NBA DFS action on Saturday, Feb. 20, locks at 8:00 p.m. EST with a five-game main slate on Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. SuperDraft is going with an 8:30 p.m. EST lock with a four-game slate. Before you lock in your lineups on Yahoo, DraftKings, FanDuel and SuperDraft, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy basketball picks, rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some daily fantasy basketball picks, including Damian Lillard, Enes Kanter, Russell Westbrook and more.
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NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Saturday, February 20th
Yahoo Play of the Day – Enes Kanter: Portland Trailblazers vs. Washington Wizards
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 37.92 | DraftKings: 38.75
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 42.0% | FanDuel 43.8% | DraftKings 27.2%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $26 | FanDuel $6,200 | DraftKings $6,900
We saw this matchup nine games ago in Washington where the Trailblazers won handily 132-121. Tonight’s matchup is in Portland with an eye-popping 242.0 projected point total. On the season the Wizards are allowing 114.3 points per 100 possession and the Blazers are ceding 115.2 themselves. Dallas, Sacramento and New Orleans rounds out this dubious quintet.
The key with playing Enes Kanter is we want to look to him in matchups where the opposing BIGs are not particularly formidable. That in a nutshell describes the Washington frontcourt options of Moritz Wagner, Alex Len, Rui Hachimura and Davis Bertans. Washington plays at the fastest pace in the league with 104.4 possessions per 48 minutes. They are also a bottom-five rebounding squad by most metrics. A double-double looks like the floor for Kanter who should have a chance to reach the 40 fantasy point plateau.
Damian Lillard: Portland Trailblazers vs. Washington Wizards
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 52.84 | DraftKings: 56.46
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 28.6% | FanDuel 37.1% | DraftKings 22.8%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $49 | FanDuel $9,900 | DraftKings $10,600
This is an excellent salary across the board for Damian Lillard tonight. In countless interviews he has mentioned how he and Russell Westbrook have had a fierce rivalry since he came into the league. They were constantly doing battle against each other while Westbrook was with the Thunder and Rockets. Now that Westbrook is in the Eastern Conference this will be the last time this duo meets outside of a longshot NBA Finals tilt.
Over the last month without CJ McCollum, Lillard is averaging 1.42 Yahoo fantasy points per minute. Currently he is carrying the team with Jusuf Nurkic out as well and he is consistently seeing 36-38 minutes in this stretch. The Blazers have won seven of eight since they last played Washington and they are firing on all cylinders. Dame Time is definitely thriving in February.
Russell Westbrook: Washington Wizards at Portland Trailblazers
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 48.48 | DraftKings: 51.57
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 29.4% | FanDuel 24.8% | DraftKings 12.7%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $41 | FanDuel $9,200 | DraftKings $10,000
Washington does not play again until Sunday in Los Angles where they have a back-to-back with the Lakers and Clippers. Once again Russell Westbrook has been a fantasy gold mine when he takes the court. The former UCLA Bruin has produced triple-doubles in each of his last two games and missed two others falling a rebound shy in each appearance. On the season he is averaging 18.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 9.5 assists and 1.2 combined blocks/steals. Tonight, we are going to want at least one Blazer and one Wizard on most of our rosters.
Good Value
Garrett Temple: Chicago Bulls vs Sacramento Kings
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 22.29 | DraftKings: 22.34
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 24.8% | FanDuel 14.1% | DraftKings 17.0%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $10 | FanDuel $4,200 | DraftKings $4,300
On the brief five-game slate, Garrett Temple has a favorable salary and a nice matchup against the Kings. They well travelled 12-year veteran does a little bit of everything, which gives him a decent fantasy floor. Sacramento plays an up-tempo game and has the worst defensive efficiency in the league this season. Temple does have access to some fantasy upside if he is sinking his shots or collecting steals. This could also earn him additional playing time over the likes of Tomas Satoransky, Denzel Valentine and even Patrick Williams
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Miami Heat
With both Dennis Schroder (health and safety) and Anthony Davis (calf/Achilles) out, there is a large void to fill in the rotation. Some combination of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, Talen Horton-Tucker and Wesley Matthews are likely to benefit. The tricky part is trying to decipher which ones are most likely to succeed.
KCP is probably the strongest of this quartet as he is a regular starter and also has an above average chance of being in the closing lineup if this is a close game. Caruso is next because he is really the only other above average facilitator besides LeBron James. While he will likely come off the bench, he will be on the floor for essentially all the minutes James is not as well as playing along side him and likely being in the closing unit.
Matthews started the last game, but the 34-year old veteran of a dozen NBA campaigns does not do much more than shoot 3-pointers and swing the ball around the perimeter. Tonight will mark just the 33rd NBA game for second-year wing Talen Horton-Tucker. He is the most volatile of the bunch as silly fouls or mistakes could send him to the bench, but a hot hand and being one of the few even average facilitators outside of Caruso and LeBron could be his pathway to more minutes. My preference would be to only have one or two of this foursome on an individual roster.
Risky Value
Patrick Williams: Chicago Bulls vs. Sacramento Kings
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 23.0 | DraftKings: 23.25
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 4.2% | FanDuel 21.9% | DraftKings 10.4%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $16 | FanDuel $4,700 | DraftKings $4,800
Rookie Patrick Williams has been seeing solid minutes with the many maladies suffered by his teammates. The 19-year old is also prone to mistakes as well as disappearing for large portions of the game by deferring to his teammates. Looking at NBA WOWY we can see that this season he is averaging 0.69 FanDuel points per minute. The concerning part is that he has only a 16.1% usage rate, a 10.0% rebounding rate and a 5.4 assist rate. This indicates that most of his fantasy points are coming from scoring or steals/blocks.
Even though this is a dream matchup, looking at the Awesemo Boom/Bust Tool we can see that Williams is a shaky option. Currently he is projected to be in the FanDuel optimal lineup 16.4% of the time. He has just a 12.0% chance of exceeding his “boom” score of 5x his salary + 10 or 33.5 FanDuel points. On the other hand his “bust” rate of failing to surpass 5x his salary or 23.5 FanDuel points is 39.5%. This all seems appropriate when we consider he has fallen below 20.0 FanDuel points in seven of his last twelve games.
Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies
- Garrett Temple: CHI at SAC – $11
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso: LAL vs. MIA – $10
- Tomas Satoransky: CHI at SAC – $10
SuperDraft Daily Fantasy Basketball Picks
- Russell Westbrook: WAS at POR – 1.20x multiplier
- Enes Kanter: POR vs. WAS – 1.45x multiplier
- Damian Lillard: POR vs. WAS – 1.05x multiplier
Final Thoughts on the Saturday, Feb. 20 NBA DFS Slate
The key information we will likely be without for the main slate lock will be the starting lineup for the Sacramento Kings. They have a phenomenal matchup against the Chicago Bulls so we will want to know the availability of Harrison Barnes, Richaun Holmes and Glenn Robinson III. 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.
