The NBA playoffs continue with a three-game slate on Thursday. Below, I dive into three of my favorite targets for this slate.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $300K Shootaround [$100K to 1st]
PF, Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics at Philadelphia 76ers, $9,500
It’s pretty crazy that Tatum continues to be priced under $10,000. The forward just put up 57.5 FPTS across 40 minutes in Game 5 on Tuesday and he has surpassed 50 FPTS in 11 of his past 13. This season, Tatum is leading the Celtics with 1.4 FPTS per minute while handling a 29.7% usage rate, a 26.3% assist rate and a 16.4% rebound rate.
The superstar has reached the double-double bonus in eight of his last 10 and he has reached the triple-double bonus once during this stretch. It’s safe to say Tatum is fully healthy again and he should deliver nothing less than 50 FPTS tonight as Boston looks to send the 76ers home.
C, Rudy Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets, $6,400
The Timberwolves are at home for tonight’s Game 6 vs. the Nuggets and Minnesota can advance with a win. Anthony Edwards (knee) and Donte DiVincenzo (Achilles) are both out, however. With these two starters missing, Gobert is a strong target.
Game 5 was the first time this season that both Edwards and DiVincenzo have been inactive and Gobert only finished with 18.25 FPTS. But, with Edwards and DiVincenzo out for the majority of Game 4, Gobert posted 32.75 FPTS and in the 19 starts he has made sans Edwards this season, Gobert is generating 35.7 FPTS in 31.2 minutes per game.
As the primary defender on Nikola Jokic, Gobert will continue to see big minutes tonight and the big man should exceed five times his value on his home floor. Gobert is scoring 2.0 more FPTS per game at home than on the road this season and he has recorded at least 37 FPTS in seven of his past 10 home starts.
PF/C, Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks at Atlanta Hawks, $8,700
Towns has been dominating the Hawks. The big man has scored over 50 FPTS in each of the last three games of this series, but he still only costs $8,700. Towns spent most of the season priced over $9,000 on DraftKings, so he is vastly underpriced tonight and is a stellar play, especially given the fact that the center can be rostered at power forward.
Towns is leading the Knicks with 1.4 FPTS per minute this season while handling a 26.2% usage rate. The big man has scored over 50 FPTS in five of his last seven matchups vs. the Hawks and he is shooting 57% from the field in this matchup.
