadeaway [$100K to 1st].
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PG/SG Dennis Schroder, Detroit Pistons vs. Washington Wizards, $4,400
After being traded thrice at the trade deadline, Schroder landed in the right place eventually. He’s been a very solid role player for the Pistons, garnering around 24 minutes per game as Cade Cunningham ($10,200)‘s backup. He’s not quite as good in Detroit as he is for the German national team that he captains, but he’s still scored double-digit points in each of his last three games, including a 21-point, six-rebound, seven-assist (41.5-FPT) masterpiece against the LA Clippers last Wednesday. Schroder has provided valuable veteran leadership to a young team that has a real shot at home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
All season, Washington has been fantasy fodder, and it remains so, especially with Bilal Coulibaly ($6,500) and Khris Middleton ($6,000) both in jeopardy of missing tonight’s game. For the season, the Wizards have allowed the most points, most rebounds, and sixth-most assists while forcing the ninth-fewest turnovers. They’ve also allowed the second-most fantasy points to opposing point guards, thanks to starting the traffic cone known as Jordan Poole ($7,500) at that slot.
PF/C Nicolas Batum, LA Clippers at New Orleans Pelicans, $3,700
The veteran Frenchman has started each of the last three games for the Clippers, thanks to the injury absence of Norman Powell ($7,000), who has been out with a hamstring injury since March 2. Although he’s only scored double-digit points in one of the games — a 17-point, four-rebound, two-block, two-steal (32.5-FPT) performance against the New York Knicks on March 7 — he has continued to see an uptick in minutes. As long as Powell remains out, he should be in the starting lineup alongside James Harden ($9,900), Kawhi Leonard ($8,100), Ivica Zubac ($8,000), and Kris Dunn ($4,700), which should automatically make him a value play given his deep-bench salary. Plus, Leonard will rest one of the two legs of the back-to-back, and if I were Tyronn Lue, I’d rather play him against the Miami Heat tomorrow night.
With or without Leonard, Batum should be fine against a horrific Pelicans team that has nothing left to play for other than the draft lottery. For the season, New Orleans has given up the fifth-most points, second-most rebounds, and fourth-most assists per game, and opposing power forwards have torched them for the second-most fantasy points per game. The Pelicans have been a little bit better since the All-Star break — having a fully healthy Zion Williamson ($9,200) helps — but that just means they’re merely bad, not terrible.
SF Bennedict Mathurin, Indiana Pacers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, $4,900
The Pacers have been in somewhat of a free-fall headed into tonight’s matchup with Milwaukee, thanks to the three-game injury absence of Tyrese Haliburton ($8,800), who has been dealing with a hip issue and hasn’t been able to suit up. Unsurprisingly, Indiana has lost all three games that it has played without its primary distributor, and it has dropped one game behind the Bucks for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Because the Pacers played last night, they haven’t yet released an injury report for tonight’s game, so Haliburton’s status is in question. If he plays, T.J. McConnell ($4,900) won’t see the court much, so instead, I’ll go with a man who has the potential to go off with or without Haliburton alongside him: Mathurin. The Canadian started yesterday and scored only five points (11.0 FPTS), but on Saturday, he came off the bench for a 30-point (52.0-FPT) explosion. The first time Mathurin played this season without Haliburton, he scored 19 points and added four rebounds (31.0 FPTS) in a 127-117 loss to Cleveland on January 14.
