FanDuel NBA Picks and DraftKings NBA Picks - Friday 8/13/20 Friday is the last day of the bubble regular season and what a run it's been. We've had a little of everything in these games with the Nets-Blazers going down to the wire on Thursday night. We now have a close-to-clear idea of the playoffs, though Friday won't bring the final piece of clarity. And this slate is kind of a mess with Head on over a for your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA FanDuel and DraftKings optimizer, our MLB Optimizer and NHL Projections as well. Plus our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA or NFL? Be sure to read our free NBA and NFL Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Denver Nuggets at Toronto Raptors Denver is walking into a first-round matchup against the Utah Jazz and have been very cautious with starter’s minutes in these final bubble games. They are still dealing with injuries to Gary Harris and Will Barton who haven’t played a single game in Orlando. With a little break before the playoffs, I think we see some moderate minutes out of the starters and they still work to fully gel. This is a team that didn’t play significant minutes together during the regular season with Michael Porter Jr. (FD $7000 DK $7900) really putting a stamp in the bubble as a dynamic offensive player. The Nuggets don’t have anyone on the injury report (who’s been playing) meaning we could be looking at a starters’ minutes maintenance game from them. That would make them awfully tough to project with the team basically all meeting in the middle. The Raptors will get the surprise Nets in the two-seven matchup and could be really gearing up for a repeat run to the Finals. O.G. Anunoby and Serge Ibaka both rested on Wednesday and should return on Friday. The rest of the starters are a bit of a mystery. With nothing to play for we could see them do something like the Lakers on Thursday and play the main guys the first half. That’s something of the theme for this slate in that teams might choose maintenance over full rest. That makes for even dicier fantasy prospects. No injury news is coming out of Toronto so this is a wait-and-see team. Miami Heat at Indiana Pacers The Heat played hilarious minutes in their last game with only three players cresting over 20 minutes of run and then the lone Tyler Herro inexplicably playing 35. The Heat have already...

FanDuel NBA Picks and DraftKings NBA Picks - Thursday 8/13/20 Head on over a for your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA FanDuel and DraftKings optimizer, our NFL Optimizer and NHL Projections as well. Plus our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA or NFL? Be sure to read our free NBA and NFL Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Instead of going position by position, I think it will be more useful to take things game by game to highlight where we might find a semblance of safety during one of the crazier stretches of NBA DFS I can imagine. Let's get to it. Milwaukee Bucks at the Memphis Grizzlies For starters, if you're playing any Bucks here you're doing so because you're trying to catch some random lightning in a bottle. Giannis started and played ten minutes last game, and he's suspended for this one for headbutting Moritz Wagner. Sterling Brown led the team with 29 minutes. Maybe you have a direct line to Coach Bud and you know who is playing in this one. If so, play those guys. I'll be avoiding the Bucks like the plague. The Grizzlies, however, are extremely interesting. With their whole season on the line, you can bet that Rookie of the Year favorite Ja Morant will be out there for 40 minutes again. Dillon Brooks has been the other Grizzly that has been indispensable to their plans, playing 33 and 35 minutes in the last two games. The rest of the Grizz? They seem to come and go. You could see Jonas Valanciunas topping 30 minutes, but it hasn't been a guarantee, and could largely depend on how the Bucks treat the match-up. Anthony Tolliver has been playing minutes, but does next to nothing out there, and doesn't look like a cash game option. The Dallas Mavericks at the Phoenix Suns Tread carefully with this one, at least on the Mavericks' side. The Mavs had a chance to fade the Clippers in round one, but after their loss to the Trail Blazers that's off the table now. That officially renders this game meaningless, and what Carlisle does with this game is anybody's guess. We should have news on this before lock since the Mavs/Suns game is the first on the slate, but I can't venture a guess as to who the good Mavs are until we see the starting lineup. The Suns, however, are looking juicy. We rode them to the top of the leaderboard on Tuesday, and I expect that we'll...

FanDuel NBA Picks and DraftKings NBA Picks - Wednesday 8/12/20 As the bubble and the regular season draw to a close, we’ve entered deep and dark DFS times with how these teams are playing out the final few games. At least on Tuesday, there were three teams with legitimate things to play for. That isn’t the case on Wednesday with none of the eight teams playing for anything but seeding at the most. Instead of going position-by-position, let’s just look at each game and what some of the injury news pieces and considerations are going in. Head on over a for your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA FanDuel and DraftKings optimizer, our MLB Optimizer and NHL Projections as well. Plus our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA or NFL? Be sure to read our free NBA and NFL Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Indiana Pacers at Houston Rockets With James Harden (FD $10800 DK $11100) out on Tuesday, it sure seemed like Russell Westbrook (FD $9400 DK $10400) was up for a monster game. But a blowout loss to the Spurs meant the Rockets took their foot off the gas by the fourth quarter. Harden should be back for this game, though I suppose Westbrook could sit on the second game of the back-to-back. If that were the case then Harden would probably be the cash play even at reduced minutes. The secondary pieces for the Rockets are somewhat interesting with Danuel House sitting. Jeff Green (FD $4000 DK $4400) got the start with Austin Rivers (FD $5500 DK $4800) continuing to come off the bench. Meanwhile, the Pacers are signaling that they are going to be in full punt mode for this game. TJ Warren has already been ruled out and Malcolm Brogdon and Victor Oladpio are listed questionable That strikes me as the team leaning toward just sitting everyone. If that were the case then Justin Holiday (FD $3500 DK $3600) and Aaron Holiday (FD $4000 DK $4600) would be interesting plays. If everyone sits then T.J. McConnell (FD $3600 DK $3500) might run all the guard minutes. Toronto Raptors at Philadelphia 76ers With Ben Simmons already on the shelf, and Joel Embiid dealing with an injury, the Sixers decided to punt Tuesday’s game against the Suns. They sat out Josh Richardson, Tobias Harris and Al Horford. If all three return in this game because Philly is trying to fight it out for the fifth seed, then I think all three are in play from a...

FanDuel NBA Picks and DraftKings NBA Picks - Tuesday 8/11/20 Well, we've finally hit late-season NBA and it only took about 1.5 weeks in the bubble. With so many teams now firmly entrenched in their spot (in the playoffs or not) it has become a very limited cash game player pool. Head on over a for your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA FanDuel and DraftKings optimizer, our MLB Optimizer and NHL Projections as well. Plus our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA or NFL? Be sure to read our free NBA and NFL Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Point Guard Russell Westbrook FD - $9400 DK - $9300Opponent - SAProj Pts FD - 53.63 DK - 54.98 Westbrook will return to the lineup on Tuesday after sitting the last two games with a bruised right quad. He’s coming back in time to take full control of the team with James Harden having already been ruled out for this game. Westbrook has a nuts-o 40.6 usage rate when Harden is off the court this season.The assist rate climbs about 13% as well. He should dominate on ball time in this game against a Spurs team that’s picked up the pace since entering the bubble and are effectively starting a four-guard lineup. On a day that should see plenty of savings with injury news and teams punting, Westbrook makes for a high-floor play even in the minutes don’t come all the way back because of the injury. Austin Rivers (FD $4400 DK $4100) went ballistic off the bench with Westbrook out last game, finishing with 20 shots on his way to 41 points, six rebounds and four assists against the Kings. He could be in for a similar minutes’ share again as the backup point guard. Damian Lillard FD - $9900 DK - $9800Opponent - DALProj Pts FD - 51.43 DK - 53.84 As the bubble gets more and more precarious with the numbers of teams with motivation to actually play through a whole game decreasing with each day. The is definitely not the case with Portland who sit one game back of the Grizzlies for the eight seed in the West and the latter has to play the Celtics on Tuesday. Lillard should be looking at max minutes once against a Dallas team that ranks in the bottom-third of defensive efficiency this season. After blowing two FTs late against the Clippers in a brutal loss, he came storming back against the Sixers on Sunday dropping 51 points on 28...

FanDuel NBA Picks and DraftKings NBA Picks - Monday 8/10/20 The NBA is definitely entering it's end of season mode with teams deciding to sit key pieces in crucial games. It's added another level of weirdness. But we've got you covered for FanDuel and DraftKings NBA plays. Head on over a for your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA FanDuel and DraftKings optimizer, our MLB Optimizer and NHL Projections as well. Plus our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! First time with NBA or NFL? Be sure to read our free NBA and NFL Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered. Point Guard Trey Burke FD - $3700 DK - $3700Opponent - UTAProj Pts FD - 24.76 DK - 25.48 Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and Dorian Finney-Smith have all been ruled out for Monday’s game against the Jazz. I’m a little surprised by this because it’s something of a leverage game (and I’d already written up Luka as a play) but alas we trudge forward with late-season basketball. I expect Burke to be the highest usage Maverick for this game having gotten up double-digit shot attempts already in three of the first five games of the bubble. And that was just in a support role. Burke is a great punt play on this tricky slate where we might be paying up for some raw points out of the superstars. Alex Caruso FD - $4000 DK - $3700Opponent - DENProj Pts FD - 20.95 DK - 20.45 Caruso got the start on Saturday for the Lakers in place of Danny Green. He was solid if unspectacular on 27 minutes, taking eight shots and finishing with five points, five assists and two steals. Green looks like he’ll be back, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has already been ruled out. That should keep Caruso running with the starters and he did have a little run bad on the shooting against the Pacers. For a punt-isa style play I think the floor is decent enough to run in cash games. Shooting Guard Devin Booker FD - $8200 DK - $8700Opponent - OKCProj Pts FD - 40.26 DK - 42.62 The Suns are firmly in the playoff hunt here thanks to a 5-0 start in the bubble on the back of Booker firmly placing himself in the superstar talent debate. After speculation about whether Booker was the kind of talent who could carry a team, some of that is being answered here averaging 30 points and six assists per game. And all of this scoring is even with him running bad from...