Sometimes a matchup is too good to only use one player.
We’re talking stacks in this article, ladies and gentlemen. To be specific, NBA stacks for tonight’s five-game slate on DraftKings.
Allow me to breakdown everything you’ll need to know to put a few lineups together this evening.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $333K Fadeaway [$100K to 1st]
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Washington Wizards
The Wizards love giving up points — whether that’s real-life points or points of the fantasy variety. To wit, Washington comes into Tuesday’s slate surrendering the most fantasy points per game to opposing point guards and opposing power forwards. It is also conceding the second-most fantasy points per contest to opposing centers. The reason for this is simple. Not only do the Wizards sport the league’s worst defensive rating (118.8) — they allow a full point more per 100 possessions than any other team — but they combine that claim to fame with the NBA’s fourth-fastest pace (103.0). It’s why the Lakers are implied to score over 120 points in tonight’s matchup.
Attacking with Los Angeles is pretty straightforward. Anthony Davis ($10,300; calf) and LeBron James ($9,800) are DFS studs averaging around 50 FPTS per contest, while Austin Reaves ($8,000) has exploded onto the scene since the trade of D’Angelo Russell. However, Reaves’ salary has also exploded.
The key news to watch with the Lakers will be Davis’ questionable tag. With Davis off the court in 2024-25, James sees his usage rate jump to 32.6%, while Reaves’ usage rate goes from 22.5% to 27.6%. Jaxson Hayes ($3,400) started in place of Davis on January 17, logging 33.1 minutes and grabbing nine rebounds. He’d be viable at his salary just over the minimum if Davis is once again sidelined. I’d keep an eye on Max Christie ($4,300), as well. Christie is averaging 32.2 minutes and 13.3 points per game so far in January.
New York Knicks at Brooklyn Nets
The nice thing about stacking a Tom Thibodeau team is that you already have a pretty good idea of what the rotation is going to look like — the starters logging about 40 minutes each. In fact, the Knicks enter action on Tuesday with three players ranking within the top six of minutes per game: Josh Hart ($7,900), OG Anunoby ($6,100) and Mikal Bridges ($6,200), with the latter leading the NBA at 38.7 minutes.
The bigger question is whether you’re starting your stack with Karl-Anthony Towns ($9,700) or Jalen Brunson ($9,000). To me, tonight feels like a Towns night. Not only has Towns been the more dominant DFS asset throughout the season — averaging 1.46 FPTS per minute to Brunson’s 1.21 — but this is a matchup we’ve seen the big man exploit before. Back in November, Towns registered a 26-point, 15-rebound double-double on Brooklyn in just 29.9 minutes of work. He led the Knicks with a 29.5% usage rate and posted 59.25 FPTS. Expect more of the same against a Nets squad that ranks 29th in defensive rating since the beginning of January (119.6).
Denver Nuggets vs. Philadelphia 76ers
The main storyline for tonight’s matchup between the Nuggets and the 76ers is that we are once again missing out on seeing Nikola Jokic ($12,000) clash with Joel Embiid (knee). It’s devastating from the perspective of fan experience, but it’s also important for the purposes of DFS. As has been the case for years, Embiid is the lynchpin of Philadelphia’s half-court defense. In the 383 minutes he’s logged in 2024-25, the 76ers’ are allowing 106.6 opponent points per 100 possessions. When he’s not been on the court, that figure jumps to 117.1. It’s why the team owns the league’s fifth-worst defensive rating in January (118.4).
Needless to say, Jokic is viable on tonight’s slate. He’s viable on every slate, but he’s averaging 72.8 FPTS in his last nine starts, so he feels particularly viable on Tuesday. Jamal Murray ($7,400) represents Denver’s other high-end DFS asset, as he’s produced at least 59 FPTS in two of his last four games. The other name to keep in mind is Christian Braun ($4,500), who is coming off a double-double performance versus the Magic. Braun is shooting 59.2% from the field in January and presents as a solid mid-tier option for a Nuggets squad that owns this slate’s highest implied team total.
