Wednesday’s NBA Playoff tips off at 7:00 p.m. ET on DraftKings and FanDuel. There are several options in the player pool worth analyzing to find the top NBA DFS building blocks and NBA DFS picks. Let’s dig into the NBA DFS picks and core plays like Jayson Tatum and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, along with a variety of secondary players as premium targets.
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NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Wednesday, April 24
NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks
Jayson Tatum: Celtics vs. Heat
Stokastic’s Fantasy Point Projections
DraftKings: 45.65 | FanDuel: 43.83
Stokastic’s Rostership Projections
DraftKings: 22.3% | FanDuel: 36.8%
DFS Salary
DraftKings $9,500 | FanDuel: $9,800
Jayson Tatum messed around with a triple-double in Game 1 and played a whopping 41 minutes, with the rest of the starters in the 33-to-34 minute range.
This is the time for Tatum to really make a strong push to the NBA Finals. The teams is firing on all cylinders and with injuries to key players from the Heat, Knicks, Bucks and even Pacers, the path to glory will never be more open.
There is of course the risk that Miami is unable to keep things close as 14.5 point underdogs, but considering Tatum started the fourth quarter, despite the Celtics having a 32 point lead, he should once again flirt with 38-to-40 minutes.
Kristaps Porzingis (39.4%) is the most popular player from this game on DraftKings, followed by a myriad of Miami monikers. Even with three days off since Game 1, it would be a surprise to see the oft-injured forward eclipse his 34 minutes. Derrick White and Jaylen Brown would be the next most desirable plays on DraftKings, projecting to be on just over 20% of all rosters. On FanDuel the gap from Porzingis closes, with this trio in the 25%-to-30% range.
Al Horford is a minutes risk as he is unlikely to play more than 24 minutes off the bench in this lopsided series, but that does open things up for Sam Hauser as a discount dandy. Payton Pritchard is the “safest” cheapie with a low-20s minute baseline, but half a dozen available if he gets the call for mop-up duty.
Jrue Holiday could always popoff for 20 points, but he is the fourth option on offense and is tasked with facilitating and defense, rather than scoring in this matchup.
Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyler Herro are the preferred options from the Heat, with do-everything Caleb Martin alone in the next tier. It is a shame that Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier are out with injuries as it looks like a Boston sweep is imminent. Haywood Highsmith, Delon Wright and Nikola Jovic are wild cards, though they also have a path to blow-out minutes, where that is unlikely for veteran Kevin Love and Duncan Robinson is so far down the pecking order, he may not get enough minutes prior to that particular scenario to even matter.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Thunder vs. Pelicans
Stokastic’s Fantasy Point Projections
DraftKings: 49.33 | FanDuel: 50.01
Stokastic’s Rostership Projections
DraftKings: 38.7% | FanDuel: 37.9%
DFS Salary
DraftKings: $9,400 | FanDuel: $10,600
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped propel the Thunder to a 94-92 victory in Oklahoma City in Game 1. This was a much closer game than most were expecting and if not for so key points in the final minute from SGA, New Orleans could have pulled off an epic upset.
There are four OKC teammates more popular than Gilgeous-Alexander on DraftKings, which of course is what happens when a salary cap based game meets a shallow player pool.
Luguentz Dort is projected to be on nearly two-thirds of all rosters in the featured-tournaments on DraftKings, which is no surprise given his $4,600 salary and eligibility as a shooting guard and small forward. Jalen Williams logged 40 minutes in the opener, scoring 19 points, with seven rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. He projects to be on nearly half of the lineups on DraftKings and DraftKings, standing out with his power forward eligiblity.
Josh Giddey saw a scant 19.6 minutes in the first game, playing the start of each quarter, but getting just two minutes in the final frame. That is a big departure from the last few weeks of the regular season and it will be interesting to see if this continues. The Stokastic minutes projection has him down to 22, which is two more than he played in the first game – but two fewer than the projection prior to Game 1.
Zion Williamson leaves a major void for the offense, but the stifling defense of the Thunder some what mutes the upside of the remaining Pelicans. CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy III will be propelling the offense, but if they are not making their shots, it is going to lead to some disappointing fantasy results and a short series. Murphy played a whopping 44 minutes and will likely be in the low-40s again, with McCollum and Ingram not too far behind.
Jonas Valanciunas racked up 20 rebounds in Game 1 and looks to now have the minutes advantage over Larry Nance Jr. this is another tenuous situation, similar to Giddey’s playing time in that there is a lot of uncertainty and peril. Of course there is also advantages to be had in these situations, as we just saw the disappointing Gary Harris DFS heel of Game 1 for Orlando, drop a terrific fantasy performance at a ludicrously low salary. The salary here is clearly not in that ballpark, but taking the uncomfortable side of a situation could have upside payoff if the script is flipped.
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Today’s Top Sports Betting Pick
Tonight we can get an even money wager for the under on Jrue Holiday’s 20.5 points + rebounds + assists (PRA) prop.
By using OddsShopper to do the heavy lifting when researching favorable bets, we can quickly spot inefficient lines like this one, and having accounts at multiple sportsbooks allows us to pivot to the best number quickly.
The under on the 20.5 for this wager is currently available at +100 on Caesars Sportsbook and with true odds of -115 (how OddsShopper measures the potential expected ROI of a given wager), there is a stellar 6.8% expected ROI with the current line.
Move quickly as there is no way this line lasts. Though that is the beauty and power of OddsShopper find the best lines at any point in the day.
NBA Bet Pro has Holiday projected for 33.4 minutes, 10.54 points, 5.29 rebounds and 4.39 assists for 20.22 PRA. Considering that it is a coinflip that Holiday reaches double-digits for scoring, he also needs 10 combined rebounds and assists to get close to this milestone. His focus will be as a secondary distributor, while also dealing with the Miami backcourt. White, Brown, Tatum and Porzingis are all capable passers, along with Pritchard. Plus Brown, Tatum, Porzingis and Horford are strong rebounders as are most of the Heat players.
Considering the chance that the 34-year-old may get a little time off in the final frame of a blowout and there are many things working against him when it comes to tallying 21 or more PRA.
Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today
Get all the latest news and updates for NBA DFS picks today on the Stokastic NBA Live Before Lock Show at 6:00 p.m. ET on YouTube, breaking down all of the key elements for today’s slate. Brought to you by Sleeper – new users, use this link to receive a $500 first deposit match! Full details here.
