Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/4/17

Two number one seeds seem to have found their stride, but what does that mean for DFS purposes? Can we concern ourselves with potential blowouts? What's going on with the minutes in the Golden State/Utah game given the game 1 weirdness? Let's dive in and have a look.

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Boston Celtics at the Washington Wizards

The Celtics took a 2-0 lead on the back of a back-breaking overtime win in game 2, and are heavy favorites to continue with the same plan for game 3. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and all.

The primary concern in Boston is of course Avery Bradley's healthy. He headed to the locker room for a few minutes in game 2, but ultimately returned and wound up clocking 35 minutes. Since that's just a hair under what we'd expect from him in a normal game, I don't think there's much to worry about for game 3. He's technically a game time decision, but said he was going to play on Wednesday, so he looks like a great value here.

The big story from game 2 was the point guard play, with Thomas and Wall going off for 140 fantasy points between the two of them. It's interesting, they've both put up nearly identical fantasy point lines in games 1 and 2, and both are looking pretty viable from a fantasy perspective. You get Thomas at a significant discount to Wall, so I'd probably grab him if I were forced to choose between the two, but I really wouldn't mind just playing both.

After those two, most of the starting line-ups should be in play here. Gortat and Porter were both solid for the Wiz last game, but Beal's no-show in 47 minutes was fairly concerning. He was decent in game 1, though, so I'm not too worried about playing him if his is the amount of salary you wind up having left over.

Boston's "flex spot" looks to be pretty volatile right now, with Amir Johnson and Gerald Green taking turns landing in the starting lineup and summarily playing no minutes and providing no production. Marcus Smart looks like a fairly unexciting high floor option, but keep in mind he likely played extra minutes in game 2 thanks to Bradley's brief absence.

The Wiz's volatile spot is power forward, where Markieff Morris has both done amazingly well and terribly in two games this series. What he goes in game 3 is anybody's guess, but he looks like an interesting upside play, particularly if the Wizards decide that they need to shake things up a bit.

Utah Jazz at the Golden State Warriors

We couldn't get our hands on a reasonable game 1 from a minutes perspective, so a lot of this series remains something of a mystery.

Utah didn't have a single guy show up and do anything, which is a real shame given the exceptional pace that Golden State likes to play. The problem of course is that Golden State plays both fast and well on defense, which allows for little wiggle room. I still believe in the Rudy Gobert/George Hill duo to some degree. Gobert proved (to me) that he could stay on the floor even if this series gets a little fast, and he provides the Jazz with the size needed to punish the Warriors on the offensive end. You probably have better center options from the BOS/WAS game for cash game purposes, but don't be surprised if he has one (or more) huge game in this series.

I am a little worried about Gordon Hayward, though. Both Durant and Draymond Green (when it comes to that) cause him a lot of problems, and the Jazz's lack of a true PF at the moment don't help matters. It might be really hard for him to get going in this series, and it's understandable if anyone is concerned about running him.

Speaking of the Jazz's power forward situation, I'm not convinced Johnson can repeat the flashes of greatness he showed against the Clippers. LA was already weak against the 3 and 4 before Griffin's injury, and as you can imagine, his disappearance didn't help them much. This ain't the same situation, and I think he goes back into more of a support role.

On the Warriors' side of the ball, they clearly keyed in on Draymond Green as a primary facilitator for this game. He's playing at absolute max energy right now, crashing the boards, dishing assists, and getting buckets. More importantly, it's working. If the Jazz can manage to stay in one, he could be poised for a huge breakout, and he's still very affordable for what he's up to right now.

As for the rest of the Dubs, the combination of too many cooks in the kitchen and a slow match-up with the Jazz might be a little debilitating there. Still, any of their starters are reasonable filler if you believe the Warriors will go back to the plan where the big names play high 30s minutes if the game manages to stay close.

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