Hittin' The Nuts: Squirrelpatrol's NBA DFS Lineup Advice - Thursday, January 25th
Want to hit the nuts and take down 1st place in these massive contests posted by FanDuel and DraftKings? Who better to walk you through their favorite NBA DFS picks than Squirrelpatrol! Undoubtedly one of the best DFS players in the game today, Squirrelpatrol has accumulated 90+ Live Final seats, won the FanDuel 2021 World Fantasy Basketball Championship for $500,000, and most recently, took down the NFL Milly Maker in Week 2.
Thursday night brings a relatively large (for a Thursday) 7-game NBA slate featuring some of the fastest-paced (and worst defensive) teams in the league. The first two games tip off at 7:00 PM ET when the 76ers visit the Pacers in a game with a 239 total where Philly is favored by 5, while the Jazz are favored by 7.5 points visiting the Wizards in a game with a 246-point total. The Wizards game could see some different wrinkles with the team changing coaches today after starting the season with a 7-36 record.
At 7:30 PM ET, we get 3 more games, meaning that 5 of the 7 games on the slate lock within the first half hour. This window contains the 3 lowest-total games of the slate, with Boston favored by 8 points in Miami (223.5 total), Denver favored in New York against the Knicks (222 total), and Minnesota favored by 3.5 points in Brooklyn (217 total).
At 10:00 PM, we see the Kings favored by 2 points on the road against Golden State, and the last game of the night features the Bulls as 4.5-point underdogs in Los Angeles against the Lakers.
We have a bit of injury news in each window of games, starting at 7:00 PM ET where Jalen Smith is questionable for the Pacers and Tobias Harris is questionable for the 76ers. In the middle window, Kevin Love is questionable for the Heat, Isaiah Hartenstein is questionable for the Knicks, and Mike Conley is questionable for Minnesota. The last game of the night is a bit tricky – Anthony Davis and LeBron James are both questionable for the Lakers, which is no surprise. But LeBron actually missed the last game, raising the possibility that these are meaningful injury designations rather than their perpetual, honorary, questionable tags.
With no game to swap to if we don’t get clarity on the Lakers injury situations, I’ll be giving a slight bump to players like D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, and Christian Wood, and then using Anthony Davis in roster spots where he can be swapped down to LeBron James if necessary.
Let’s sort through the rest of the slate and figure out what to do with our DFS lineups.
NBA DFS Lineup Advice: Squirrelpatrol’s ‘Hittin’ The Nuts’ (January 25th)
High Flyers
Who are the players I’m picking first for my squad? These guys are the first selections for both my cash game and tournament lineups, and I’ll sacrifice elsewhere, if need be, to ensure I get them in:
Lauri Markkanen
FanDuel: $8,400
DraftKings: $8,000
I’ll have different levels of interest in Utah players on different sites – the Jazz are generally much cheaper on DraftKings than FanDuel – but one player I plan to use heavily in all formats is Lauri Markkanen. The Wizards have been a bit better on defense lately, but they still give up the most points and rebounds per game in the NBA, and Markkanen has at least 21 points and 9 rebounds in 8 of his past 9 games.
Tyrese Maxey
FanDuel: $9,100
DraftKings: $8,600
Joel Embiid will likely draw some interest after his triple-digit fantasy performance last game, and the Pacers give up the most points in the paint in the NBA this season. However, Embiid is carrying a massive price tag, and the Pacers play at the fastest pace in the NBA, which makes this feel more like a Maxey game than an Embiid game. Maxey has seen his price tag drop but is still averaging 24.7 points and 7.3 assists per game in the month of January. If Tobias Harris were to miss this game (he is currently questionable), then my interest in Maxey would increase.
Site Specialists
Just like a good 3-and-D small forward, sometimes a player fits the specific need we have on the specific site we’re playing on. These are the guys that stand out on one particular site:
Want to read more? Sign up for Premium!
