DraftKings Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Monday 12/28/20

With five games to choose from on Monday's slate, let's look at how to utilize the DFS possibilities.

Here are some of the top plays on DraftKings. As always, good luck.

Point Guard

Damian Lillard ($10,300) -- In 27 career regular-season games versus the Los Angeles Lakers, Lillard averages 27.7 points, 7.1 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game. He's a constant nuisance to the Los Angeles Lakers, and in the first meeting of this season, tonight should be no different. Lillard recorded 53.75 fantasy points in his last outing going for 32 points, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds after only 28.5 fantasy points in the season-opener. His stock is trending up, hitting five three-pointers versus Houston, and with the Lakers being on the second night of a back-to-back, Lillard could light it up in the Staples Center.

Delon Wright ($4,600) -- With Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin out for the Detroit Pistons, a few players should step up their production. Wright has been a bright spot in what appears to be a tanking season in Detroit. He totaled 35.0 fantasy points in his previous game on 19 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block. Mind you, that was overtime basketball and 42 minutes of action on Saturday. He'll see a usage increase as he'll be one of the veterans for Detroit tonight. Wright's currently at a 13.3% usage rate through two games, and Griffin accounts for 22.2% and Rose 27.5%, totaling a free 49.7% of opportunities on offense. After being third in scoring versus the Cavaliers, Wright is an excellent candidate to have another strong performance, this time versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Shooting Guard

Kevin Huerter ($5,000) -- Huerter is a friendly alternative to Trae Young ($9,500) tonight if you're looking to stack a pair of teammates in the later games. Hurter has put together two impressive games with 22.5 and 32.0 fantasy points in 27 minutes apiece. If the Hawks do blow the Pistons out, Huerter could be an option to cross the 30-minute threshold, and when he does that, his averages are 13.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. He also holds a 19.92% usage rate through two games, slightly higher than his 17.1% rate in 2019-20.

Caris LeVert ($6,600) -- LeVert is up for a promotion as Spencer Dinwiddie was announced out for the season with a partially torn ACL. After scoring 20 points in the season-opener, LeVert scored 20 combined points in his next two games. His season-high on minutes is 26, and that's undoubtedly going to change after this meeting with the Memphis Grizzlies. LeVert's averaging 13.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists through three games, impressive numbers considering Kevin Durant's ($8,600) arrival and Kyrie Irving's ($9,000) return. He's a threat for a 20-point night, and in the 21 games he played 30-39 minutes last season, LeVert averaged 25.9 points, 5.7 assists, and 5.3 rebounds per game.

Small Forward

Will Barton ($6,200) -- Barton had 27.75 and 31.0 fantasy points in his last two games and scored at least 15 points in both contests. Versus Houston, Barton is likely to exceed both those marks versus a Rockets squad that doesn't play any defense. The Rockets allowed 128 points in their only game of the season, and the Denver Nuggets are 11th in scoring with 115.0 per game through two contests. Barton's played significant minutes with 33 minutes in the opener and 28 minutes in their previous outing. Our model projects Barton at 24.7 fantasy points in 28.69 minutes, which is right around his 0.96 fantasy points per minute average.

LeBron James ($10,000) -- If LeBron suits up for a back-to-back, he's currently listed as questionable, he's a must-have and a great option for a stack with Lillard or teammate Anthony Davis. He's posted 35 or more fantasy points in each outing this year, and while that's not an average amount for him, he has a 48.75 fantasy game under his belt. Tonight seems like a good opportunity for LeBron to have his first 50-point outing, and our model projects 50.2 fantasy points on 22.7 points, 10.4 assists, and 8.2 rebounds. LeBron also isn't far off from his triple-double average in the postseason series with Portland, 27.4 points, 10.2 assists, and 10.2 rebounds in five games.

Power Forward

Anthony Davis ($10,100) -- Davis recorded 50 fantasy points in his last outing and sat out on Sunday night, the first game of their first back-to-back this season. Last night, the Lakers fared well without him, and tonight they will be happy to welcome him back versus a tough Portland squad. Davis owns a 27.78% usage rate through two games, slightly lower than LeBron's 32.78%, which was inflated because of Davis' absence Sunday. Davis averaged 29.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in the playoff series with Portland, and during the regular season, he dominated for 32.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in three meetings.

Jerami Grant ($5,900) -- Grant had a monster 52-point fantasy effort versus the Cavaliers, and with Griffin out for the Pistons, Grant could be a lock for a double-double. He had 28 points and 10 rebounds in 43 minutes in his most recent game and 0.75 fantasy points per minute on the season. That number is bound to skyrocket after this game with all the free usage open due to the injuries in tonight's matchup with the Hawks. Grant could be at the forefront of scoring and rebounding for the Pistons. Grant is projected to total 28.4 fantasy points, but I like him to exceed the 35-point mark tonight.

Center

Rudy Gobert ($7,400) -- Gobert should be the top center on the board tonight after back-to-back 43.75 and 46.75 fantasy point performances. Versus Al Horford ($6,000) and the Oklahoma City Thunder, Gobert has had 17 rebounds in both games and scored 18 and 20 points versus Minnesota and Portland. Robert has only registered one block and one steal thus far, and once he gets started on the defensive end, he's going to be a DFS stud. Robert is a nightly double-double machine, and versus the Thunder, he should make it three-straight. Our model pegs Gobert to record 35.2 fantasy points on 13.0 points and 13.1 rebounds.

Jusuf Nurkic ($6,800) -- Nurkic earned his first double-double of the season versus Houston with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Nurkic also added six assists to his total, a number that could come in handy versus the Lakers with Anthony Davis back in the mix. He averaged a double-double in his five meetings in the postseason, 14.2 points and 10.6 rebounds after returning from an injury that kept him out the entire 2019-20 regular season leading up to the bubble. Nurkic is an all-around positive alternative if you're not looking to invest in Gobert or Jokic tonight.

Vaughn Dalzell is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Vaughn also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his account, username vdalzell. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.com