Welcome back to another edition of the Slate Starter! I wasn’t positive I’d be back writing about hoops for you this year, but 2020 is just the best, right? Hope your NFL lineups are live as can be at the moment, but if not, let’s salvage the day. Here’s a quick breakdown of some key NBA DFS Showdown points for Game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat.
The NBA Slate Starter: DFS Picks for NBA Finals Game 6 | Oct. 11
Jimmy Jimmy, Who Can I Turn To?
This just in, everybody: Jimmy Butler is pretty good at basketball. Since Goran Dragic went down with a plantar fascia tear, Butler has started to assert himself as Miami’s alpha and a possible Finals MVP candidate, regardless of which team wins. Averaging a near triple-double at 29.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 10.2 rebounds per game and a 27.7% usage rate in these NBA Finals, there’s no denying he’s elevated his game into another realm.
But the question remains: can he possibly keep this going? Butler sat all of 48 seconds in Game 5 and looked gassed upon completion of his emphatic Game 5 performance. He doesn’t have the luxury of handing off to another superstar the way LeBron James and Anthony Davis do, and you’d think the Lakers would find a way to make contain the only option capable of creating for Miami.
However, for DFS purposes, it’s hard not to continue hammering Butler into every lineup. He remains the cheapest of the three superstars in this series. He’ll probably play every single second of Game 6, and he’s producing at a clip a god-like clip. If you want to be different, fade Butler who I absolutely expect to be the highest-owned Captain and Flex play on DraftKings. But 48 minutes of anybody in any given NBA game should be a lock in my opinion, so I’ll eat the chalk and differentiate as much as possible in other spots.
Oh My, Morris
Good thing Game 5 was such an entertaining game because I got rocked in DFS at the hands of Markieff Morris, who had fewer fantasy points on both sites than I did (and I had zero). His 23 minutes were so abhorrent that it hurts to even talk about, but considering he’ll be the highest-owned non-stud on DraftKings, he’s an important talking point.
I normally love jumping back on to failed plays at reduced ownership, but reduced ownership won’t exist with Morris today. There’s plenty of reason to eat the chalk at $3,000 on DraftKings; you can Captain him and easily play all three studs, plus he’s the cheapest play you want any part of. But if the ownership elevates into the stratosphere (like I expect it to), I’m going to be looking to Captain more plays in the mid-range and pray for a spike in upside that requires only needing two-of-three studs in the optimal lineup. Jae Crowder is a prime candidate for such upside. Forty-plus minutes and a hot shooting night could be the recipe for a contrarian, less-duplicated lineup.
Final Thoughts for Your Finals Lineups
The stars-and-scrubs nature of these NBA Finals continues on tonight, as the most popular plays will be at the very top and bottom ends of the salary spectrum. If you want to be different, overweight exposure to some of these mid-priced options such as Crowder or Duncan Robinson would be the way to go. Both have shooting-dependent upside, but both have broken multiple slates this postseason simply by getting hot from three. They will also help bring the cumulative ownership percentage of the plays in your lineup down and give you more unabated shots at the top spot.
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