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NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 5/17/19

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 one-game slate, which follows a different format than typical NBA contests on FanDuel. Your lineup consists of five position-less slots, with one designated "MVP" having their fantasy score multiplied by 2.0, a "STAR" multiplied by 1.5 and a "PRO" multiplied by 1.2, as well as two utility slots receiving their usual points.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks ($18,000)

Giannis' performance may not have been the same big story that Kyle Lowry's or Brook Lopez's was in Game 1, but that's because of how high our baseline expectations are for him. He still notched a slate-high 59.8 FanDuel points, proving a strong MVP play.

He played 37.3 minutes in that game, which gives him 39.1 and 37.3 in his only two games that have finished with single-digit margins of victory in this postseason. We should get another reasonably close game tonight, with the Milwaukee Bucks favored by moderate 6.5 points for Game 2 against the Toronto Raptors.

Giannis led all players (minimum 250 minutes played) with 1.70 FanDuel points per minute in the regular season, and combining his league-best efficiency with a huge workload makes him a comfortable play in your MVP spot again tonight -- even with a $2,000 difference between Antetokounmpo's salary and anyone else's tonight.

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