DFS Alerts
Damyean Dotson (shoulder) out Sunday; Frank Ntilikina (ankle), Trey Burke (knee), and Lance Thomas (knee) available to play
Dotson has officially been downgraded from questionable and won’t play in Sunday’s matchup against the Indiana Pacers due to a bruised shoulder that’s now forced him to miss two consecutive games, while Frank Ntilikina, Trey Burke, and Lance Thomas are all available to play following their initial injury designations on the Knicks’ injury report. Courtney Lee is also back with the team following a brief stint in the G-League, and he could remain the rotation with Dotson sidelined, though the return of Burke and Thomas does throw a wrench into the projected minutes of the second unit and it’s unclear how the backcourt rotation will now shake out. As for new starting small forward Kevin Knox, he’s logged at least 33 minutes in both of his most recent starts while recording a 22.3% usage rate over that span, and he still possesses immense upside at his price tag across the industry.
As reported by: Steve Popper via Twitter Other tagged players: Frank Ntilikina, Trey Burke, Lance Thomas
Robert Covington (knee) available to play Saturday
Covington has officially been upgraded from probable and will be available to play in Saturday’s matchup against the Phoenix Suns despite dealing with a nagging sore right knee. There’s been no indication that Covington will be limited in tonight’s contest and managed to log 32 minutes in the Timberwolves previous game, so he’ll likely remain in his typical starting small forward role that allowed him to averaged 35.6 minutes over his first 11 games with Minnesota following the trade that shipped Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia just last month. Despite recording just a 17.9% usage rate, Covington has actually averaged 0.89 DraftKings and 0.94 FanDuel points per minute in his time with the Timberwolves, keeping him in play for tournaments on a near-nightly basis as a mid-range option.
As reported by: Timberwolves PR via Twitter Shelvin Mack will start in place of Kyle Anderson (ankle) on Saturday
Conley was officially upgraded from probable and is available to play in Saturday’s matchup against the Houston Rockets despite dealing with a nagging sore left hamstring, while Kyle Anderson was already ruled out due to a sprained left ankle. In his absence, Shelvin Mack will draw the start alongside Conley in the backcourt, but he already has a pretty sizable minute workload off the bench, so the ceiling on an increase in playing time may be capped. With Dillon Brooks and Chandler Parson still sidelined, Omri Casspi will be one of the first in line to receive extended minutes, outside of JaMychal Green, who already typically sees between 23-25 minutes a night off the bench. Anderson is a low-usage player, so his absence won’t open up many additional opportunities on the offensive end of the floor, but Conley does own a 31.5% usage rate (+2.1%) with an average of 1.16 DraftKings and 1.15 FanDuel points per minute with Anderson off the court this season.
As reported by: Jonathan Feigen via Twitter Mike Conley (hamstring) available to play Saturday
Conley has officially been upgraded from probable and will be available to play in Saturday’s matchup against the Houston Rockets despite dealing with a nagging sore left hamstring, while Kyle Anderson was already ruled out due to a sprained left ankle. With Dillon Brooks and Chandler Parson still sidelined, Omri Casspi will be one of the first in line to receive extended minutes, outside of JaMychal Green, who already typically sees between 23-25 minutes a night off the bench. Anderson is a low-usage player, so his absence won’t open up many additional opportunities on the offensive end of the floor, but Conley does own a 31.5% usage rate (+2.1%) with an average of 1.16 DraftKings and 1.15 FanDuel points per minute with Anderson off the court this season.
As reported by: Grizzlies PR via Twitter Devin Booker (hamstring) will start Saturday
Booker has officially been upgraded from questionable and will start in Saturday’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves after missing six consecutive games due to a strained left hamstring, while Josh Jackson has also been cleared to play in tonight’s contest. Booker will likely assume the vacated spot of the recently dealt Trevor Ariza in the starting lineup, which would slide Mikal Bridges over to the small forward position and allow De’Anthony Melton to continue starting at point guard. There’s been no word of a potential minute restriction for Booker, and if he ends up being a full-go, he’ll be an intriguing tournament target given the fact he leads the Suns by a wide margin with a 34.3% usage rate and an average of 1.50 fantasy points per minute with Ariza off the court this season.
As reported by: Kellan Olson via Twitter JaVale McGee (illness) going through pregame warmups, appears as if he'll play Saturday
McGee is currently going through pregame warmups, and Lakers beat reports believe that he will play in Saturday’s matchup against the Charlotte Hornets despite battling an illness. McGee has been listed on the active roster for tonight’s contest, but there has been no confirmation on his actual availability from head coach Luke Walton or the team’s public relations department. His likely presence in the starting lineup will keep Tyson Chandler in his normal backup center role, though they essentially split the available minutes at the five unless Walton decides to ride the hot hand or exploit a particular matchup. McGee owns a respectable 19.0% usage rate for a big man and is averaging 1.14 DraftKings and 1.24 FanDuel points per minute, keeping him in consideration for tournaments on most slates.
As reported by: Mike Trudell via Twitter Eric Gordon (knee) will play Saturday
Gordon has officially been upgraded from questionable and will play in Saturday’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies despite dealing with a sore left knee, while Marquese is probable with a sprained left ankle but remains out of the rotation and hasn’t played in any of the Rockets last five games. Gordon has started each of the last two games with James Ennis sidelined but has been disappointing from a fantasy perspective even though he’s averaged 35.5 minutes in those contests. The matchup with Memphis is far from ideal, but James Harden owns a massive 46.3% usage rate and is averaging 1.81 DraftKings and 1.72 FanDuel points per minute with Ennis and Carmelo Anthony off the court this season, keeping him firmly in consideration for tournaments this evening.
As reported by: Craig Ackerman via Twitter Kyle Anderson (ankle) out Saturday
Anderson has officially been downgraded from questionable and won’t play in Saturday’s matchup against the Houston Rockets due to a sprained left ankle, while Mike Conley remains listed as probable once again with a sore left hamstring, though he’s ultimately expected to play. Anderson was limited to just 16 minutes of action in Friday’s loss, but it remains unclear if that was directly injury related or a decision made by head coach JB Bickerstaff to monitor his minutes on the first night of a back-to-back set. With Dillon Brooks and Chandler Parson still sidelined, Omri Casspi will be one of the first in line to receive extended minutes, outside of JaMychal Green, who already typically sees between 23-25 minutes a night off the bench. Anderson is a low-usage player, so his absence won’t open up many additional opportunities on the offensive end of the floor, but Conley does own a 31.5% usage rate (+2.1%) with an average of 1.16 DraftKings and 1.15 FanDuel points per minute with Anderson off the court this season.
As reported by: Omari Sankofa II via Twitter Raul Neto (thigh) available to play Saturday
Neto has officially been upgraded from questionable and will be available to play in Saturday’s matchup against the Orlando Magic after missing one game due to a sore right thigh. In his absence, Dante Exum logged 22 minutes off the bench as the primary backup at both guard positions, though he’ll likely see that playing time drastically diminished with Neto now available. Neither guard carries much value in daily fantasy formats, as they cannibalize each other’s minutes and both own usage rates lower than 22.2%, limiting their overall floor and upside.
As reported by: Andy Larsen via Twitter Still Paying Off His High Price
Look, nobody wants to pay this price tag for Kuzma, but he does have 7 games in a row with over 40 points here and the Lakers have the highest implied total on the board. Looking at his schedule, he has faced some of the slowest paced and/or best defensive teams in the league during that span, so with a match up against Charlotte who is 20th in DvA and 21st in DEFF against the 4, Kuzma may actually have some upside for more. This game currently has the lowest spread on the board at -1, so this game probably has the best chance to stay close and has a possibility at overtime. Kuz should play a boatload of minutes in this one.
Devin Booker (hamstring) on track to play Saturday; Josh Jackson (toe) will play
Booker technically remains questionable, but head coach Igor Kokoskov confirmed that he has a good chance to play in Saturday’s matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves after missing six consecutive games due to a strained left hamstring, while Jackson has been upgraded from questionable and will play in tonight’s contest. If Booker plays, he’ll likely just assume the vacated spot of the recently dealt Trevor Ariza in the starting lineup, which would slide Mikal Bridges over to the small forward position. There’s been no word of a potential minute restriction for Booker, and if ends up being a full-go, he’ll be an intriguing tournament target given the fact he leads the Suns by a wide margin with a 34.3% usage rate and an average of 1.50 fantasy points per minute with Ariza off the court this season.
As reported by: Bob Young via Twitter Other tagged players: Josh Jackson High Usage Player in a Close Game
We have already got confirmation that Horford is out for today’s game and with this game currently sitting at a 2 points spread, we can expect this game to stay close. If we run CourtIQ this season without Horford on the floor, we can see that Kyrie has a 34.6% usage and averages 1.43 points per minute in games without Horford. He draws a matchup against Det who rank 19th, 27th, and 24th, in DvA, Defensive Effiency, and DRPM respectively against the point guard. We all know what Kyrie can do when he takes over a game and if we expect him to play a full compliment of minutes, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him with 60+ points in this matchup here. People will likely avoid him at his high price tag on a B2B, but I’m going to be going heavy on him and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him as the top scoring player on the slate.
Possiblity of Big Minutes and Big Points
Look, we already have Booker out in this game and there is a possibility that Jackson doesn’t play either. Pho is no a good team and if they were without Jackson and Booker, someone is going to need to shoot. Warren is almost always shooting over 15 shots in games where he plays over 30 minutes and if this game stays close, you can expect him to likely end up with around 20 shots in this matchup. To me, this is a play spot regardless of the Jackson news. If Jackson does draw the start, he will likely get Covington defense and if he doesn’t then Covington will probably be on Warren who is still going to be forced to chuck the ball.
Unknown Spot with Potential Usage Bump
Lavine has been ruled out of this game with an ankle injury and although this game may turn into a blowout, Lavine’s 31% usage has to go somewhere. We don’t have a huge sample size of Lavine off the floor and with the Chicago hampered by injuries all year and the entire Jabari Parker situation, we can’t really rely on the sample size of minutes we have without Lavine one the floor. One of the main beneficiaries I could see with the absence of Lavine is Holiday. He already shoots around 10+ shots per game and with Lavine not chucking 20 times here he could see an uptick. In addition, if this game stays close, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Holiday play 35+ minutes in this matchup.
Al Horford (knee) remains out Saturday
Horford has officially been ruled out and won’t play in Saturday’s matchup against the Detroit Pistons due to patellofemoral pain syndrome that has now forced him to miss five consecutive games, while Guerschon Yabusele remains sidelined with a sprained right ankle. In Horford’s absence, Aron Baynes will likely draw a third consecutive start at center after averaging just 15 minutes through his first two spot starts. Head coach Brad Stevens has reverted to a center-by-committee approach sans Horford as both Daniel Theis and rookie Robert Williams have recorded at least 14 minutes off the bench the last two contests, essentially removing all three from consideration in daily fantasy formats. Marcus Morris continues to be the main beneficiary with Horford sidelined, as he owns a 25.7% usage rate (+2.8%) and is averaging 1.13 DraftKings and 1.08 FanDuel points per minute with him off the court this season.
As reported by: the Boston Celtics via Twitter