NBA FanDuel Studs to Target on Tuesday 3/29/22
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-salaried 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.
Which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today?
Giannis Antetokounmpo, PF/SF, Milwaukee Bucks ($11,400)
The best fantasy environment of the day is also the best game of the day.
The Milwaukee Bucks travel to Philadelphia to battle the Sixers in this matchup between two title favorites. Surprisingly, the defending champs -- after winning 10 of their last 13 games -- are 1.5-point underdogs, and this one carries a whopping 232.0-point total.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a solid play by a simplistic process of just looking at his final tallies. He's eclipsed 55 FanDuel points in four straight, but absurdly, most of those have been shy of 30 minutes due to lopsided results.
Giannis is averaging 1.81 FanDuel points per minute in March -- second only to Nikola Jokic. Because his team is much stronger, he doesn't get the touches Jokic does but still sports a solid 35.5% usage rate this month, as well.
Antetokoumpo put up 32 points, 11 boards, and 9 assists in a February contest against Philadelphia, and that same matchup can produce a monster game again on Tuesday.
Joel Embiid, C, Philadelphia 76ers ($11,200)
On the other side, Joel Embiid should be a worthy adversary.
Embiid will likely not be nearly as popular as Antetokounmpo, but he might be in the better spot. The 76ers (28th in pace) will see a massive uptick in possessions to the Bucks (8th) for this contest, so in some ways, they'll benefit even more from the higher total.
Based on his recent popularity, you likely wouldn't guess Embiid has posted at least 59 FanDuel points in four of his last six games. That's because James Harden does significantly lower Embiid's floor. After all, he was held under 50 FanDuel points in supreme matchups with the Raptors and Clippers.
With 8 of the 10 teams playing using a timeshare at the pivot, the center position is especially weak on Tuesday. You can do a lot worse than a big man putting up big numbers this month (1.58 FanDuel points per minute) in a big spot that should push additional usage into his hands.
This game is pivotal for Eastern Conference seeding purposes. Expect both teams' biggest stars to shine bright.
