One of the league’s best teams will fight for its playoff survival today, as the Cleveland Cavaliers, trailing 3-1 in the second round to the Indiana Pacers, will face the specter of an embarrassing early elimination at 7 p.m. ET. A few hours later, the Oklahoma City Thunder — who nearly fell behind 3-1 themselves — will take on the Denver Nuggets in a critical Game 5.
With the league’s two-best regular-season teams in action, you’ll want to build your lineup around stars, which means finding good value options to pair them with. Here are my three favorites from tonight’s slate:
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $350K Shootaround [$100K to 1st].
SG/SF Bennedict Mathurin, Indiana Pacers at Cleveland Cavaliers, $4,400
So far this series, the Cavaliers have had no answer for Mathurin, whose production has improved game after game. All of his 19 points (23.5 FPTS) off the bench in Game 2 were needed as the Pacers triumphed by one, and though Indiana ended up losing Game 3 in blowout fashion, his 23 points (26.75 FPTS) were a nice consolation. He didn’t get the chance to make an impact in Game 4, being ejected after just one minute because of a Flagrant 2 foul, but he should have an opportunity to bounce back tonight, and he’ll continue to be entrusted with a big role as long as he plays solid defense on Max Strus ($5,400) and De’Andre Hunter ($4,200).
Kenny Atkinson hasn’t quite figured out the best way to guard Mathurin, throwing seven different defenders on him for at least 10 partial possessions so far this series. Combined, those defenders have allowed Mathurin to get at least four feet of separation on 58.1% of his shot attempts, so they’ll need to close out on him better than they did in the first three games of the series. His versatility is also an asset; he’s scored at least one point per game on drives, catch-and-shoot looks, pull-ups, and paint touches so far this series, so even if Cleveland is able to take away one aspect of his game, he has a deep toolkit to pull from.
PG Russell Westbrook, Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder, $4,900
Westbrook had a rough go of it in Game 4, shooting just two-for-12 from the field and fouling out in 27 minutes (13.75 FPTS), and his team-worst -20 plus-minus was a major reason why the Nuggets ended up losing an eminently winnable game by five. But that shouldn’t overshadow what has been an incredibly successful postseason so far by the 2016-17 MVP, who was one of Denver’s best players in the first two games, scoring 18 and 19 points (22.5 and 26.25 FPTS), respectively. He should receive a steady dose of minutes, keeping him fantasy-viable.
The Nuggets just have too many other potent threats for Oklahoma City to worry about. Nikola Jokić ($11,400) hasn’t even played a great series by his standards, but the threat of his unstoppable play forces defensive attention regardless. Aaron Gordon ($6,200) has been fantastic, especially in crunch time, and Jamal Murray ($7,400) was instrumental in Denver’s Game 4 win, when he dropped 27 points, four rebounds, eight assists, and four steals (54.0 FPTS). The Thunder mostly ignore Westbrook; 45.5% of his field-goal attempts have been wide-open threes, and though he’s only made 25% of them, that’s bound to normalize towards his 34.2% mark in the regular season.
PG/SG Cason Wallace, Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Denver Nuggets, $3,200
Of all of the Thunder’s rangy three-and-D wings — Alex Caruso ($4,300), Luguentz Dort ($4,000), Wallace, and Aaron Wiggins ($3,100) — Wallace has produced the most value so far this series. Caruso was a catalyst in Oklahoma City nearly winning Game 1, when he recorded 20 points, six assists, and five steals (45.75 FPTS), but he’s been relatively quiet since then, shooting just three-for-12 combined between Games 2 and 3 (9.75 FPTS per game). Dort, meanwhile, has shot just 28.9% from the field this series and is only averaging 1.3 combined steals/blocks so far (16.2 FPTS per game), having been largely clamped by Murray.
Wallace has had two good games out of his last three, recording eight points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals (18.5 FPTS) in Game 2 before scoring 11 points and nabbing two steals (24.25 FPTS) in Game 4, which is pretty solid return for his minuscule salary. Plus, he’s been largely ignored on offense; five of his nine three-point attempts have come with the nearest defender more than six feet away, and he’s made four of those tries. A pair of Wallace threes were pivotal in sparking the Thunder’s fourth-quarter comeback on Sunday, and he should continue to get 20 minutes per game as long as he knocks down his shots.
