Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 4/19/17

It's been a damn interesting playoffs so far with just about every game staying competitive. This is another great night of games with more than a few subplots. Let's get into it.

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Atlanta Hawks at Washington Wizards

Atlanta put up fight in Game 1, but the Wizards were still able take the game 114-107. Predictably, Washington played their backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal big minutes. Those two, along with Markieff Morris led the way for the Wiz with Wall putting up a particularly impressive 32/14/4 line. Dennis Schroder is really no match for Wall defensively and considering the former’s on-ball time, he makes for another high floor play in Game 2. Only because the other big money point guards are in good spots makes Wall possibly under-owned on this slate.

Because of the minutes and production in the first game, I think you see Markieff as a popular play on this slate in the PF slot. If he’s going to see this much court time for the series (presumably to match up with Millsap) then I consider him a safer play in the middle price tier.

On the Atlanta side of the ball, I’m not seeing a ton to love from a DFS perspective. At a low $4K Taurean Prince is mildly interesting considering he’s still starting and playing low 30’s minutes. He actually outshot Millsap 11 to 6 and took the second most looks on the team. I’m not sure that usage is sustainable going forward, but the Hawks are a weird team and I’m fine mostly avoiding them on this slate.

Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets

Well the first game didn’t live up to the hype with the Rockets blowing the doors off of a Thunder team that looked completely overmatched. It was close at halftime, but Houston stepped on the gas starting in the second half with James Harden leading the way. He finished with a 37/9/7 line thanks in large part to the 28 shots he put up. For the most part, the rest of Houston was fantasy after thoughts thanks to Harden’s dominating usage. Expect more of the same from the Beard tonight and really the only question is if you can pay all the way up for him. Both he and Russell Westbrook are in the 12K range on both sites. I prefer the latter overall if the game can stay close, but that’s no sure thing.

The one other Rocket who paid his price was Patrick Beverley with a 21/10/3 line made even more impressive because he was fronting Russ on the defensive end. Bev only saw 28 minutes, but that’s because the game got out of hand late and he didn’t need to come back in the game. If the Thunder can keep it close expect a much higher minutes floor.

Westbrook struggled from the field in the first game and was clearly pressing. The nine turnovers sunk him and the Thunder and I think the Rockets will continue pressing him to make mistakes. Westbrook clearly has upside, but for cash games you are going to pay a big premium on him when there aren’t a lot of other punts on the slate. We could get some value out of Andre Roberson coming cheap at SF on both sites. He typically struggles to do much on the offensive end though he got hot from three in the first game. The Thunder want to play him major minutes to guard Harden and he should see mid-30’s run again. I don’t mind Victor Oladipo at his prices and others will be off of him because of the horrendous 1-12 shooting performance which was another reason OKC got boat-raced.

Portland Trailblazers at Golden State Warrios

You have to hand it to the Blazers for at least coming out feisty and keeping the game close until the fourth. That’s when the Warriors pulled away late, but this game was interesting for most of the affair. A big part of that was C.J. McCollum going HAM with a 41 point performance on 28 shots. He and Damian Lillard combined for 75 of Portland’s 109 points. I think those are likely outlier performances going forward, but these two guys will continue to jack up a ton of shots. The Blazers don’t really have much else in the way of scoring and there are a lot ways you can envision game two getting out of hand. Both guards make for solid plays though even at their prices and it’s hard to fade blowouts on small slates like this one. Both Evan Turner and Mo Harmless saw enough minutes to warrant consideration in cash games for Wednesday. Paying down at small forward could definitely be the way to go and both of these guys hit value in the first game.

Meanwhile the Warriors were the Warriors. The game stayed interesting with Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry pacing them on the offensive end. Durant led the team with 32 points thought Curry was right behind with 29. I do like Curry on this slate coming in cheaper than both Westbrook and Wall.

But the real value here is Draymond Green who finished with a 19/12/9 and chipped in 5 blocks. He was a beast and once again has huge minutes upside in this game. He’s the clear power forward play and has such a high floor because he contributes production across every category.

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