DFSGhost 
Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals is on tap for tonight, as Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks look to even their series with the Milwaukee Bucks at two games apiece. It’s another NBA showdown slate, but pricing made this one interesting – 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:
From my original series writeup:
“One thing that won’t change throughout this series is the need for both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Trae Young in your lineups – daily. Sporting a 34.5% usage rate through 12 games in these NBA Playoffs, the Hawks will only go as far as Trae Young will carry them; the face of the franchise is averaging 29.1 PPG to go along with 10.4 APG, logging over 38 MPG in what seems to be a must-win environment on a nightly basis. On the flipside, Giannis Antetokounmpo may see a few less minutes tonight than the previous stretch of games considering the Bucks were down 0-2 to the Nets, but his ceiling remains the highest on the NBA slate: Giannis carries a 32.4% usage rate heading into the Eastern Conference Finals, in addition to having 30 or more points and 11 or more rebounds in six of the Bucks’ last seven games.
For our utility spots in our NBA lineups, look no further than the secondary scorers for the Bucks, including: Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, and Brook Lopez. Lopez will continue to log a consistent 25 or more minutes in a matchup versus Clint Capela, if not even more than what we saw against Brooklyn, while both Middleton and Jrue round out the Bucks’ Core 4. PJ Tucker was crucial on “defense” for the Bucks against Kevin Durant (I’m laughing as I’m typing this) but look for a combination of Forbes/Connaughton early in this series, as the Hawks are a much less skillful group with the ball in their hands, with the exception of Trae Young. For the Hawks, Bogdan Bogdanovic is severely banged up, so look for both Danilo Gallinari and Lou Williams to log more minutes in the series’ first two games, alongside Kevin Huerter, while the one player I am much lower on than the field is none other than John Collins: while Collins thrived against Tobias Harris and the 76ers, grabbing double-digit rebounds in five of the series’ seven games, the matchup against Giannis couldn’t be worse, while Lopez and Capela go head to head; look for Collins, who averaged 3.1 fouls per game this season, to be in trouble in the early stages before making adjustments later in the series to remain on the court.”
The fact that this series will be dictated by Giannis and Trae is no surprise, but with Young’s bone bruise from last game, the Hawks may be in trouble – or will they? We are seeing all the public money come in on Milwaukee, yet the line remains a steady -6.5 leading up to tip-off and the Hawks looked to have a stranglehold on Game 3 before Trae went down. Spot shooters like Huerter and Bogdanovic will have to come up big tonight, along with a combination of Lou Williams and Danilo Gallinari down the stretch. Middleton was locked in last game, but can he repeat? He’ll be the highest owned of the supporting casts tonight, and rightfully so. Look for Bobby Portis to continue his re-emergence in the Milwaukee lineup as a value play, while taking a stance of fading Trae based on how bad you think the bone bruise is – if you don’t, ride it out with the best player on the Hawks side of the ball, and if you don fade him, make sure to have the proper support players as the Hawks look to even this series at two games apiece.
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
