Daily Fantasy Basketball Match-Ups 3-30

Massive Daily Fantasy Basketball schedule today, with 12 games for our Friday night. Amazingly with this 12 game schedule there really isn’t a marquee game to watch from a pure entertainment standpoint. Thank JESUS FOR DAILY FANTASY BASKETBALL!! Now I can actively sweat the monster Denver v Charlotte game!! Ok that sounds a little degen… well who am I kidding it’s definitely a little degen, I’ll be one of 10 people watching that pile of a game.

Now onto the stuff everyone actually cares about, our Matchup plays. In part 1 we’ll cover PGs, SGs, and SFs, Part 2 will cover PFs and Centers.

Daily Fantasy Basketball Top PGs

*Quick Note, this is in no particular order, I just go through the games and write up the matchups I feel will be profitable tonight. I will point out when a matchup is especially juicy however, whether for salary or in terms of production.

• Isaiah Thomas: Thomas burst onto the Daily Fantasy Basketball scene when Keith Smart promoted him to starting PG of the Kings and moved Tyreke Evans to his more natural SF role. He’s cooled down since then, but in certain matchups his value goes way up. Utah is one of those spots. While they’ve played better Post All-Star break, they’re still one of the worst teams in the NBA vs PGs. Over their last 10 games they’re giving up 21.0 ppg and 11.1 assists per game to opposing PG’s. Also Thomas’s problems in Daily Fantasy Sports come from when he plays bigger point guards, Devin Harris is taller(pretty much every player in the NBA is taller then the 5’9 dynamo) but he’s not a physical defender. We’re not expecting the 42 daily fantasy points Thomas scored in his last game, but he seems in line for a solid 25-30 point performance.
• Ty Lawson: Everybody’s favorite doormat the Bobcats host the Denver Nuggets tonight, and after consecutive 40 Daily Fantasy point performances, expect another big one tonight from Ty Lawson. An ankle injury several weeks ago along with the return of Danilo Gallinari, slowed down the great run Lawson had been on but it looks like he’s back to full strength now. Charlotte is giving up 23.4 ppg and 11.8 assists, and is currently 29th of 30 teams in the league in defensive efficiency. Really I don’t have much more to say then that, it’s Charlotte, they’re awful and Denver doesn’t play defense so you can expect Lawson to get his full 37 minutes a game.(Lawson’s is averaging only 6.2 pts in his previous 4 vs the Bobcats, but it’s not statistically significant since they were games in the 2 seasons prior)



• Deron Williams: No surprise considering Nate Robinson and Charles Jenkins have been the starting point guards over the last 10 games for the Warriors, but they’re 20th in the league in scoring defense vs PGs giving up 20.8ppg and 11.4 assists. Deron Williams on the other hand is 3rd in the NBA over his last 5 scoring 20.6ppg and 9.2 assists, as he is the only consistent scoring option for this New Jersey team. The real question in this game, is with both teams tanking, who is going to try to lose more? Because of this there is some risk with Williams, but he and Chris Paul are the two top point guards tonight.

Other PG Notes: Chris Paul has had a really solid March, but I’d probably avoid him tonight vs the Trailblazers. In 3 games this season he’s averaging 13.7 pts and 4.3 assists, nearly 6 points less and 5 assists less per game from his season averages. Derrick Rose is a GTD vs the Pistons, which means very little with CJ Watson. Rose has yet to practice, and CHI has done this multiple times this season when Rose was clearly not playing. DET is 29th in the league in Deff vs PG’s but they don’t give up a ton of points(16.6 ppg over their last 10) so while he has value, I think there is better to be had.

Daily Fantasy Basketball Top SGs

• Austin Daye: The is a pure value play, Ben Gordon and Rodney Stuckey are both out again for the Pistons, and the price of Daye makes this a no brainer. Chicago isn’t the greatest opponent for shooting guards, (or any player in general in Daily Fantasy scoring) but really with his price you only need to get around 14 daily fantasy points to pay off. If you want to play Kevin Love and a couple other superstars tonight, Austin Daye is your ticket. Daye has a well rounded game coming from Gonzaga, in 27 minutes last game he scored 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Those are Daily Fantasy Basketball’s nectar of the God’s in terms of scoring, if it carries over to today he’ll pay off huge.
• Gordon Hayward: Hayward has been one of my favorite Daily Fantasy Basketball plays since he re-entered the starting lineup. Over his last 10 he’s averaging 14.0 ppg, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.6 assists, with 1 steal and 1 block. Even better news is the last time he played the Kings as a starter he went off for 31 points. Sacramento plays zero defense, and Utah isn’t that far behind so I’m expecting a ton of points to be scored. The total for the game is at 214.5, so Vegas thinks we’re going to see a ton of points, which is why you’ll see multiple players from this game in our plays.



• Iman Shumpert Shumpert provides another decent value play tonight vs the Hawks. Thanks to a ton of injuries, Shumpert has been promoted to his natural shooting guard spot and lit it up last game. The nice thing about him, is he fills up other categories besides points as a shooting guard getting rebounds and assists because he’s so aggressive. Atlanta defensively has taken a step back since moving Hinrich to the 2 guard spot and Joe Johnson to SF, falling to 20th in ppg to shooting guards over their last 5. Bigger names like Dwyane Wade and Marcus Thornton don’t have great matchups tonight, so I think it’s better to play guys like Hayward and Daye and then spending your money in better spots tonight.

Other SG Notes: Dwyane Wade is your 2nd leading scorer from the SG spot this season, but the Heat are traveling to play Toronto tonight, and there is a high chance of blowout. Toronto is also the 6th overall team vs SGs only giving up 19ppg. Both of those are reasons enough for me to pass on his salary tonight. Marcus Thornton has been one of the better options at shooting guard this season, but his season averages are lower by almost 2ppg vs the Jazz. Gordon Hayward has improved a tremendous amount defensively coming into the league, and I expect Thornton to be less of a value tonight even though the score of this game should be high. Jordan Crawford is averaging 27.7 Daily Fantasy Basketball ppg over his last 7, but has a rough matchup tonight vs Philadelphia. The Sixers are the #1 overall defense vs shooting guards this season, and with Crawford being the only conistent player for the Wiz the last couple weeks I’m expecting him to get more attention tonight. Klay Thompson is another value play that I like tonight vs the Nets. He’s getting consistent minutes and FGA ever game, and while New Jersey has been good vs SF’s he’s def got value.

Daily Fantasy Basketball Top SFs

• Paul Pierce: The inconsistency that drove Daily Fantasy Basketball players nuts early in the season with Pierce has disappeared in the last month. With no Ray Allen he’s taken over the scoring load, and is averaging 35 daily fantasy points a game over his last 7. During that period he’s only had 1 game below 30 points, and he’s playing the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight who are the 28th overall team vs small forwards in the last 10. In his last 10 games he’s averaging 21.6 ppg, 6.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and he’s always a threat to pick up steals and blocks.
• Tyreke Evans: Tyreke definitely has some serious risk, but he’s absolutely crushed vs Utah this season. He’s averaging 23.3 ppg, with 4.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists vs the Jazz this season. Utah is definitely not a juggernaut defensively, and Tyreke only scored 6 points vs the Spurs last game so he’s in line for a bounce back game.



• Mike Dunleavy: Dunleavy has had an extremely strong march, and is playing great for the Bucks coming off the bench. He’s scoring 16.7 ppg, 3.4 rebounds per game, 3.1 assists per game. Cleveland is 27th in the league vs small forwards over the last 10 games and Vegas has a 204 point total so they’re expecting a ton of points in this game. He’s averaging 20.7 daily fantasy points over his last 7 games, and has 2 30 point games in that time frame so he also has upside.

Other SF Notes: Andre Igoudala is coming back tonight off an injury so I won’t be playing him tonight vs the Wizards, even with that great matchup. LeBron James is in a similar situation to Dwyane Wade vs Toronto, solid chances of a blowout and him sitting, and he’s fairly banged up right now so I’ll be passing on that mega salary as well. Carmelo is a player I like again tonight however, even with ATL being very solid vs the small forward this season. He’s back in his role of shoot 30 times a game, so expect a solid output tonight as they force the ball to him. If you can play Josh Smith as a Small forward tonight, it’s probably worth it to force him there and play a couple other power forward since there are a ton of good options at PF tonight.

The PF and Centers portion of the Matchup column will be up in the next hour or so, we’ll update links on twitter and in this when it is.