Daily Fantasy NBA Picks -DraftKings All-Star Game  2/18/18

The NBA All-Star game goes down this Sunday with the over/ under set at a whopping 342. It figures to be much like previous iterations: a no-defense, up and down game.

The curse of Team Lebron is very real with Demarcus Cousins, Kevin Love, Kristaps Porzingis and John Wall all injured after James drafted them for his All-Star squad. Can they recover to beat Team Curry? We only care because DraftKings is hosting contests with six players and a $50,000 salary cap. Let's take a look back at some numbers from previous All-Star games and how we might construct lineups for Sunday's affair.

Top performers from previous games

Anthony Davis
West 2017
68 DraftKings Points

Davis took so many shots in last year's game it was easy for him to put up the highest fantasy scoring All-Star performance of the last three years. He put up 39 shots in 32 minutes and finished with 52 points and 10 rebounds. No other player in the game took more than 26 shots (Westbrook). The 32 minutes are well above the ASG average for starters and were eight more than anyone on the East squad.

Russell Westbrook
West - 2016
60.5 DraftKings Points
Westbrook went nuts as a starter in this game, going 12 for 23 from the field and jacked up 17 three pointers (not his game at all). He also chipped in five assists and eight rebounds. He actually played the fewest minutes of any of the West starters, but it didn't matter even in the slightest.

James Harden
West - 2015
56.5 DraftKings Points
Harden played the most minutes for the West squad and finished with 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Three pointers told the story where he shot 7-12 from downtown. Westbrook was right on his heels off the bench.

Other numbers from previous seasons:

• Of the top 20 overall fantasy performances over the last three seasons, 65% of them have been from point guards (Westbrook - 3, Harden - 2, Curry - 3, Paul - 2, Irving - 1, Lowry - 1, Wall - 1)
• Westbrook had the second-most points in 2017 (coming off the bench), most in 2016 and second most in 2015. He has three of the top five most fantasy points scored in the game over the last three seasons.
• In 2017, four of the five highest bench scorers were guards (Westbrook, Wall, Lowry, Thomas, with Marc Gasol being the lone big man)
• Lebron James has only one top 30 finish in the last three years.

Overview of Rosters

Team Lebron

Starters (Projected)

Lebron James
Anthony Davis
Kevin Durant
Kyrie Irving
TBD - Bet is Russell Westbrook

Bench (Projected)

LaMarcus Aldridge
Bradley Beal
Andre Drummond
Goran Dragic
Paul George
Victor Oladipo
Kemba Walker

Team Curry

Starters (Projected)

Stephen Curry
James Harden
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Demar Derozan
Joel Embiid

Bench (Projected)

Draymond Green
Al Horford
Kyle Lowry
Damian Lillard
Jimmy Butler
Klay Thompson
Karl-Anthony Towns

Best Potential Values

Russell Westbrook
Team James - DK $11,000
Projected DK Points - 48.96

It would help if he started, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. Westbrook’s game is perfectly tailored for the pace of the All-Star Game and that he piles on fantasy points in every conceivable fashion has him as the highest-floor player. I basically outlined the case for him a few paragraphs ago considering how the last few years have gone for the Thunder superstar. He’ll likely be the highest-owned cash game play on this one-game slate. And it’s correct.

James Harden
Team James - DK $10,800
Projected DK Points - 47.54

Like Team Lebron, Team Curry will start two point guards in Curry and Harden. Harden’s been a top finisher in these games before and has the ability to dagger from beyond the arc with the best of them. It’s not going out on a limb recommending the two most expensive DraftKings’ plays. But it's

Karl-Anthony Towns
Team Curry - DK $7,200
Projected DK Points - 27.66

Team Curry is dramatically undersized with Embiid likely on some kind of minutes’ limit after playing in the Rookie Challenge on Friday. After him, it's really only Towns, Horford and Green who profile as power forwards or bigger (depending on how you want to label Giannis). Towns off the bench could see something like 20+ minutes and in this game, at his price, that could prove a very solid bargain.

Kemba Walker
Team James - DK $6,300
Projected DK Points - 19.4
Kyle Lowry
Team Curry - DK $6,000
Projected DK Points - 19.8
Remember what I said about rostering as many point guards as possible? Here are two of the cheapest ones (I'm not including Dragic because I'm not projecting him to play a bunch). To fit those bigger ticket starters, you need to take some chances off the bench and I'm going with the ballhandlers. Of the two I prefer Walker only because Lowry will have to compete with Curry, Harden and Lillard who could stagger some minutes. Walker has Westbrook and Irving above him, but likely Dragic below.