It’s a big night in the NBA, as we’ve got two second-round series kicking off in Boston and Oklahoma City.
At this point in the playoffs, value is hard to come by in DFS, as the remaining teams tend to be pretty star-studded and utilizing very tight rotations. No matter. Let’s dig in and find a couple bargain plays for this evening’s action on the hardcourt.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $400K Shootaround [$100K to 1st]
PG Russell Westbrook, Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder, $4,800
Let’s keep the Russell Westbrook revenge tour going. After some huge performances to help knock off the Clippers in the first-round, Westbrook will now get to go back to where it all started in Oklahoma City, as the No. 1 seed are looking for the title that had eluded those amazing Thunder teams of a decade ago. It can not be overstated how large a role Westbrook played in getting the Nuggets to this point. The 36-year-old missed Game 4 due to foot issue, yet Westbrook returned with a vengeance, averaging 17.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 33.3 FPTS across the final three contests of the series. Denver really only used a seven-man rotation against Los Angeles and I’d expect that trend to continue in Oklahoma City. That means Westbrook and Peyton Watson ($3,100) are really the only “value” assets on the Nuggets for this slate and the former undoubtedly has more upside than the latter.
PG/SG Payton Pritchard, Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks, $4,500
It’s going to be difficult to find too much value in this series, unless the Celtics are bombarded by injuries like they were against the Magic in the first-round. That’s just how it goes when you have the stacked roster of the reigning NBA Champions squaring-off with a Tom Thibodeau Knicks team that doesn’t like to use it’s bench. As such, we’ll lean on Pritchard this evening, despite the fact he was terrible versus Orlando. Alright. “Terrible” might be a bit of an overstatement about someone who shot 50.0% from three-point range, yet the fact of the matter is Pritchard was virtually invisible for Boston following Game 2. After averaging 14.3 points per game during the regular season and taking home Sixth Man of the Year honors, Pritchard scored 13 points total across Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5. Still, Prichard’s price tag is now below $5,000 for the first time since early February. He clearly possesses a nice ceiling in DFS and this is a classic buying window.
