FanDuel NBA Picks and DraftKings NBA Picks - Wednesday 8/19/20

The second game of a playoff series gives us a little more clarity around minutes, rotations and what teams' strategies will be. That's a good thing from a projection perspective. Let's take a look at DraftKings and FanDuel picks for this NBA slate.



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Point Guard

Kemba Walker FD - $6900 DK - $6800
Opponent - PHI
Proj Pts FD - 38.08 DK - 39.73
Boston was dealt a brutal blow on Monday when Gordon Hayward sprained his ankle and is now out for at least the next month. This was a team that already lacked much in the way of depth after their core six guys. The whole team gets a minutes and usage bump with Gordon off the court. Kemba had a quieter game one with 19 points and five assists. He did get up 16 shots, though went 0-4 from three. Expect a tick up in the attempts on Wednesday and the minutes should be there as well. His price did come up some, but he’s still a value on both sites.

After Kemba, point guard is a problematic position on this slate. There aren’t any clear plays on either site. Kyle Lowry (FD $8000 DK $8000) has a good matchup but there’s once again big-time blowout risk against the Nets. He and Fred VanVleet both played a ton in game one even though that one got out of hand. In that way, he is probably fairly safe, but this one has a big spread as well.

If you want to go super cheap, Monte Morris (FD $3900 DK $3700) and Seth Curry (FD $4400 DK $3600) both are near the minimums and played a lot off the bench in their respective games on Monday.

Shooting Guard

Jordan Clarkson FD - $5100 DK - $4700
Opponent - DEN
Proj Pts FD - 30.61 DK - 31.9
Clarkson didn’t get the start for Mike Conley on Monday (those honors went to Juwan Morgan) but the former did come off the bench and play 34 minutes in regulation. He ceded a lot of usage to Donovan Mitchell, but still finished with 18 points on 17 shots, the second-most on the team. Clarkson ran bad from three, going only 2-9 but did chip in four rebounds and three assists. With Conley sitting out this game two, expect a bunch of minutes again for Clarkson and he makes for a cheaper option on DraftKings especially. And I’m sure folks are going to run to play Donovan Mitchell (FD $8200 DK $9200) again, and why not? Dude was a human highlight reel in game one, dropping 57 points. I think he’s a much better FanDuel play than DraftKings.

Alec Burks FD - $4100 DK - $4600
Opponent - BOS
Proj Pts FD - 28.91 DK - 29.49
The Sixers are desperate for any kind of off-the-dribble scoring they can get even off their bench. Burks played 28 minutes in the sixth man role on Monday and actually tied for the second-most shots on the team with 15. He finished with 18 points and six rebounds. On these slates, where cheaper plays are tough to come by because of the concentration of minutes around established starters and closing units, getting a $4100 player on FanDuel who can get buckets really helps with salary relief.

Small Forward

Jaylen Brown FD - $7000 DK - $7500
Opponent - PHI
Proj Pts FD - 37.93 DK - 39.04
Brown was second on the team in minutes, shots, points, rebounds, assists and steals for the Celtics on Monday. Expect similar minutes and production from the guy on Wednesday with Gordon Hayward out of the picture. Brown matches up well defensively against the Sixers length and it’s clear Boston has no problem giving him major run to get out of this first round. He should be a popular play on FanDuel especially where the price is completely reasonable. We could be looking at least a three-player Boston stack over there.

Tobias Harris FD - $7200 DK - $7700
Opponent - BOS
Proj Pts FD - 40.59 DK - 41.56
Harris lead the Sixers in minutes on Monday with 39 and tied for second in shots with 15. He missed all three of his three-point looks and really didn’t get to the line which left him finishing with only 15 points. The eight rebounds helped, but the Sixers will need more from their second-best player now if they want to make it out of the first round. Expect the minutes to stick near 40 in this game with Philly having very little wiggle room around their rotations and where they’ll get scoring.

OG Anunoby (FD $4700 DK $4400), Joe Harris (FD $5400 DK $5000) and Matisse Thybulle (FD $3900 DK $3400) all make for decent DraftKings’ plays on the cheaper side of things.

Power Forward

Jayson Tatum FD - $8700 DK - $9000
Opponent - PHI
Proj Pts FD - 47.33 DK - 48.1
Tatum was awesome in game one against the Sixers, putting up a team-high 21 shots and also getting to the line 11 times. He finished with 32 points and 13 rebounds while also chipping in three blocks. With Hayward on the shelf, they’ll need even more from the third-year rising star. It was also encouraging to have Brad Stevens and the Celtics run Tatum 41 minutes in regulation. Those kind of minutes make him ultra-safe at these price points. Tatum will likely be a chalkier play on this slate.

Marcus Morris FD - $4700 DK - $4800
Opponent - DAL
Proj Pts FD - 28.87 DK - 29.86
Morris played the third-most minutes for the Clippers against the Mavericks in game one behind only Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Morris was excellent, tallying the third-most shots as well (13) and finishing with 19 points, six rebounds and four steals. He was a bulldog on defense but was helped out by having Kristaps Porzingis ejected in the first half. That being said, Morris was a good cheap play on Monday and is again on Wednesday at a tough position.

Center

Joel Embiid FD - $9300 DK - $9900
Opponent - BOS
Proj Pts FD - 59.91 DK - 62.08
The Celtics knew that the matchup with Embiid would be a tough one for them in round one and that was very much the case on Monday. The Sixers had no problem running Joel 37 minutes and he finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds plus two steals. He got into some foul trouble and also turned the ball over five times in the loss so it wasn’t all great. But you know that Philly is going to continue leaning on their superstar in the only true mismatch they have against Boston. He’s completely reasonably priced on FanDuel and could be the chalk over there. DraftKings is a little closer, but the floor is just so high for Embiid that I think he has a lot of ownership there as well.

Marc Gasol FD - $4500 DK - $4000
Opponent - BKN
Proj Pts FD - 24.79 DK - 24.76
Raptors didn’t need much from Gasol on Monday, opting to run him only 21 minutes against the Nets. But he still got up 13 points and five rebounds which speaks to the points-per-minute upside the Raptors are going to have against this depleted Nets squad. The latter have allowed outsized points to centers for what seems like forever and that could make Gasol a safer and cheap play on DraftKings especially.

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