Late-season basketball can be strange. With teams who have clinched their playoff seeding resting veterans and tanking teams opting for young prospects, outcomes can be unpredictable, and unsung heroes can go off in any given game. For instance, just last night, John Poulakidas — an undrafted rookie with all of 11 career games under his belt — scored 23 points.
With so many teams sporting lengthy injury reports, there are plenty of value options for tonight’s $80,000 featured DFS contest at DraftKings, but picking the right ones can be difficult. If I were entering the contest, here’s what I’d go for:
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $80K Fadeaway [$20K to 1st].
C E.J. Liddell, Brooklyn Nets vs. Indiana Pacers, $4,500
The Nets’ injury report is incredibly long: Nic Claxton ($5,600), Nolan Traore ($5,300), Josh Minott ($5,200), Ziaire Williams ($5,000), Noah Clowney ($4,400), and Terance Mann ($3,600) are all out today in addition to Day’Ron Sharpe, Danny Wolf, Michael Porter Jr., and Egor Dëmin, who are done for the season. As a result, Liddell has been playing heavy minutes as of late, and he’s done well, posting 27.8 FPTS against the Washington Wizards on Sunday and 30.5 FPTS against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday. He’ll be Brooklyn’s only healthy center tonight, so playing at least 25 minutes should be the expectation.
He has an extremely easy matchup against an Indiana team that has clinched a bottom-three record in the league but is resting all of its regular starters anyway. For the season, the Pacers have allowed the ninth-most FPTS per game to opposing centers, and since the All-Star break — a span in which it is 3-21 — Indiana has conceded the third-most points, seventh-most rebounds, and 10th-most assists per game. The Pacers have also given up the second-highest percentage between 20 and 24 feet across the second half of the season, and Liddell is primarily a stretch big.
PF Collin Murray-Boyles, Toronto Raptors vs. Miami Heat, $4,500
There aren’t many deep bench players playing for the Raptors these days, since Darko Rajaković is fighting for the East’s final playoff spot and trying to set up his playoff rotation, but Murray-Boyles’ DFS salary is cheap enough given his role in a nine-man rotation. While his defense has been valuable all season, he’s only recently emerged as a core offensive option, besting his season average of 21.0 FPPG in each of his last five games. Murray-Boyles enjoyed his first career 20-point game on March 1 against the Sacramento Kings (28 FPTS).
Murray-Boyles has an excellent matchup tonight against a Miami team that has fallen apart on defense and doesn’t have much left to play for. Over their last 10 games, the Heat have conceded a ghastly 129.3 points per game, which is somehow only the fourth-worst mark in basketball. They haven’t done anything well in that span, posting bottom-10 marks in opponent points, rebounds, and assists, so Murray-Boyles’ well-rounded game should be a good fit. He’s one of just four rookies who’s played at least 50 games and averaged at. least five points, five rebounds, and 1.5 steals/blocks per game.
PG Mac McClung, Chicago Bulls at Washington Wizards, $3,500
The easiest way to target this game might just be to choose Rob Dillingham ($4,400), who had a career-high 26 points (42.2 FPTS) on Tuesday against Washington, but it’s more fun to go with a true big-name value option. McClung is a G-League and dunk contest legend who averaged 31.8 points and 7.9 assists per game this season for the Windy City Bulls, earning G-League MVP honors for the second time. There’s a big difference between the G-League and the NBA, but unlike Dillingham, McClung is comfortable in high-usage situations, and in the one game in which he’s played 30 minutes, he scored 20 points.
Neither of these teams has anything to play for, but Chicago might as well test out McClung’s game against the Wizards, who are basically a glorified G-League team themselves. Most of Washington’s projected rotation players tonight have bounced between the G-League and the NBA; Leaky Black ($5,400) has played 24 games in the developmental division and 12 in the NBA, and Julian Reese ($6,000) has played 27 games in the G-League and 10 in the NBA. The Wizards are just 3-23 since the All-Star break, giving up the most points, second-most rebounds, and second-most assists per game.
