Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings 5/24/15

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Cleveland Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks

Analysis
Note: Because of the short, two-day slates, there is a lot of overlapping analysis here.
Ugh, it's just so damned sad how injuries have impacted this season's playoffs - and this is a prime example. At least 3 all-star level players will miss this game because of injury, and 2 more (Horford and Carroll) are hobbled. Just sick, and sad, and stupid. And any other negative word that starts with S.

But! It has been pretty fun to watch LeBron. So there's that.
 

Elite Plays
LeBron James - FD 11700 DK 11400
Watching LeBron in God Mode is really something. Doug and I were talking on the phone about this during the last game, in utter disbelief that the Cavs were blowing out a 60 win team without two top 20 players in the league. It was reminding me of playing basketball with the kids when I was a summer camp counselor. It didn't matter which of the kids shuffled in or out of my team, when I wanted buckets or boards, I got them. To be fair, I was 20 and they were 11. But that's what LeBron is up to right now. Back to back games with near triple doubles, and just soul-crushing the whole city of Atlanta. With Carroll hobbled, the Hawks are totally lost when it comes to handling him, and he's going to just keep killing it.

Jeff Teague - FD 7300 DK 7500
His minutes were down in game 2 only because of the blow-out, and with Korver out, it stands to reason that Teague will get even more looks and run than usual. Even with only 31 minutes, Teague managed almost 30 FanDuel fantasy points. I don't see any reason why he won't build on that performance against the defensively challenged Matthew Delladova in game 3.

Tristan Thompson - FD 5600 DK 6300
Doug wrote this before the last game:
Like I said yesterday, minutes, minutes, minutes. Rebounds, rebounds, rebounds. Got it done in game one with a 14/10 line that enough to pay for his prices. He is going to play basically the whole game because part of their big and small lineups. The Cavs need him out there in totality now.

And then Thompson went out and pulled down sixteen rebounds in game 2. He's the man down low for Cleveland right now. Keep riding him.

Kent Bazemore - FD 2400 DK 2500
Shelvin Mack - FD 2000 DK 2000
Whichever of these guys gets the start for Korver will be a literal must play on these salaries, and the other guy is likely playable as well. It's really tough to say exactly how the Hawks are going to deploy them as of this writing - but keep an eye on things, and my guess is we'll get a little news before game time. Still, though, you need to be considering them.
 

Value Plays
Matthew Dellavedova - FD 3400 DK 3500
Wrote this before game 2:
A rare chance to get a total price error during the playoffs. Delladova is no great shakes or anything, but chances are good he'll get 30 minutes in Kyrie's absence. If he does, it will just be plain hard NOT to score the points necessary to justify this value. It's semi-risky playing him because I suppose there's a chance Kyrie comes back on Sunday, but at this point I'd venture to say that it's a risky worth taking since it will mean you can spend up elsewhere.

Welp, Delladova put up 23+ fantasy points - paying his way and then some. Another fantastic and easy play.

J.R. Smith - FD 5400 DK 5200
From Doug:
Understand that this pick has very little do with his other-worldly shooting performance in game two. Rather, it is more made from the minutes he played. Smith, if he's getting run in the mid 30's, is a solid play at these prices. Don't expect him to shoot 8/12 from three ever again in his life. That won't happen. But he's productive even without the epic scoring run. Stands to reason he sees similar minutes in game two because of the matchups.

Well, Smith didn't exactly light the world on fire in game 2 - but they simply never needed his long-range shooting and his minutes got cut short by the hectic nature of the game. I'll go back to him in this game without hesitation if the salaries break that way.

Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors

Analysis
Note: Most of this is from Doug's previous write-up, and we didn't really learn a lot from game 3 that we didn't know already.
I'm not even sure what we're witnessing here. The Clippers grind to 7 games against the Spurs and win, then grind to 7 against the Rockets, and lose. The Rockets walk into Golden State after playing some good teams and proceed to get embarrassed. It's clear that they are really missing Patrick Beverley's defense in particular, as Curry simply eviscerated them in game 3. The series is over - I suppose the only question is whether the Warriors will keep their foot on the gas in the next game or not.
 

Elite Plays
James Harden - FD 10600 DK 9800
Harden came crashing unceremoniously down to Earth in game 3, but I just can't look at this without thinking that if Houston is going to go down, they'll go down in the hands of their best player. Harden's usage returns to the previous levels in this game, and I think he'll take an insane amount of shots en route to potentially getting swept.

Stephen Curry - FD 10300 DK 10500
Curry went to another level on Saturday night, going off for 40 points while providing nice ancillary stats as well. But it's not like it was totally out of left field - it was his 4th 50 fantasy point game out of his last 6 in the playoffs. The MVP is on fire right now, and you're only fading him at your own risk. The only risk I see here is that if the Warriors blow the Rockets out again, Curry might not see his full run. But that's a very minimal risk in my mind.

Andrew Bogut - FD 5300 DK 4600
We've given you Bogut all along the way, and he's been amazing in each of his last two games, posting nearly 6x points per dollar on his FanDuel price. His per minute rebounding stats are just out of sight (12 boards in 20 minutes last game, lol!), and that gives him both a high floor and a high ceiling going into game 4.

Value Plays
Josh Smith - FD 5800 DK 5700
He's taken 31 shots in the last two games, and for whatever reason, it seems like he's a part of the Rockets' plan. It's not that I particularly love him here, but he's still very affordable for that kind of usage, and if his shot starts falling a bit more, there's huge points per dollar upside here - especially if you think that GS might not go for the jugular here.

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