Daily Fantasy NBA News and Injury Updates - 2/24/18

Two big name players went down last night and will not be available for tonight's contests. Who benefits from the loss of Jimmy Butler, and Tyreke Evans? Who should we build our lineups around? DFSR has answers to these questions and more. It's Saturday night NBA News and Injury Updates.

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What We Know

Jimmy Butler left last night's game with a leg injury.
No surprise here. We covered this extensively in the picks article, under the assumption that this would be the case, and I'll touch on it more down below in the "Every Lineup Guys" section.

Tyreke Evans left last night's game with a rib injury.
Here's another one we saw coming, Evans left last night's game early as well, and will subsequently sit out tonight, along with Wayne Selden and Chandler Parsons. The last time Evans and Selden were both out, Dillon Brooks slid over to SG, while Jarell Martin and JaMychal Green were the starting forwards. Brooks, Andrew Harrison and Marc Gasol all see at least a 4.5% bump in usage with this group off the court this season and all are coming in high in our projection system.

Draymond Green is probable for tonight's game against the Thunder.
Dray saw 37 minutes and came out of Thursday night's game against the Clippers with shoulder soreness, but is fully expected to suit up and start for the Warriors tonight as they host OKC.

Justin Holiday and Robin Lopez will not dress tonight.
Holiday and RoLo didn't see the court in Thursday's loss to the Sixers, and the pair will once again remain inactive for tonight's game in Minnesota.

What We're Waiting to Know

Kelly Olynyk is questionable for Miami.
Olynyk missed his fifth straight game last night and has been upgraded to questionable for tonight's game against the Grizzlies. The designation is a step in the right direction, but even if cleared, he would likely be held to a minutes restriction, and would also steal time from Bam Adebayo, Hassan Whiteside, and James Johnson, making it a situation best avoided entirely.

Every Lineup Guys

Nemanja Bjelica FD - $3500 DK - $3400
Opponent - CHI
Proj Pts FD - 24.57 DK - 24.99
I'm not a psychic, but I could've told you this one was coming for sure. Both of these plays are so blatantly obvious, the second Jimmy Butler went down with a non-contact injury, I knew I would be writing up both of these guys as the every lineup plays for tonight. First up, Nemanja Bjelica, who will surely start in place of the injured Butler tonight and for the foreseeable future. X-Rays on Jimmy Buckets came back negative, but an MRI is still pending. In the meantime Bjelica will join the starting squad he ran with just a month ago when Butler missed several games with a knee injury. The whole Wolves team is in play tonight, in addition to Bjelica who will assuredly surpass 5X PPD, Karl-Anthony Towns,Jeff Teague, and Andrew Wiggins each see a 2.4, 3.9, and 4.3% bump in usage respectively when Butler is off the court according to NBAWowy.com. A Minnesota stack is a solid plan of attack tonight, but no matter what be sure to have some Bjelica.

Russell Westbrook FD - $11200 DK - $11600
Opponent - GS
Proj Pts FD - 56.21 DK - 59.16
This play is also a result of the Butler injury. We knew we liked Westbrook tonight, I wrote him up in the picks article, and noted he was the clear cut leader in raw points projected for the evening. Now that the system is locking Bjelica everywhere, that frees up a ton of salary which can be distributed to the point and utilize Westbrook everywhere as well. Westbrook takes the Thunder into Oracle Arena for a nationally televised battle with the Warriors. Vegas has this one sitting at a crazy 233 projected total, and though the Dubs may be 10 point favorites, don't let that scare you off, Westbrook has taken the Thunder back on his shoulders over the past few months and will carry them fighting until the final buzzer. With Kevin Durant as the only other play over $10K tonight, locking Westbrook in at point with Bjelica the three, and then building around them should be no trouble.

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