What a start this second round of the NBA playoffs has gotten off to. Each of the lower-seeded teams so far has won, with both the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks yesterday being nine-plus-point underdogs. The Golden State Warriors will look to make that four-for-four in Game 1’s with their 9:30 p.m. ET clash against the Minnesota Timberwolves, while the Cleveland Cavaliers will hope to bounce back in their battle against the Indiana Pacers two and a half hours prior.
As NBA playoffs action heats up, so do the DFS contests on DraftKings. Today’s prize pool is a huge $400,000, so finding value options in this slate is vital. Here are my three favorites.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $400K Shootaround [$100K to 1st].
C Naz Reid, Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Golden State Warriors, $4,600
Reid was a game-changer in Game 1 in the first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, draining six of his nine three-point attempts for 23 points and 39.25 FPTS. He wasn’t as impactful for the rest of the series, though, scoring double-digit points only twice more and taking a backseat to Rudy Gobert ($5,900) in the closeout game as the four-time Defensive Player of the Year put up a 27-point, 24-rebound (62.5-FPT) masterpiece to send Los Angeles home, and his salary has dropped precipitously, giving him excellent value if the Warriors can do a better job playing Gobert off the floor than the Lakers did.
Stephen Curry ($9,200) is exactly the player who can put Gobert in some uncomfortable situations, and, in fact, several of his most memorable career highlights have come against him. Plus, Jimmy Butler ($8,600) is cerebral and shifty, and Draymond Green ($5,800) and Gobert have fought before. Even if Gobert does manage to hold his own, it’s worth wondering if Chris Finch will roll out both of his bigs together to take advantage of Golden State’s lack of size, especially given Reid’s shooting. The Houston Rockets center duo of Steven Adams and Alperen Şengün was rather successful in the first round, outscoring the Warriors by 18.2 points per 100 possessions in 92 minutes of play, and Reid and Gobert outscored opponents by 12.4 points per 100 possessions during the regular season.
SG/SF Max Strus, Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers, $4,500
Game 1 wasn’t at all kind to the East’s top seed, as Evan Mobley ($8,000) and De’Andre Hunter ($4,400) both suffered injuries on back-to-back possessions in the fourth quarter. While they’re both officially questionable for the contest, newly minted Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson referred to both as doubtful, and it’s also unclear whether or not Darius Garland ($7,000) will play after missing each of the last three games with a toe sprain. There could be lots of budget options to be found on the Cavaliers’ roster if all three don’t suit up, but Strus is a more versatile player than Sam Merrill ($3,500) or Isaac Okoro ($3,100), the other realistic choices.
To be fair, Strus wasn’t great in Game 1, as he made just two of his eight three-point attempts, but nobody in the wine and gold was. He managed to make an impact regardless, finishing with seven points, seven rebounds, three assists, a block, and two steals (27.25 FPTS). If his defense is on the level that it was in Game 1, and he puts up close to an average shooting performance, he could be a steal. In the first round, Strus made 10 of his 21 (47.6%) open or wide-open three-pointers, and on Sunday, he was just one-for-five. It’s not like Indiana has been paying him too much attention, guarding him with Tyrese Haliburton ($9,000), one of the roster’s weakest defenders, so with some shooting normalization, he (and the team as a whole) should be fine.
PF/C Obi Toppin, Indiana Pacers at Cleveland Cavaliers, $3,200
Toppin didn’t see too many minutes in Game 1, but he was able to make a solid impact even in his 15 minutes of playing time, as he scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out two assists, and recorded two combined steals and blocks (19.75 FPTS). The 27-year-old should continue to make an all-around impact against a team that allowed the ninth-most points to opposing power forwards during the regular season, especially if Mobley, the Defensive Player of the Year, doesn’t play. Toppin shared his entire first-half stint with Mobley and was guarded by him more than by any other Cavaliers defender.
Though he was okay — scoring two points and making one of his two field goal attempts while turning it over once — he’d surely prefer to go against a Cleveland team missing its top two wings. None of Strus, Merrill, or Dean Wade ($3,200) are particularly good defenders in a way that Mobley, and theoretically Hunter, is. Toppin also had an extremely healthy shot diet in Game 1; four of his five field-goal attempts came at the rim and the other came in the right corner. During the regular season, he converted at a 78.4% clip at the rim and 45.0% from the corners, the best rim accuracy and fifth-best corner accuracy among the 40 players who attempted at least 100 field goals from each spot.
