DFS NBA Lineups for February 2, 2017 at Draftkings.com & Fanduel.com
Each day that there’s a good slate of DFS NBA games, we’ll give you the game totals, spreads, and pertinent injury news for NBA daily fantasy, as well as some players that we’re considering for our lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.
We have four games on the main NBA slate for 2/2/17, all of which have fairly large blowout potential. On such a short slate, we don’t need to tell you James Harden is a good play. It’s simple. If you can fit him, play him. Also of note, four of the eight teams in play with be on the back half of a back to back. Those teams on a B2B on Thursday are the Hawks, 76ers, Warriors, and Clippers.
As always, be sure and monitor any of the injury news that breaks throughout the day, as value plays and player upgrades can arise in a moments notice.
PLAYERS RULED OUT
Pau Gasol (hand)
Zaza Pachulia (shoulder)
LaMarcus Aldridge (knee)
INJURY NEWS TO MONITOR
Julius Randle (illness)
Thabo Sefolosha (groin)
Robert Covington (hand)
Joel Embiid (knee)
Shaun Livingston (back)
NBA GAME SPREADS, TOTALS & START TIME FOR TODAY’S GAMES
Lakers @ Wizards -11 (7:00p): 218.5
Hawks @ Rockets -10 (8:00p): 225
76ers @ Spurs -15 (8:30p): 212.5
Warriors -9 @ Clippers (10:30p): 227
Best NBA Picks for February 2, 2017
Stephen Curry ($8.7k DraftKings, $9.6k FanDuel)
On a four game slate, every high end option is going to draw a lot of interest. With that interest, comes higher-than-normal ownership levels as well. So, if all the studs are going to highly owned, why not take a hard look at the cheapest of that group that comes with the same upside as everyone on the slate, sans James Harden? Another bonus is that Curry comes in at a whopping $3700 cheaper than Harden on a night where everyone is going to want to, and likely can, jam in Harden. He’s also at this massive discount despite reaching 66+ DraftKings points in each of his last two games, while only playing 29 and 30 minutes in those games because of blowout.
Curry has been under the radar all year due to playing with three other superstars, but if you really dig in, you’ll like what you see. Dating back to January 4, Curry has failed to reach 40 DraftKings points just once (39.75), and has attempted fewer than 11 three-point shots in a game only three times! He’s averaging the same amount of fantasy points per minute as John Wall, who’s $1700 more, and Kawhi Leonard, who’s $300 more. But the most interesting aspect of Curry tonight is from a lineup construction perspective. You are naturally going to differentiate from the guy that plays Harden by having more money to bolster the rest of your non-stud roster spots. Don’t take the Curry endorsement the wrong way. James Harden is still a great play every single time he takes the court. But Steph is exponentially cheaper and playing in the game that might be the least likely to get out of hand. On a four game slate like tonight, that’s about as good a scenario as we’re going to get.
Mid Tier & Bargain Tier DFS NBA Picks
DeAngelo Russell ($5.7k DraftKings, $6.1k FanDuel)
First, Patrick Beverly is probably a little safer in this price range as Luke Walton can sometimes get a little crazy with how he distributes minutes. That said, Beverly provides little to no tournament upside, where Russell has shown on multiple occasions he can get us over 40 and upwards of 50 DraftKings points. He’s also been really good of late. He’s averaging just over one fantasy point per minute in his last 10 games. Couple that with the fact that we’re getting him at a big discount from where he was priced before his injury ($7k at DK on 1/7/17) and he is easily one of the best values on this Thursday. The Wizards are about middle of the pack in nearly every defensive category. In this same game, it looks like Julius Randle could be held out one more game. If so, we can go back to the well with Ivica Zubac at just $3.9k on DraftKings and $4.7k on FanDuel.
JaVale McGee ($3k DraftKings, $3.5k FanDuel)
Zaza Pachulia is out for the next week and we saw McGee get the start in his place. We usually take these spots to recommend players, but I’m actually going to do the opposite here for McGee. Sure, he started. But he only played 17 minutes, which is his highest total in 2017 by three full minutes. Log watchers are going to point at his 21 DK points, but likely not dig deep enough to see that point total was aided by FOUR blocks. With LaMarcus Aldridge ruled out tonight, if you’re looking to punt the position, just spend the extra money and get to Dewayne Dedmon and thank me tomorrow.
If, Then Player
If Joel Embiid and Robert Covington are out again for the Sixers, then Ersan Ilyasova ($5800 DK) becomes a very interesting tournament option. As mentioned at the top of the article, there’s blowout potential in every game tonight. With that in mind, we have to take some chances in our tournament lineups. IF the Sixers are going to keep this game even remotely close, THEN Ersan (their only consistent scorer in the lineup) would have to have a big game. So, we’re using potential outcomes for our selection here. He also has upside capability. Over his last seven games, Ilyasova has topped 30 DraftKings points four times, topping 40 DK points twice in that span.
