Daily Fantasy Basketball Injury News and Updates for FanDuel and DraftKings - 3/31/16

Welcome to the daily updates and injury news article. We'll try and update it right up to line-up locks with as much information as comes across our desks. Let's get to it!

Last night's picks can be found here, so you can wrap your mind around what you need to be looking at before lineups lock tonight.

By the way - we keep our projection system updated with all of the changes as they occur throughout the day right up until lineup lock. Every day. If you want access to that system so you can cut out a lot of the research element, click the button below!

What We Know

Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and J.J. Redick will sit
This one will obviously have major ramifications on both the Clippers starting lineup as well as how OKC deploys its starters. It appears as if Austin Rivers, Cole Aldrich and Jamal Crawford will see big boosts in both minutes and usage without 3/5 of the starting lineup running in this game. In some ways I'm not worried about the blowout from the Clippers' perspective because they have so few players dressing that the minutes should be there no matter the game flow. For the Thunder it's a little different. The opening line on this game is only OKC -8.5 which seems low considering the LAC news was available. It's hard to imagine the Clippers keeping it close, but Westbrook and Durant could do their thing even in limited run.

The Pelicans are a mess
Last night they somehow hung with the Spurs until the end even though they were running with a makeshift D-League team. Some of their guys found ways to hit value simply because with enough minutes just about anyone in the NBA can pay off a minimum salary. I don't mind playing some of these guys again today with the assumption they run major-ish minutes against the Nuggets. Jordan Hamilton and Alexis Ajinca aren't looking too bad relative to price.

Brook Lopez will sit
He didn't start the second half of last game (much to my chagrin) and will sit out today as well. Henry Sims picked up extra minutes in the game against Orlando and was moderately productive relative to price. Thad Young sees a not-insignificant usage bump with Bro-Lo off the court and I think he's in play as well today too.

What We're Waiting to Know

Will Taj Gibson play?
He only played ten minutes last game, giving way to Mirotic who ran 37 and put up a 28/10/2 line. Of course I don't totally trust that and Mirotic has pulled his share of disappearing acts. But if he was drawing the start in place of Taj and you thought the former would run in the low 30's then he's a bargain against a weaker defensive team in the Rockets. UPDATE: Taj is out. Portis start and he's pretty much at a must play on this slate. 

Will Kyrie Irving and/or J.R. Smith play?
They both missed shootaround this morning with the sniffles or something like that. If neither were to play (or really just if Kyrie sat) then Lebron would get moved up to about must-play territory. The only reason he isn't there right now is because of some blowout concerns.

The "Every Lineup" Guys

James Harden - FD 10900 DK 10600
Opponent - CHI
FD Proj. Pts - 53.21 DK Proj. Pts - 55.97
Russell Westbrook - FD 10600 DK 10500
Opponent - LAC
FD Proj. Pts - 58.37 DK Proj. Pts - 60.22
With a ton of cheap value already established on this slate, I think we can safely run these two guys out there as high floor dudes and feel confident in them in cash games. There's some concern about getting burned off of minutes with Westbrook if you think the game gets completely out of hand. But he's been know to go nuts even in limited run.

Harden's been playing so many minutes of late with the Rockets fighting hard for the last playoff spot in the West. I think you'll see that continue as long as they are in the hunt which could go down to the last game of the season. Harden is a must play on this slate.

Update: I know some folks are concerned with the blowout in OKC. I understand. If you firmly believe Westbrook and Durant will get buzzed in minutes then I would suggest excluding them from lineups and running the optimal lineup generator that way. 

Cole Aldrich - FD 3500 DK 3000
Opponent - OKC
FD Proj. Pts - 29.24 DK Proj. Pts - 29.69
The last time DeAndre Jordan sat out, Cole stepped in and played 29 minutes with a 19/10/2 line that more than paid his salary. We can't pencil him in for that exact production again because in that game CP# played and the latter is sitting today. But Cole's a min guy staring down the barrel at major minutes regardless of how the game goes down.

Good luck out there today! If you want access to all of our numbers, get started with a free trial below of our daily fantasy basketball lineup optimizer, on us!