Daily Dribble
Welcome to the Daily Dribble where we serve up the latest Fantasy Basketball news and insight so you can make BBQ chicken of your competition. We’ll focus on Daily Fantasy Site (DFS) play, but we will sprinkle in some weekly, season long, and/or dynasty/keeper league insight that should help shape your decision making going forward, as well.
Tuesday, February 11th
I want to start off today’s Daily Dribble on an issue that arose yesterday. Monday morning, according to NBA.com the Warriors had David Lee listed as out and Andrew Bogut as questionable. As the day went on, after the Daily Dribble had been posted, the Warriors upgraded Lee to questionable and eventually Andrew Bogut to out. As game-time approached, David Lee decided to give it a go because not only was Bogut unable to suit up, but Jermaine O’Neal was also ruled out leaving the Warriors very short-handed upfront. First off, this is why it is important to bookmark Fantasy Alarm, follow us on twitter @FantasyAlarm, and follow our NBA lineups twitter feed @NBADailyLineups in order to keep up any breaking player news, as well as follow myself if you have any questions @FantasyNomad. (Shoutout to @kevdudz yesterday for tweeting at me and asking me about Lee’s situation.I appreciate the professional manner at which you addressed the situation. It was refreshing because often times people will chose to take the negative approach if there seems to be a mistake made). Secondly, this is the nature of any sport where player statues can change as the day goes on or even fairly last minute as we saw with Avery Bradley last night who ended up not playing. If you followed the above accounts you would have known of Avery Bradley’s status 20-plus minutes before 7pm (for those of you who play on DFS where lineups lock at first game time) and about five minutes before most other places that report player news. Those of you that already use the above services know that we beat the majority of other sites on the regular to getting you the latest player news. You may say oh wow five minutes difference. Well for those of us who play on multiple DFS and/or play multiple lineups you already realize that a five minute difference is huge deal, especially on sites that do not offer the quick player replacement option. Finally, I again want to thank all of you who read the Daily Dribble (and all my other work), use our services, and interact with us whether it be in the comments section or our social media platforms, and realize that we strive to give you top notch, accurate information and insight because we know how important this thing they call Fantasy is to each and everyone of you.
Tournaments Tonight
You have one more night to play in qualifiers for DraftStreet’s NBA $50K tournament, which goes live Wednesday night.
Details:
DraftStreet is also running daily qualifying tournaments for their Fantasy Basketball Championship on March 11th.
Draft Kings has a $15K Pick and Roll Guaranteed tournament tonight at $12 per entry with first place winning $1,750 and the top 275 finishers getting paid. They are also running daily satellites to their two-day $300,000K Fantasy Basketball Showcase on February 26th and 28th.
Injury News
I will focus on any injury news that pertains to this evening’s slate of games, but be sure to visit our Player News section to catch up on other injuries and player insight that will give you a head start when it comes to planning future lineups.
Mike Conley (ankle) and Tony Allen didn't do much at shoot-around. Both not expecting to play on Tuesday, which means Nick Calathes will get the start at point guard again and James Johnson could see some extended run off the bench.
Steve Nash, who turned 40-years old last Friday, is likely to play tonight against the Jazz as his knee responded well after participating in limited drills during Monday’s practice.
C.J. Miles (foot) is questionable for tonight’s matchup against the Kings. (See Statistical Nuances portion below for more insight). Anderson Varejao had an MRI on his back that came back negative. Varejao is questionable tonight.
Carlos Boozer didn't do much in shoot-around Tuesday, is game-time decision vs. Hawks tonight. No Boozer would mean more Taj Gibson versus a Hawks team that is allowing the third most points per game to opposing power forwards over the last 15 days.
Trey Burke was experiencing lower back pain after Saturday's win vs the Heat. Despite dealing with lower back pain Burke was still able to finish with 13 points, one rebound and three assists in 27 minutes of action. Burke has had about three days to rest and recuperate, so I would expect to see him play tonight against the Lakers.
Statistical Nuances from the Nomad
We looked at using Vegas odds as tool for targeting players while constructing your roster last week. In cased you missed it here are some keys when looking to Vegas odds.
- You want to find some of the matchups that are expected to be high scoring.
- You also want the over/unders of those games to be close so it is less likely that a blowout will occur and your players go to the bench early as we saw last night with Stephen Curry, David Lee, etc.
Three games in particular stand out tonight:
OKC at Portland is expected to be the highest scoring contest this evening as the over/under is set at 210.5 and it is expected to be a close affair as Portland is getting one point. Obviously, Kevin Durant (avg. 38.7 ppg in three games vs POR this season) is always in play if you want to spend top dollar for him. Two more Thunder players to consider include:
Reggie Jackson could be in for a big night as POR is allowing the most FP to PG over the last 15 days.
Serge Ibaka is in play on sites that give bonuses for blocks. Ibaka is avg. 3.7 bpg vs POR, including five in their last meeting.
For the home team there is LaMarcus Aldridge who has performed close to Durant in the teams three matchups this season as he is averaging 30.7 ppg and 14.3 rbg.
The Dark horse, discounted target could be C.J. McCollum if Mo Williams is out again. McCollum posted career-highs of 19 points, three assists in a career-high 28 minutes to go with three rebounds in his last outing.
Sacramento at Cleveland over/under 204 with the Cavs giving a point. Both teams play little, to no defense, and have players that rack up the stats, so this games jumps out the most. Both DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay are obvious choices, with Isaiah Thomas worth considering as the Cavs are allowing the second most FP to opposing point guards on the season. Thomas did tell the Sacramento Bee that he has been playing through a sprained left wrist, but it does not seem to be affecting him too much as he is averaging 24.4 ppg over his last five games, including dropping 30 on the Wizards last game.
One more player to consider from the Kings, in a GPP format if you are feeling lucky, is Jason Thompson who despite playing 30-plus minutes in each of the last two games has struggled, but he did go for eight points and 16 rebounds in the team’s one meeting earlier in the season and the Cavs are allowing the fifth most FP to PF over the last 15 days.
From the Cavs side there is Kyrie Irving who had a terrible outing in the first meeting on the road versus the Kings, but he has played better of late and is averaging about four more points and two more assists per game at home than on the road this season.
Dion Waiters has stepped up his game of late averaging 21 points, five boards, 3.5 assists, with three steals over his last two games and could be in line for similar minutes tonight, especially if C.J. Miles (foot) does not play. Update: Both Miles and Varejao are OUT tonight.
The last game, in regards to a large over/under that is appealing is the Utah at Los Angeles Lakers game which has a 202.5 o/u with the Lakers giving two points. Instead of going into detail into this game I am going to give you what the call in the business a tease as I expect our very own Mark Kaplan to highlight many of the players in this contest in his Daily League Picks article that can be found in the NBA Articles section of our homepage later today.
To sum up are little Vegas odds tour. All three of these games are expected to be high scoring contests with at least two of the three providing quite a few value plays, which will help you roster some of the stars in these matchups which are expected to remain close enough to avoid seeing your stud sitting on the sidelines giggling and high-fiving while someone like a Marreese Speights goes off.
Before I get to today’s news I have something for those of you who play fantasy baseball, which should help you rid yourself of any Monday blues, and that is the 2014 Fantasy Alarm Baseball Draft Guide. It is 200 pages of information that will arm you with the insight to help you dominate the competition in the coming season whether it be in season long, dynasty/keeper leagues, and/or daily league play. Just click on the blue link for more information and to get your copy. Now back to hoops.