NBA

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Friday 3/19/21

James Harden is straight-up dealing for the Nets. Can he continue to build on his MVP case tonight?

With 10 games to choose from on Friday's slate -- which locks at 7:30 p.m. EST -- let's look at the top options across all five positions for NBA DFS.

Be sure to check out our projections, which are updated throughout the day as news breaks, and our other DFS tools such as advanced stats and a matchup heat map.

Here are some of the top plays on today's DraftKings slate. As always, good luck.

Point Guard

James Harden ($11,000) - Harden is just doing typical Harden things. Since the All-Star break, the rising MVP candidate has led Brooklyn to a perfect 4-0 record with averages of 26.8 points, 12.0 assists, and 11.0 rebounds, racking up three triple-doubles and one double-double in the process. His most recent performance was the monster of them all, too, as he went off for 40 points, a triple-double, and 83.5 DraftKings points in 42 minutes. Per FantasyPros, Orlando's third-worst against point guards, which makes the decision that much easier: Harden is unrivaled as the top play of the night.

Kevin Porter Jr. ($7,200) - While Eric Gordon and others remain out for the injury-riddled Rockets, John Wall comes into the night listed as questionable, and with Houston lacking much motivation to win, they could opt to hold him out again. But whether that's the case or not, it would be hard to keep Porter off the court at this point. Since joining his new team, all the 20-year-old has done is average 19.6 points, 8.0 assists, and 2.8 blocks-plus-steals in 35 minutes a night. His usage is up to 26.9% overall and 27.7% as a starter, according to NBA.com's data. Feel free to lock him in against the visiting Pistons.

Shooting Guard

Derrick White ($5,500) - With DeMar DeRozan away from the team to attend to the death of his father, other Spurs took on larger roles Wednesday against the Bulls. White was one of the top beneficiaries, turning his fifth straight start and 33 minutes into 17 points as well as the peripherals to get him to 34 DK points by night's end. The Cavaliers won't pose much resistance either, as they rank 24th in the league in defensive rating and 26th in their four games since the All-Star break.

Jordan Poole ($4,500) - Tonight, Golden State is likely to be without the services of both Stephen Curry and Kelly Oubre, opening up significant time and shots for their teammates. Guys like Damion Lee and Kent Bazemore are worth a look because of a bump up in the rotation, but Poole has just been the more productive guy. Off the bench, he's averaging 8.9 points and 13.8 DK points a game but in a mere 12.5 minutes. Yet, since March 4th, he's averaged 19.0 points and 27.7 DK points across 22.6 minutes of work. He warrants consideration given his salary point and upside under the circumstances.

Small Forward

Jaylen Brown ($8,000) - It seems as though Brad Stevens has heard the murmurs about Boston's underachieving season. Coming out of the break, he's relying heavily on his All-Star combination of Brown and Jayson Tatum. After playing 40 and 27 minutes in the first two games of the second half, Brown has gone back-to-back contests with 39 minutes, which he's converted to the tune of 28 points a game and 49 DK points on a per-game basis. And now he draws a Sacramento squad that slots in 30th in defensive rating? Sign me up.

Tim Hardaway ($4,900) - For a second straight game, the Dallas Mavericks will be absent Dorian Finney-Smith because of personal reasons. On Wednesday, his vacated spot went to Hardaway, who played 37 minutes -- his 7th game above 35 this season. In only those games, he's averaged 21.4 points per game on 48.3% shooting and 40.3% from three. When he gets a groove, he can go for 30-plus DK points with ease. Just be sure to limit yourself to tournament formats since Hardaway is so reliant on scoring alone.

Power Forward

Jayson Tatum ($8,900) - More likely than not, you will be choosing between Brown or Tatum -- that is, unless you're fading Harden. In either case, you'll want to prioritize Tatum over Brown. While he's played two fewer minutes a game in the team's back-to-back losses, he's gotten up a combined 48 shots for 58 points. Altogether, he's posted 47.5 and 46.75 fantasy points, bringing his average to 45.1 and 1.31 points per minute since the break. He should eat against the same Kings defense that allowed him to rack up 57.8 DK points in their only prior meeting this season.

Maxi Kleber ($4,200) - Night-in and night-out, Kleber is getting the minutes for Dallas. He's up to 27 minutes a game this season, but since March 1st, he's up over 32, playing a ton of minutes alongside Kristaps Porzingis. Admittedly, Kleber's production has been lacking of late, but his last three games have come against the Nuggets and Clippers. Tonight's matchup with the Blazers bodes better for a bounce-back. Not only are the Mavericks favored by four on the road, but Portland is better than only Sacramento when it comes to defensive efficiency.

Center

Robert Williams ($5,800) - Williams is getting more meaningful minutes as a result of Tristan Thompson landing on the protocol list, where he'll remain until at least Friday night. Stepping into the non-Daniel Theis minutes down low, he's averaged a double-double out of the break despite playing less than half of the game on average. Last game alone he was able to score an efficient 13 points to go with 14 boards, 4 blocks, and 2 steals (48 DK points). It's hard not to love that against the Kings' league-leading pace.

Kevon Looney ($3,200) - In addition to Curry and Oubre, the Warriors won't have James Wiseman in the middle, as the rookie remains out in the league's health and safety protocols. He was first held out of Wednesday's game, which saw Looney log 23 minutes and tally 7 points along with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks for 21.5 DK points. A performance like that is good enough for 6.7 points per $1,000 at this low salary, so how could you go wrong?


Brett Oswalt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username BRO14THEKID. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her 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 authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.