Tuesday, Jan. 25, brings a nine-game main slate tipping off at 7 p.m. ET. Let’s look at the player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Do not forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content.
NBA DFS Picks: DraftKings, FanDuel & Yahoo Building Blocks Today | Tuesday, Jan. 25
Yahoo Play of the Day — Dejounte Murray: San Antonio Spurs at Houston Rockets
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 52.32 | DraftKings: 53.68
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 20.2% | FanDuel 29.5% | DraftKings 23.9%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $47 | FanDuel $10,300 | DraftKings $10,000
Tonight Dejounte Murray is one of five players projected for 50 or more fantasy points on Yahoo. However, his salary is the lowest among that group, including Nikola Jokic ($57), LeBron James ($55), Joel Embiid ($52) and James Harden ($49).
Murray has been phenomenal as the featured offensive player on the Spurs, and he is setting career highs across the board with 34.4 minutes and 17.8 field goal attempts, culminating in 19.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, nine assists and 2.4 combined blocks and steals. He ranks fourth in assists and leads all guards in rebounding while ranking ahead of such players are Mitchell Robinson, John Collins, Ivica Zubac, Pascal Siakam, Evan Mobley and even LeBron James.
James Harden: Brooklyn Nets vs. Los Angeles Lakers
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 51.31 | DraftKings: 55.74
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 30.2% | FanDuel 37.3% | DraftKings 23.3%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $49 | FanDuel $10,500 | DraftKings $11,700
Tonight the Nets are back home in New York, which means Kyrie Irving will not be available to play, plus Kevin Durant is out for the next month. Awesemo is projecting James Harden to fill the box score tonight with 38.5 minutes, 24.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, 11.3 assists and two combined blocks/steals. While Anthony Davis (knee) is expected to play for the first time in six weeks, it is hard to believe he is going to bring much defensive improvement to the Lakers bottom-10 defense after such a lengthy layoff. Though the sites did a little better with Harden’s salary, he is still coming at a 5-10% discount on Yahoo, and with all of the value options today, it will not be a struggle to pair him with at least one and potentially even two superstars.
Karl-Anthony Towns: Minnesota Timberwolves at Portland Trail Blazers
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 43.44 | DraftKings: 45.64
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 6.6% | FanDuel 7.1% | DraftKings 7.0%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $39 | FanDuel $9,500 | DraftKings $9,400
On the main slate Karl-Anthony Towns is going overlooked, and he is a particularly interesting option on Yahoo in the sweet spot of the salary list. Towns has been incredibly consistent this season, and though he has not flashed major upside, he does have two 50-fantasy-point games in his last seven outings. Since returning from a bout with COVID-19 three weeks ago, Towns has averaged 34.6 minutes, 23.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, four assists and 2.7 combined blocks and steals. He has logged more than 40 fantasy points in 27 of 39 games this season. For the late slate, he should be in most key lineups tonight.
The NBA player props market for Towns tonight is one to exploit. In the Awesemo projections he is currently carrying a 9.4-rebound projection, while his rebound prop is over/under 7.5. Though he will be battling Jusuf Nurkic in the paint, on the season Towns is averaging 9.2 rebounds per game, so this may be a bet worth making, with an expected win rate of 72% on OddsShopper.
New Orleans Pelicans at Philadelphia 76ers
Tonight the Pelicans will be without the majority of their starting lineup. Brandon Ingram (ankle), Devonte’ Graham (ankle), Josh Hart (ankle) and Jonas Valanciunas (rest) are all out. This makes Herbert Jones, Jaxson Hayes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Garrett Temple, Jose Alvarado and Guillermo Hernangomez viable options. Several teams have been in similar situations and had mixed results. Sometimes the offense collapsed completely, other times enough of the rotation was still intact to pull off an upset, like on Monday night with Utah winning in Phoenix, and less than a week ago Indiana winning in Golden State. Though the Pelicans may be scrappy, this is a back-to-back and Philadelphia is a decent defensive team. Two or three New Orleans players per lineup feels like an appropriate cap.
Seth Curry (ankle), Shake Milton (back) and Danny Green (hip) are out, while Matisse Thybulle (shoulder) is questionable after missing five games. New Orleans is not equipped to deal with Joel Embiid, who is going to disappoint with anything less than 50 fantasy points tonight. Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey are also worthy of being core options tonight, while Furkan Korkmaz is in the mix with the rest of the discount dandies on the slate.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Tuesday, Jan. 25 Slate
Tonight has a frontloaded slate with six of the nine games tipping off in the first 30 minutes, and the evening wraps up with a pair of West Coast nightcaps at 10 p.m. ET. 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.
