NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Saturday 4/14/18

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, which starts at 3:00 PM EST and contains all four playoff games.

Best of the Best

Kevin Durant (FanDuel Price ($10,900) - With Stephen Curry out of action, likely for the entire first round of the playoffs, Durant will carry a heavy load for the Golden State Warriors in their first-round matchup with the San Antonio Spurs. With Curry missing more than 30 games this season, KD had plenty of run as the lead dog in the Dubs' offense, playing 1,099 minutes sans Curry this season. In that time, Durant posted a 33.9% usage rate, 3.5 percentage points more than his season-long average. As you would expect, he was more productive, too, averaging 1.46 FanDuel points per minute with Curry on the bench, compared to 1.29 with Curry on the court. The matchup with San Antonio is a lot less threatening since Kawhi Leonard won't be playing for at least Game 1. The last time Durant faced the Spurs (March 8th), he went off for 37 real-world points and 65.2 FanDuel points.