NBA DFS Picks Today 5/25: DraftKings & FanDuel Showdown Picks

Wednesday, May 25 sees the Eastern Conference Finals back in Miami with the teams knotted up at two games apiece and the injury news is plentiful. The game tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on DraftKings and FanDuel. Below, we will examine the player pool and break down the best NBA DFS picks today for DraftKings and FanDuel lineups.

DraftKings & FanDuel NBA DFS Picks Today (5/25)

Jaylen Brown | Boston Celtics

Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 40.69 | FanDuel: 38.82
Awesemo’s Preliminary Ownership Projections: DraftKings: 62.8% | FanDuel: 48.9%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $10,000 | FanDuel: $14,000

Monday’s Game 4 was a one-sided affair, as the Celtics cruised out to an 18-1 lead and closed out the first quarter up by 18 points — and extended that to 24 points at the half. Despite only hitting a dozen points, Jaylen Brown actually led the team with 20 field goal attempts, but he converted only five. The real disparity was at the free-throw line where Boston was 32-of-38, while Miami was just eight-of-14. The Heat actually made one less field goal, but six more 3-pointers. Hopefully, tonight will not see as many fouls.

Brown has been stellar throughout the postseason, so we can grant him a mulligan for Game 4. He continues to be a steadying presence with Marcus Smart, Robert Williams and Derrick White all missing games, and with Jayson Tatum dealing with his own in-game injuries. Even at his highest salary of the postseason tonight, Brown is a top option on DraftKings and in the top five on FanDuel.

Latest NBA DFS Content

Al Horford | Boston Celtics

Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 32.99 | FanDuel: 32.98
Awesemo’s Preliminary Ownership Projections: DraftKings: 53.4% | FanDuel: 42.7%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $7,800 | FanDuel: $12,000

After the Celtics grabbed the early lead, Al Horford was content to let others carry the offense and he attempted only two field goals, despite playing 33 minutes. The 13 rebounds, three assists and four steals kept him fantasy relevant and he should be in the mix for a double-double tonight if the game is not an early runaway.

Bam Adebayo | Miami Heat

Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: DraftKings: 36.17 | FanDuel: 36.06
Awesemo’s Preliminary Ownership Projections: DraftKings: 56.8% | FanDuel: 43.8%
DFS Salary: DraftKings: $8,800 | FanDuel: $13,000

The box scores have not been pretty. Heck, they have been downright scary with only one of his last six games being above 27 fantasy points for Bam Adebayo. However, that was a 66-fantasy-point gem and while it came after Jimmy Butler missed the second half of Game 3 with knee soreness, it at least provides comfort that Adebayo has not completely lost it — he just seems reluctant to shoot with only two double-digit field goal attempt performances in his last eight games. Adebayo is the perfect pivot away from Butler, who is still managing his knee soreness.

NBA DFS Discount Dandies

Miami Heat

Max Strus: If Tyler Herro is out again, then Strus gets a boost and becomes a borderline core option. If Herro is able to recover from his groin injury, then Strus is a neutral play in all formats.
Gabe Vincent and Victor Oladipo: In Game 3, Oladipo thrived with the Heat down by 20 points for most of the game. He played the most minutes with the most field goal attempts, ending the game with a team-high 23 points and his six assists were behind only Vincent. Clearly, the latter is still the preferred option by coach Erik Spoelstra, and Oladipo just lucked into garbage time production.
P.J. Tucker: In what DFS gamers have come to expect, Tucker followed up his 37.9-fantasy-point game with a 9.6 while scoring zero points in Game 4. Take heart in the fact that he did not set foot on the court after the 7:26 mark in the third quarter and hope that keeps the game log-watchers looking elsewhere.

Tonight, Tucker also looks like a strong option in the NBA player props market. He has a 4.5 over/under on his rebound prop and the Awesemo NBA player projections have him for 5.7 rebounds, which gives him a 67% probability of surpassing the over. We know that role players tend to perform better at home and Tucker is averaging 5.5 rebounds per game this postseason.

Boston Celtics

Grant Williams: Keep going back to Williams, who has a knack for seeing 30-35 minutes per game at the expense of other players dealing with random injuries, foul trouble or real-life events.
Derrick White: If Smart is back in the starting lineup and effective, then White will likely be back to minutes in the mid-teens.
Payton Pritchard: Garbage time and the injury to Smart gave him plenty of opportunities in Game 4. Unless Smart is out or we get word he is trying to play through his injury, Pritchard is just a lottery ticket option.

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Author

Eric MacPherson

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].