Daily Fantasy NBA News and Injury Updates - 1/20/18

Welcome to the news and update article for Saturday night's NBA slate. We've been following all the chatter and have the latest news on all of tonight's games, as well as the top plays appearing in our system's lineup optimizer. Let's get to it.

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What We Know

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Malcolm Brogdon are out for Milwaukee.
Giannis will miss the Bucks next two games beginning tonight in Philly as he deals with lingering knee pain. Brogdon meanwhile is dealing with a personal matter that will keep him out tonight. Tony Snell and Matthew Dellavedova could stand to benefit from the absence of Antetokounmpo and Brogdon while Khris Middleton, who sees a 10% bump in usage with no freak on the court becomes an incredible play tonight for Milwaukee.

DeAndre Jordan remains out for the Clippers, Austin Rivers is a game-time decision.
Jordan will miss his fourth straight contest while dealing with a sprained ankle. Montrezl Harrell has continued to benefit from Jordan's absence, and despite the inflated price he still has paid over 5X PPD in each of the last four games. Rivers meanwhile has missed ten games with a bruised heel and is on pace to return to the rotation, once he is cleared to rejoin the team Milos Teodosic, and Jawun Evans will see their run cut into.

Trevor Ariza and Gerald Green will serve their second game of suspension tonight.
Ariza and Green were the only two players suspended after several Rockets entered the Clippers locker room following Monday night's game. They sat out against Minnesota on Thursday, and will serve the second game of their suspension tonight while the Rockets face the Warriors. P.J. Tucker, Luc Mbah a Moute and Ryan Anderson will again benefit from their absence and all make for intriguing plays tonight in a fast paced, high scoring affair with Golden State.

J.J. Redick and Jerryd Bayless are out for Philadelphia.
Reddick will be out for at least two weeks with a leg injury, while it was announced earlier that Bayless is nursing a sore wrist. T.J. McConnell and Timothe Luwawu could see added time with the two Philly wings off the court.

J.J. Barea is available to play.
JJ was originally ruled out for tonight's game in Portland after sitting out Tuesday's game in Denver, but following Friday's practice he seems to be feeling good prompting an upgrade in his status to questionable, and ultimately Dallas announced his availability to play tonight. His return will cut into Yogi Ferrell and Devin Harris' minutes.

What We're Waiting to Know

Draymond Green is a game time decision for the Warriors.
Dray missed Wednesdays game against Chicago with shoulder soreness. While we await word on his status for tonight against Houston, we know Jordan Bell and Andre Iguodala are out for tonight's tilt. If Dray is forced to miss a second straight game this will leave a lot of minutes up for grabs in the Golden State front court, which could greatly benefit David West and Omri Casspi.

Goran Dragic's status for tonight is "up in the air".
Dragic is a late addition to the Heat's injury report, and will be a game-time decision with a bruised knee. With Tyler Johnson already ruled out for tonight Josh Richardson would likely pick up additional ball handling duties, along Wirth Derrick Walton and Wayne Ellington off the bench.

Every Lineup Guys

Damian Lillard FD - $9700 DK - $8500
Opponent - DAL
Proj Pts FD - 44.21 DK - 46.21
Our top plays vary from site to site tonight, so we kick things off with one of our top plays on DraftKings, Damian Lillard. Lillard has played five games now since a calf strain held him out earlier this month, and he has not missed a step. He's been scoring 21-31 points per game while averaging 8 assists and 5 boards per. Thursday night against the Pacers he ran the boards for 39 minutes paying 5.3X PPD. The FanDuel price is a little steep, but he's still coming well below where he should be on DraftKings where he has paid 5X PPD or better in each of the last five contests. This game has the slowest pace of the evening but for the cost, Lillard against a bottom five defense against point guards shouldn't suffer regardless of pace.

Joel Embiid FD - $10500 DK - $10400
Opponent - MIL
Proj Pts FD - 53.63 DK - 55.21
Joel Embiid is appearing in just over half of the top DraftKings lineups, but on FanDuel he shows up in each and every one, in a game featuring two of the eight fastest teams in the association. The Bucks are without Giannis so their offense will fall in the hands of Kris Middleton and Eric Bledsoe who will attempt to pick up the slack. Embiid is riding off a streak of three straight double doubles after matching a season high 16 rebounds up in Boston on Thursday. Embiid is the top play at the five tonight and is in play in all formats on both sites.

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