Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 4/22/17

A four game slate of NBA basketball is here! The last game each of the series on tap today brought some manner of surprise, but does it change our baseline expectation for what we're planning to see, or who the good plays are? Let's dig in.

Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA optimizer, our MLB Optimizer, and our new MLB player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below.

First time with NBA? Be sure to read our free NBA Ebook on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.

Toronto Raptors at the Milwaukee Bucks

Well, that happened. After Milwaukee's drubbing of Toronto in game 3, I'm not sure there's really a whole lot that we can really take away from this game. I don't see any of the future games as particular blowout risks, and this one looked a lot like a game where poor shooting on one side and good shooting on the other side let the game snowball out of control.

What are the major takeaways? Well, Middleton was excellent even in slightly reduced minutes, and he continued to affirm the notion that the Raptors really have no answer for him. Giannis would have handily paid his prices had he gotten his full set of minutes, Brogdon showed some promise, and Greg Monroe demonstrated his considerable points per minute upside. Which is to say, basically nothing changed here.

As for Toronto, oy. DeRozan got completely shut down, Lowry couldn't make up the difference, and Ibaka went back to being never seemed to have the ball in his hands. All in all, it was a complete disaster.

That said, I don't think we can really PLAN for disaster going into the next game. I think we need to continue to build on the assumptions from game two. I'll paste below my thoughts after that game, which I think still apply.

Milwaukee leaned very heavily on Giannis and Khris Middleton. Both of them appear to be solid, high floor cash game options going forward. Brogdon played a lot of minutes, but had the ball in his hands way less than he did when playing minutes like those during the rest of the season. It looks like he's out there to chase Lowry down primarily, and I'm sure if we can count on him for much offensive production. Greg Monroe was still excellent on a points per minute basis, but it was disheartening to see him lose so many minutes. He's looking more like a big tournament only play for game 3.

On the Toronto side of the ball, we saw the Raptors make some unsurprising choices in the back-court, shifting minutes away from the backups and into the capable hands of Lowry and DeRozan. Neither was particularly inspiring compared to what you have to pay for them, but should be reasonable high floor options.

Let's talk about the rest of the Raptors, though. A lot of people (myself included) thought the Raps might lean more heavily on Jonas Valanciunas given the Bucks' questionable front court situation, but they've actually gone in the other direction, playing him even less. If they feel JV's defense is so suspect that he can basically on share the court with Thon Maker, I think we can safely say his DFS hopes can rest in peace. The same can likely be said for Demarre Carroll. It just ain't happening. PJ Tucker played a lot of mintues but wasn't really part of the plan.

The only other bright spot here was Serge Ibaka. He had a line that is more well rounded than we're used to, but I actually think the assists are just a function of him having the ball in his hands more than we're used to. He looks like a terrific play in this series moving forward.

Washington Wizards at the Atlanta Hawks

Even the game with the seemingly normal final score provided us with lots of irritating variance, though it's probably worth acknowledging the reasons why some of the weirdness from this game took place.

The weirdness in question, of course, was the absurd amount of foul trouble. Markieff Morris, Otto Porter, and Dwight Howard all missed significant chunks of time in this one. With Morris and Howard this will always be concern, but with Porter it looks like more of an outlier.

Otherwise, the minutes were pretty much in line with what we expected. Beal and Wall were on their high end, further cementing the idea that they should be the who highest floor options on the Wiz, and Marcin Gortat was excellent once again, spurring debate as to who we can expect to be the highest raw fantasy point scorer on a night to night basis. Given their considerable price difference and Gortat's ability to get Dwight in foul trouble, I'm going to prioritize Gortat until his price climbs or something else changes dramatically.

On the Hawks side of the ball, we saw them finally key in on Millsap, who not only got Morris into foul trouble, but put up an excellent 27/10/4 line on the back of 14/15 free throwing shooting. Expecting more of that going forward, and suspect he'll be heavily owned in cash game play.

I don't think we can give much credence to how the Hawks doled out big man playing time thanks to Howard's foul trouble, but I am taking a harder look at their shooting guard and small forward minutes. Taurean Prince, Kent Bazemore, and Thabo Sefolosha cannibalized one another's production, but Prince at least showed some promise on the offensive end. All in all, it's looking like a stayaway.

Another interesting development in this game was Dennis Schroder's production. He put 21 shots in the air - a total he topped just 6 times during the regular season. It seems like Atlanta sees something they like there, and I wouldn't be at all shocked to see them continue to go back to the well.

San Antonio Spurs at the Memphis Grizzlies

And this happened as well! Memphis moved Z-Bo into the starting lineup and frankly just kicked the Spurs around. They slowed things down, guarded the ball (5 turnovers vs. the Spurs 12), and shot better than 50% from the field. Randolph was terrific, going off for 21 and 8 in 30 minutes on an excellent 9/16 shooting. They Grizzlies dared the Spurs to stop him, and they simply weren't up to the task. The Spurs were terrible from a fantasy perspective to a man, and anyone who had any piece of them (aside from Aldridge) left this one pretty disappointed.

So where does this leave us? Well, it leaves us at least expecting a relatively close game 4. If the Grizzlies have figured out that they can go big against the Spurs relatively aged roster, it's hard to believe them trying anything different in this game.

For game 4 we'll key in on the usual suspects - Conley, Gasol, and Randolph for the Grizzlies, and Leonard and Aldridge for the Spurs. Other than that there isn't too much I'm excited about here.

Golden State Warriors at the Portland Trailblazers

Another game, another sound beating. And Portland finally tipped their hand that there ARE game scripts where they will sit their starters. But that doesn't really teach us much.

As this game moves to Portland, I'm just going to set the Portland guys' minutes where they were based on the info we learned from the prior game, and hope for the best.

The big question mark in Golden State, of course, surrounds Kevin Durant's status. Patrick McCaw drew the start and didn't manage to do a whole lot, but Andre Iguodala was prominently featured off the bench. He was heavily owned in cash games, and didn't disappoint, putting up 29 fantasy points on the strength of across the board contributions (highlighted by 10 rebounds).

Durant's absence also frees up plenty of bandwidth for the other big 3 in Golden State. If he's ruled out, it's green lights all around for the Dubs.

GRAB A FREE TRIAL OF OUR PROJECTION SYSTEM, AND CHECK OUT DFSR PRO!

GET OUR FREE EBOOK ON DAILY FANTASY MLB and NBA!

And Daily Fantasy NBA Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings every day!