3 NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on 9/3/20
Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.
A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense as a whole is shut down. A high-priced NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will be posting high scores just about every night.
While this consistency puts us in a good position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.
Let's get right into it and look at which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today.
Kawhi Leonard, SF, Los Angeles Clippers ($10,500)
Star players do not come much more consistent than the level-headed Kawhi Leonard. Leonard scored more than 50 FanDuel points in every game of the Los Angeles Clippers' first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks, and Leonard has boasted an outstanding average of 1.53 FanDuel points per minute in the playoffs so far, which is third behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic.
The Denver Nuggets present a tough challenge going by their regular season numbers, and they gave up the ninth-fewest FanDuel points to opposing small forwards. But the Nuggets have the third-worst defensive rating in the playoffs, and they allowed Donovan Mitchell to post three 50-point scoring efforts as the Utah Jazz's leading scorer in the first round.
Jayson Tatum, PF, Boston Celtics ($9,200)
In the absence of Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum continues to be far and away the best offensive option for the Boston Celtics. Tatum has scored 29 or more real-world points in four of the last six contests, and that has come against two top-five defenses from the regular season in the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors.
Tatum's 30.4% usage rate in Game 2 of this series led Boston, and that is an especially enticing role in the offense given that Tatum has also averaged 9.3 rebounds per game in the postseason to this point. Tatum is the highest overall and per-dollar projection at power forward on Thursday, per numberFire, currently at a projection of 46.2 FanDuel points for Game 3.
Kyle Lowry, PG, Toronto Raptors ($7,800)
Kyle Lowry is no stranger to heavy minutes, as he was fourth in the NBA in minutes per game during the regular season, at 36.2. Nick Nurse has found a way to squeeze even more out of the Villanova Wildcats alum. Even while battling an ankle injury leading up to this series, Lowry has posted 37.5 minutes per game against the Celtics so far.
The most exciting part about Lowry's production in this series through two contests is that despite scoring over 34 FanDuel points in both games, Lowry has shot the ball terribly. His 36.5% field goal percentage is well down from his 41.6% mark from the regular season, and that is especially pronounced from three-point territory, where Lowry has made only one of his 10 shots. If Lowry can turn around his cold shooting, he could exceed a 6.00 times FanDuel value in Game 3.
Austin Swaim is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austin Swaim also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username ASwaim3. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
