NBA DFS Building Blocks for Saturday, January 22 | Today, 1/22/22

Saturday, Jan. 22, brings a brief three-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: Building Blocks, Saturday, Jan. 22

Yahoo Play of the Day — Giannis Antetokounmpo: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Sacramento Kings

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 53.88 | DraftKings: 55.43
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 49.4% | FanDuel 56.8% | DraftKings 42.7%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $56 | FanDuel $11,400 | DraftKings $12,100

Tonight is a back-to-back for Milwaukee who dispatched Chicago last night 94-90. This is also the third game in four nights, though they are off until Wednesday. Friday saw Jrue Holiday coming off the bench for the second game since returning from his layoff and he saw 27 minutes after getting 22 minutes in his debut. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton played the most minutes on the teams with 37 and 36 respectively. It would not be a surprise if Holiday is out tonight as the Bucks are currently favored by a dozen points and should be able to handle an inconsistent Sacramento squad. Fortunately this is the first game of the night so we will know if Antetokounmpo is going to get a night off as well.

Tonight no other player has a median projection within ten fantasy points of Antetokounmpo. If he gets 30 minutes tonight he will likely be the highest scoring fantasy producer. Heck on Wednesday he fouled out in 31 minutes against the Grizzlies and he still had 65 fantasy points. In the chance Antetokounmpo gets a night off, load up on Middleton who averages nearly 1.3 fantasy points per minute without the two-time NBA MVP on the court and 1.4 when both Antetokounmpo and Holiday are out of the mix.

Darius Garland: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 35.44 | DraftKings: 38.33
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 35.6% | FanDuel 40.3% | DraftKings 28.9%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $34 | FanDuel $8,600 | DraftKings $9,000

This has been a breakout season for Darius Garland, who has really stepped up with both Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio out for the season with knee injuries. Over their last ten games, the Thunder have only one victory and they have the tenth worst defensive efficiency allowing 113.1 points per 100 possessions while also playing at an above average pace. In his last 11 games, Garland has 40 or more fantasy points eight times. Also demonstrating his usage and opportunity, since Sexton went down, Garland has authored seven of his ten best fantasy performances with two coming in the last four games.

Kevin Love: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 26.97 | DraftKings: 29.15
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 20.2% | FanDuel 24.4% | DraftKings 35.7%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $17 | FanDuel $5,400 | DraftKings $5,100

Even coming off the bench, Kevin Love has been a very productive fantasy player. It makes sense that Jarrett Allen is starting at center and Evan Mobley looks like a 10-year veteran on defense, despite being a rookie. Love gets to be the main offensive option with the second-unit and he gets minutes where he does not have to compete with his frontcourt teammates for rebounds which is key since Love has never really even been above average as a rebounder. When the games are close, he will be in the closing unit which gives him additional upside at a reasonable salary tonight.

The NBA player props market for Love tonight is one to exploit. In the Awesemo projections he is currently carrying a 7.6-rebound projection, while his rebound prop is over/under 6.5. Though he does not rack up the rebounds, he has corralled seven or more in eight of his eleven games. This might be a bet worth making since it has an expected win rate of 65% on OddsShopper.

Devin Booker: Phoenix Suns vs. Indiana Pacers

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 41.21 | DraftKings: 43.35
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 36.4% | FanDuel 30.1% | DraftKings 34.0%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $36 | FanDuel $9,200 | DraftKings $8,900

Over his last four games, Devin Booker has been pouring in the points. In this stretch he is averaging 34.5 minutes with 25.3 field goal attempts. This has resulted in 35.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.1 combined blocks and steals. Deandre Ayton is out and that leaves Booker as the first and second option on offense tonight. Indiana is without both Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis which has made an already shaky defense one of the most dreadful in the league. Enjoy!

Goga Bitadze: Indiana Pacers at Phoenix Suns

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 25.77 | DraftKings: 25.29
  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 28.8% | FanDuel 17.2% | DraftKings 26.9%
  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $13 | FanDuel $6,000 | DraftKings $4,700

We should once again see Goga Bitadze in the starting lineup and he should be in line for close to 30 minutes tonight. If he can stay out of foul trouble, he should flirt with 30 fantasy points as one of the best value options on Yahoo and a solid play on DraftKings. We can also look at his counterpart JaVale McGee who will be starting in place of Ayton tonight for the Suns.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS picks for the Saturday, Jan. 22 Slate

There are some questions around the availability of Caris LeVert (calf) and Malcolm Brogdon (Achilles) in the late game so have one eye on news alerts while watching the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers in the NFL playoffs tonight. 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.

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].

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