NBA

FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: Wednesday 4/27/22

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 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 bunch of other great resources to help give you an edge.

Daily fantasy basketball is very reliant on a player's opportunity, so you'll need to make sure that you're up-to-date with key injuries. Our projections update up until tip-off to reflect current news, we have player news updates, and the FanDuel Scout app will send push notifications for pressing updates regarding your players.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each position.

Let's break down today's main slate on FanDuel.

The Slate and Key Injuries

Away Home Game
Total
Away
Implied
Total
Home
Implied
Total
Away
Pace
Home
Pace
ChicagoMilwaukee217102.5114.5177
DenverGolden State225.5108.25117.252014


Wednesday's injury report doesn't exactly make this slate less confusing.

The Bucks are still without Khris Middleton (knee), but they've trounced Chicago in back-to-back games without him. Now, the Bulls are down Zach LaVine (COVID-19 protocols) and Alex Caruso (concussion).

Chicago has a -57 point differential in the series. Denver has a -36 point differential in their two games visiting Golden State. With both spreads at least nine points, this two-game playoff slate may just come down to which game blows out less.

Guards

Jrue Holiday ($8,100): The two blowouts have left Holiday below 40 FanDuel points in both games without Middleton thus far, but he averaged 1.27 FanDuel points per minute during floor situations without him this season. That leaves him capable of shattering value here if this one stays tighter. Jrue is the numberFire model's best-rated bang for your buck of salary above $8,000 today.

Ayo Dosunmu ($4,500): My general angle on this slate is the Bulls-Bucks game is relatively undervalued in salary compared to the Nuggets-Warriors affair since those two just played a tight contest Sunday in Denver. Dosunmu logged 29 minutes after Alex Caruso exited with a concussion, so he's headed for a full-time role and a starting spot on Wednesday with this fair salary.

Others to Consider:
Klay Thompson ($6,600): He and Jordan Poole are much safer bets than Steph Curry to pay off in three quarters if this one gets out of hand.
Monte Morris ($5,400): At 25.9 FanDuel points per game, he's one of few Nuggets meeting his regular-season standards in this lopsided series.

Wings

DeMar DeRozan ($9,100): With no Zach LaVine, the two most popular plays on the slate will be LaVine's co-stars, DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic. DeRozan had a stint in the five-digit salary range when LaVine had a knee injury earlier this season, averaging 1.32 FanDuel points per minute overall during floor situations without him. He'll play until this one is decided with the Bulls facing elimination.

Will Barton ($5,500): If the Nuggets hang tight on Wednesday, it will be due to a massive outing from their extras. Barton's game-winning triple in Game 4 was a nice capstone on a general theme in this series -- Nikola Jokic has had help from others. Barton poured in 24 points in Game 1 as the main source of assistance, and it'll take another scoring burst from another non-Jokic Nugget to keep them alive.

Others to Consider:
Giannis Antetokounmpo ($11,500): With more conviction this game stays closer, I'll choose Giannis over Jokic in most situations.
Andrew Wiggins ($6,100): numberFire's projections are higher on him than me, but he's another Dub that can pay off in three quarters with a full role.

Bigs

Nikola Vucevic ($8,000): Though it's not the 5.1 percentage-point increase in usage rate that DeRozan enjoys with LaVine off the floor, Vooch sees a 3.5 percentage-point increase himself. With Vucevic at 1.26 FanDuel points per minute in that floor situation, this is a salary that should be a massive bargain if this game stays tight. He'll need to improve upon his 35.7% shooting from Game 4, though.

Bobby Portis ($5,800): Portis has quietly nabbed double-digit boards in three of the four games in this series, but his one scoring outburst came in the one exception. Truly, if he ties it all together, there aren't better options to fill power forward with the usually low output of Patrick Williams now just down the block in salary. Bobby played 32 minutes in a Game 4 that got out of hand late.

Others to Consider:
Nikola Jokic ($11,300): Obviously, he'll do everything he can to keep this one tight, so the usage could be massive. Just can't see Denver keeping it close.
Draymond Green ($7,000): Salary might be a bit too high given his low usage rate and the lofty spread. But, still, a full-time role here with block-plus-steal upside.