Phil Naessens 
Nailed the Trae Young call yesterday with the Hawks taking Game 2 in the ‘A’, while Kawhi Leonard and Paul George got the job done for the second straight game to make their series with Utah a best-of-3. Tonight, we have an NBA showdown with plenty of good contests on both sites and money to be made; it’s Taco Tuesday’s edition of the Gems – let’s ride.
Before running to the DraftKings, FanDuel, or Yahoo lobby to construct your NBA DFS lineup after reading this article, please make sure to utilize the abundance of tools we have at Win Daily:
The best way to begin your lineup building for NBA showdown slates is with your captain spot. Tonight, we have four to five possible candidates, although I will be planting my flag on a few to chase the upside that the construction gives us. On the Milwaukee side, the one and only captain I am considering is Giannis Antetokounmpo for obvious reasons; the Greek Freak leads the Bucks with a 37.2% usage rate in the series’ first four games, where he’s averaged 29.8/12/3.3 on 54.2% shooting. On the Brooklyn side of the ball, the two pay up options I’m interested in are obviously Kevin Durant and, yes, James Harden, with the latter coming at a significant discount. Don’t trust Harden’s hamstring to last the whole game? Well, here we are, playing NBA showdowns, so anything goes – personally, as much as Brooklyn wants this win, they wouldn’t risk Harden if he wasn’t close to 100%, so it’s all systems go for me on getting exposure to the best ball handler in these NBA Playoffs. I shouldn’t have to tell you what KD has done this series, in addition to the entire playoffs; the All-NBA talent has a 34.7% usage rate on the series, averaging 29.8/9.3/4.8 on 45.8% shooting. If you’re punting captain – may the odds be ever in your favor – but Jeff Green gets the nod here as the sneaky option, having played nearly 27 minutes off the bench in his return to action, dropping 8/5/1 and gives Brooklyn a different look on offense to throw Milwaukee off.
To round out our NBA rosters tonight, I’ll be largely avoiding the likes of Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, not because they’re bad plays, but because I prioritize the Big 3 listed above. The Bucks have had an underrated interior presence in Brook Lopez, but the inflated price tag requires him to produce much more on offense than he has been this series, averaging a mere 9.5/8.3 across 30 MPG. It’s a toss up between the likes of Blake Griffin and Bruce Brown in the midrange, but I lean toward the former, who has been much more active on offense, with the return of Harden putting Brown’s offensive role into question.
Value Gems: Check the projection model.
I will continue to stress the importance of having both the projection model and cheat sheet open when building lineups for a further player pool and to ease a decision between two players, in addition to finding additional value plays.
You can find me on Twitter @DFS_Ghost
