Daily Fantasy NBA Playoff Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - Round 2 5/3/18

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Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors

Cleveland leads the series 1-0
We got a doozy in game one, with the Cavs continuing to give their maximum effort to eke out narrow wins against their competition in the East. It took 53 minutes (and 47 from LeBron), but the Cavs walk into game two with a one game lead.

So how did things go from a DFS perspective?

LeBron James (FD $13000 DK $12100) ultimately got their in overtime, but his minutes and usage suggest that he should be a high floor option almost regardless of the price.

Tristan Thompson (FD $2000 DK $5200) is still absurdly cheap on FanDuel, who appears to have given up on trying to price players for DFS NBA. He's probably too expensive on DraftKings.

LeBron's sheer force of will created a ton of space for Kyle Korver (FD $4200 DK $4600) and J.R. Smith (FD $4000 DK $4500) - who put up a combined 18 threes and handily paid their value. Toronto just doesn't have the bodies to chase LeBron and pay attention to the Cleveland shooters, and credit where credit is due, Cleveland actually executed on a game plan to get their shooters involved.

I'm still worried about Kevin Love's shooting woes, and even though it's a short slate, I'd prefer not to play him.

On the Toronto side, almost all of what Doug predicted in his game one write-up came to fruition. DeRozan and Lowry looked like high floor options thanks to hogging the ball the whole damned game, and Jonas Valanciunas (FD $6500 DK $6900) has finally been unleashed just in time for the playoff NBA DFS. He went off for a crazy 21/21, and remarkably shot 19 shots - just one fewer shot than DeRozan. The Cavs had their gameplan, and the Raptors seem to have theirs - take advantage of Cleveland's weak interior defense until they answer with more of the offensively challenged Tristan Thompson. JV looks like a great play in all formats right now.

Philadelphia 76ers at the Boston Celtics/strong>

Celtics lead series 1-0
The Celtics got off the mat from their most recent injury and inexplicably managed to brain the Sixers by 16 points in game one. Well, maybe there is some explanation.

Redick, Belinelli, Covington, Saric, and Ilyasova shot a combined 3/20 from three, and given that all of these guys are plus shooters for their positions, I don't think you can count on that going forward. Blowout risk as absolutely not a concern for me here whatsoever, so where is the value?

Well, we saw huge minutes from Joel Embiid (FD $9200 DK $9300) and Ben Simmons (FD $9900 DK $9400) played huge minutes in spite of a negative game script, and Philly rightfully sees that their two young studs are the only way they are going to hang with the well-oiled C's. Both are excellent options in all formats going forward.

As for the rest of the Sixers, I'm particularly excited about J.J. Redick (FD $5600 DK $5400) and his opportunity going forward. The 76ers found him 13 shots in game one, and seem to think that he's a high EV option for them going forward. He's still very reasonably priced, and I think we could see an expanded role for him going forward.

On the Celtics' side, we saw Aron Baynes (FD $3700 DK $3600) play 29 minutes, and while he was no great shakes, these are absurdly cheap prices for that level of opportunity. Jayson Tatum (FD $6500 DK $6700) played almost 40 minutes, and the Celtics seem to favor his defense against a Philly team that can stretch the floor at every position.

Perhaps most encouraging was Terry Rozier (FD $7800 DK $7700) doing his best Kyrie impression, going 29/8/6/2/1 with just 2 turnovers on 7/9 shooting from deep. Can he really be this effective going forward? It's hard to imagine, but honestly, he doesn't even need to be to be an excellent option on these prices. You can expect huge cash game ownership on him here, and going forward until Philly finds a defensive answer for him.

So that's it! Looks like we are going to have two good series on our hands - let's hope they go the distance so we can keep milking more and more of that sweet NBA DFS action!

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