NBA Daily Plays: Thursday, December 26th
Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday, and with the 5 game nationally televised NBA slate there was certainly plenty to watch, even if some of the games turned into pretty sizable blowouts. Basketball follows up the Christmas schedule with 4 games on a Thursday, which is pretty rare. We’ll go through squads and pick out some top plays.
Point Guards
- Jeff Teague vs. CLE – The Cavs rank as one of the worst defenses vs. the point guard position on the season and Teague has found his groove over the last week. He has 17/4/10, 18/8/15, 9/2/8, 26/6/8 stat lines in his last four games with 40+ fantasy points in three of those four games. On a night where CP3, Lillard and Kyrie are all playing, it looks like Teague offers the best bang-for-the-buck across the industry.
- Mike Conley vs. HOU – Conley has had a couple of sub par games in a row, but four steals in the Grizz’ last game at least helped him hold his own in terms of final fantasy output. That’s the thing with Conley, a lot of his value can come with thefts and Jeremy Lin is one of the best at turning it over. Lin’s also coming off 34 minutes on Wednesday where he surprisingly played hard defense on Tony Parker, but I wouldn’t expect that same effort come Thursday.
Shooting Guards
- Tony Allen vs. HOU – Allen had been absolutely on fire before Monday’s game, tallying 30+ fantasy points in three consecutive games. I was talking about TA with my man Ruby2s recently and he mentioned that Allen seems to up his offensive game when he has a big defensive assignment. Well looking back over just his last 3 or 4 games, he’s posted 2 of his best games while covering Carmelo and Monta Ellis. He also had 30+ FP against Harden and the Rockets in an earlier matchup this year.
- Jamal Crawford vs. POR – Crawford really struggled when Redick first went down, but since he’s been inserted into LA’s starting lineup he’s been consistently hitting the 30 fantasy point mark. Portland doesn’t particularly struggle against the SG position, but there’s no defender there that should scare you away from targeting Crawford on Thursday.
Small Forwards
- Chandler Parsons vs. MEM – With Prince sidelined, Parsons’ matchup against Memphis should be significantly easier. TA will be focused on Harden, meaning the scoring needs to come from elsewhere. Parsons has 30+ fantasy points in 6 of his last 7 games and had a huge 21/6/6 line on Christmas against the staunch Spurs defense. Working on James Johnson should be no issue for Parsons.
- Kawhi Leonard vs. DAL – Dallas ranks in the bottom 10 vs. the Small Forward position on the season and while Kawhi may have burned you on Christmas day, he’s the type of player who bounces back quickly and you have to always consider for large field tournaments with his ability to stuff the stat sheet. I don’t like him in H2H or 50/50 contests, but he could be a cheaper difference maker in a GPP.
- James Johnson vs. HOU – He’s near min-priced across the industry and with Tayshaun Prince unlikely to suit up on Thursday, Johnson should see 30-35 minutes again and potentially more as he finds his place in the offense. It’s the obvious play, but it’s still the right play in most formats tonight.
Power Forwards
Note: The PF position is stacked tonight, and if you want to pay up, both LaMarcus Aldridge and Zach Randolph have been on fire lately and have good matchups tonight.
- Dirk Nowitzki vs. SAS – Dirk is coming off a monster game against Houston and has now topped 40 fantasy points in 6 of his last 8 games. Over his last 10 games, he’s averaging 23/6/4 and over 42 FP and now gets to face a Spurs team that was just embarrassed by Terrence Jones on Wednesday. Nowitzki should be able to spread the Spurs out defensively and I’m not sure if Duncan or Leonard could be the solution to stopping his recent tear.
- Terrence Jones vs. MEM – Speaking of Terrence, he had his best game in a looong time on Wednesday and that’s great news that he’s playing a back-to-back. First, there’s no down time for him to overthink himself and his price is really low across the industry as sites couldn’t adjust for the big game on Wednesday. The matchup is solid and he can be locked into all formats tonight.
One last note on the PF position, I’m writing this while watching the Clippers/Warriors game and Blake Griffin was just ejected. I would be absolutely shocked if he was suspended since the technical was an absolute joke, but if for some reason he is, look for Matt Barnes to play a lot more minutes and bump up the value for both DeAndre Jordan and even Ryan Hollins potentially.
Centers
- Dwight Howard vs. MEM – Howard hasn’t looked this good in 2 years, and that means he’s 100% matchup proof. He proved that against one of the best interior defenses in San Antonio on Wednesday and racked up his 5th straight 40+ fantasy point game. There’s no one on Memphis who can slow him down and he should be locked in for 20 points and 12-15 rebounds on Thursday.
- Robin Lopez vs. LAC – Lopez is a boom or bust option who could save you a few bucks to pay up for the top tier options today. Lopez has been much better at home as well, where he’s averaging over 27 FPPG compared to just under 23 on the road. Add in the fact that he should (pending foul trouble) be forced to play bulk minutes against a beefed up Clippers front court and he makes for one of the best GPP options tonight.