Daily Fantasy NBA Basketball Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - 5/7/17

3 more games of NBA playoff basketball! Let's enjoy this while it lasts, boys and girls. Let's jump right in.

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Cleveland Cavaliers at the Toronto Raptors

Is it all over but the shouting? With Lowry "probably doubtful" (his words), it's looking like that's the case. The nice thing about elimination games is that it often at least gives us sanity on the losing side of the equation - you can bet that Toronto will leave their starters out there as long as things are remotely plausible. The Cavs also don't tend to rest guys unless things are absolutely out of hand, but this one might just get so out of wack that it's tough to say.

Game 3 is our only reasonable proxy for what to expect here, so let's take a look at how that one shook out.

With Lowry absent, Cory Joseph and DeMar DeRozan paid off their value going away while the rest of the team struggled. Norman Powell still looks like a reasonable value, even if his overall lack of impact per minute is a little uninspiring.

I'm particularly perplexed by the play of Serge Ibaka. He went from being super-active and involved to doing his best Kyle Korver impersonation, netting just 2 boards and 0 assists in 35 minutes of play. It's hard to believe he'll duplicate such a sorry performance here, but he's always been a very swingy player on account of his temperament.

And then there's Valanciunas. He drew the start and put up a 19 and 8, and is definitely in play at a fairly shallow position today.

On the Cavs' side of the ball, LeBron remained god-tier in spite of the blowout, while the rest of the squad's performance suffered on account of reduced minutes. It's not hard to imagine this one getting out of hand as well, but on a short slate that features at least one other possible blowout game, I don't think you can ignore them altogether. Kyrie should still have an amazing match-up, for instance, and I wouldn't mind jamming him in there in any format.

San Antonio Spurs at Houston Rockets

Well we needed to wait until game 3, but we finally got a close game in the Spurs/Rockets series you guys! This should serve as an excellent barometer for what to expect from these teams going forward, so let's just get to it.

We'll start with the Spurs, simply because I think they did exactly what they'll do in close games going forward. Mills wound up being a chalk play with Tony Parker sidelined, and didn't disappoint, playing 30 minutes off the bench and handily paying off his value. His price has risen, but he's definitely still in play.

Kawhi stayed in beast-mode, but the price is high enough there that I'm at least batting an eye. I'd prefer LeBron or Harden if I'm going to pay that much, thank you very much.

The big take-away I'm leaving on the Spurs' side is actually the play of LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol. Aldridge went full HAM, gutting the rockets for 26/7/2 and 4 blocks. While the blocks aren't legit, the rest of the stat line would have easily paid value by itself. In the dreary PF landscape that is the 2017 playoffs, he's looking like a great option. Gasol had his 2nd great game in a row as well, and looks severely underpriced at $5,000. I'm also at least a little interesting in Danny Green, who provides a lot of floor and value for a $3,800 player. He's not very involved out there, but at 35 minutes it's just tough for him not to get you something.

The Rockets are a bigger question mark for me. It was nice to see Harden play well again, and he's a great big $ option in what must feel like a must-win. Trevor Ariza continues his career-long Jekyll/Hyde impersonation, with 2 great games and 1 stinker on his series resume now. I tend to trust the better games, though. It's clear that the Rockets feel he's their only answer to Kawhi, and the 45 minutes on the floor in a double digit loss tells you all you need to know about their concerns about his durability. Likewise with Clint Capela - he's looked incredible in 2/3 of this series, and I'd happily hitch my horse to that wagon if the prices worked out.

But what about the other slots? Ryan Anderson might as well have been on a milk carton last game - he was greater than 50% owned on FanDuel and managed just 4.2 fantasy points. With two great games in this series on these prices he's tough to ignore for big tournaments, but it'll make your stomach turn to see him in cash game lineups I'd imagine. Beverley and Gordon look like they've landed in the solid/unspectacular category, and Lou Williams is long forgotten.

The Boston Celtics at the Washington Wizards
Good lord, I have no idea what to make of this series right now. The Wiz came storming back with a vengeance on their home court, destroying both the Celtics and Isaiah Thomas' jaw in one fell swoop. The momentum is certainly on their side, but what can we take away from this game to project the rest of the series?

The obvious spotlight has to fall on Thomas. After a transcendent game 2, Thomas fractured his jaw in game 3 and couldn't stay on the court for more than 30 minutes. He's since had surgery, and while it looks like he'll play in game 4, it's hard to imagine that he'll be operating at maximum efficiency. But then, what other choice do the Celtics really have? While the rest of their core are good players, they really aren't offensive creators (with the possible exception of Horford), and I think the captain will go down with the ship here if that's how it plays out.

I'm tempted to just take a wait and see approach with Boston, frankly, as I don't think we really learned anything about what their baseline plan is in such an off-script game. I'm rolling with my post game 2 assumptions here while accounting for Thomas' injury, and staying away from it if possible.

On the Washington side, we have at least one major take-away, and that's regarding Markieff Morris. The 18 minutes (thanks to the lingering ankle injury, I assume) are very worrisome at this point, and none of his backups look promising enough to consider. Just a situation we need to avoid until things stabilize. Bojan at least looks like a nice big tournament option while we wait, but I'm concerned that some of that production was thanks to the blowout.

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