Saturday, May 29, rolls in with the first Game 4 action of the first round along with two Game 3 battles wrapping up. Let’s look at the four-game main slate and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Don’t forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content, including the FREE NBA Deep Dive — the most in-depth article in the industry.
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NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Saturday, May 29th
Yahoo Play of the Day — Ben Simmons: Philadelphia 76ers at Washington Wizards
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 39.23 | DraftKings: 39.43
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 27.4% | FanDuel 15.0% | DraftKings 20.0%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $33 | FanDuel $9,000 | DraftKings $7,600
Ben Simmons is coming off of back-to-back 50-plus Yahoo fantasy point outings against the Wizards. Their lack of consistent rebounding, rim protection and up-tempo pace align perfectly with his skillset. In these games Simmons is averaging just shy of 34 minutes with 14 points, 11 rebounds, 11.5 assists and 2.5 combined blocks/steals. Though he hasn’t officially tallied a triple-double yet, it certainly is in play for the remainder of this series. The $33 salary on Yahoo has Simmons bordering on must-play territory.
Bradley Beal: Washington Wizards vs. Philadelphia 76ers
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 45.1 | DraftKings: 46.53
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 13.6% | FanDuel 18.0% | DraftKings 18.4%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $41 | FanDuel $9,800 | DraftKings $9,000
Russell Westbrook suffered an ankle injury in Game 2, though he is a game-time decision, currently he is trending towards playing. Ideally, he is in the starting lineup as he will take some of the pressure and attention off of Bradley Beal. Philadelphia has tightened up its defense in the postseason like most teams, and now the production pendulum has decisively swung back to Beal. While Westbrook is still seeing heavy minutes and usage, the rest of the “stars” are now seeing similar workloads, which has narrowed the gap.
Beal is clearly the primary scoring option for the Wizards, and he is really their only player who can consistently create his own shot. This should be no surprise as he finished second in the scoring race this year with a career-high 31.3 points. Beal should see somewhere between 25 and 30 field-goal attempts tonight as the Wizards need to win one of the next two games at home to avoid a series sweep. The 72 hours between games should continue to help Beal move beyond the hamstring injury that cost him the final three games of the regular season.
Good Value
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Utah Jazz
Perhaps good value is a bit of a misnomer, however, overlooked value is certainly available for the Grizzlies. Now, this is not in the traditional DFS sense of a player getting a spot start, being mispriced or filling in for an injured teammate. Instead, this is the core rotation for Memphis being very consolidated compared to their regular-season strategy, which is not quite accounted for in Saturday’s salaries.
Ja Morant is averaging nearly 39 minutes in the postseason compared to mid-30s for the regular season. Jonas Valanciunas played 39 minutes in Game 1 and his five fouls in Game 2 cut short his first half rotations in both quarters otherwise he would have seen similar minutes. Kyle Anderson, Dillon Brooks and Jaren Jackson Jr. are also seeing a boost. This, of course, is coming at the expense of the reserves, which is rendering everyone except Grayson Allen and Desmond Bane unplayable. Even that duo is really best left to the late-slate action.
Risky Value
Washington Wizards vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Westbrook is still carrying a salary that considers him to be a likely triple-double candidate. We have seen through the first two games of this series that the easy fastbreak points have dried up, along with the extra rebounds. If healthy, Westbrook is certainly in play for 40 to 45 fantasy points with a chance at 50-plus. However, his salary is easily 10 to 15% too high and along with his ankle injury he is a definite risk taking up so much of our salary cap. The three-headed monster at center consisting of starter Alex Len and the defensive duo of Robin Lopez and Daniel Gafford is a risk as any one of this trio could end up short a rotation or two depending on the game script. There is no consistency with Rui Hachimura and Davis Bertans and they are both heavily scoring dependent. Even if Westbrook were to miss this game or be limited, former ‘Sixers Raulzinho Neto and Ishmael Smith are not secure options by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, this motley crew is viable in tournaments, though that is because we are embracing the volatility and variance.
Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies
- Ishmael Smith: WAS vs. PHI – $12
- Royce O’Neal: UTA at MEM- $13
- Dwight Howard: PHI at WAS – $10
Final Thoughts on the Saturday, May 29th NBA DFS Slate
Currently the only injury wildcards are Giannis Antetokounmpo who is probable with a groin injury and Westbrook, who is questionable with an ankle injury, though expected to play. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a slam-dunk play on Yahoo may be a below-average NBA DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.
