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NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 4/16/19

With some solid value and mid-range options available, it's easy to pay up for Russell Westbrook on Tuesday's three-game slate. Who can help you afford him?

If you're new to daily fantasy basketball -- maybe you started your DFS journey during the MLB or NFL seasons, or maybe basketball is your sport and this will be your first year giving it a shot -- you're in for a treat. The NBA scene changes hugely on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you out. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a ton of other great resources to help give you an edge.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each price point.

Let's take a look at who you should target on today's main slate.

Best of the Best

Russell Westbrook ($12,100): One of the fun things about the short playoff slates is how much strategy has to change on a night-by-night basis. After Monday promised (and almost delivered) two blowouts, limiting the appeal of paying up above even $10,000, paying way up north of $12,000 is a strong move on Tuesday. Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder are slight 2.0-point underdogs against the Portland Trail Blazers, meaning the starters should get plenty of run in this one, especially with OKC already down a game. Westbrook got 37.7 minutes of run in a five-point loss in Game 1, which is right in line with the 37.4 minutes per game he averaged over his final 11 regular season contests. Russ finished the regular season fifth in the NBA with an average of 1.53 FanDuel points per minute, so adding in top-end minutes makes Westbrook a tough fade as long as you can afford him. And with some decent value and lower-priced mid-range options available on today's slate, it's worth doing whatever it takes to be able to pay up for him.

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