Golden State Warriors & Utah Jazz (-5)

Total: 223.5

 

Golden State Warriors Injuries:

Draymond Green – Out

Damion Lee - Out

Utah Jazz Injuries:

Hassan Whiteside - Out

*Please note that players not listed below are not necessarily a complete fade and any player listed can certainly be used as the MVP/Captain. These are merely suggestions for players to use when setting Showdown lineups.

MVP/CPT

Stephen Curry, PG (GSW) – It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Golden State is going to need everything Curry is capable of offensively to keep with Utah tonight. Tonight’s expected game flow fits right in with what we have been seeing from Curry as of late, and that is a lot of three-point attempts; 44 in his last three games. That is par for the course from Curry, and as we know, he is pretty good at knocking them down. With Golden State’s game against Denver on Thursday postponed, Curry also is well rested coming into tonight’s game. 

Donovan Mitchell, PG/SG (UTA) – While Mitchell’s 39-point, five assist game last night did come with Mike Conley resting, I still have a hard time perceiving the latter as a true threat. The majority of Mitchell’s value does come from his offense, and it’s hard to argue with the stretch of success that we are currently seeing from him as his average for the season is up to 25.8 points per game with Mitchell attempting at least 20 shots from the field for six straight games. 

Rudy Gobert, C (UTA) – After Curry and Mitchell, a lot of the wing players tonight tend to blend together. Sure, some are better than others, but especially with both Green and Whiteside sidelined, Gobert doesn’t really have any peers in the big man department. It has been interesting to take note of Gobert’s ability to get to the free throw line as of late, and it helped save his value last night as the center made eight of 10 free throws along with three of seven shots from the field. We don’t have to worry about the rebounds, 16 last night, and it was another 40-plus DFS point effort out of Gobert. 

Utility

Andrew Wiggins, SG/SF (GSW) – The return of Jordan Poole could be taken as a slight hit to Wiggins value, but to this point, they have coexisted pretty well in Golden State’s offense. Wiggins continues to be a consistent scoring option taking around 15 shots per game for the Warriors. It is worth noting though that Wiggins has been more active on the boards as of late with 20 in his last three games. 

Mike Conley, PG (UTA) – On bigger slates, Conley isn’t generally someone that I look to target based on the lack of upside, but in a Showdown Slate, it plays a little differently for me. We know that Conley is going to play around 30 minutes tonight, he rested last night so he is fresh, and in his last four games, the point guard is averaging 16.5 points, 4.8 assists, and 4.5 rebounds. After shooting 10 of 28 from the field in his last two games, Conley should bounce back to a small degree here, and we are looking at around 30 to 35 fantasy points as a reasonable expectation. 

Jordan Poole, PG/SG (GSW) – Poole got an extra few days to make his return after Thursday’s game was postponed, and it should only serve to benefit him. At 17.9 points per game this season, Poole is clicking on the offensive end and I would expect the shots to be flowing tonight against Utah. 

Jordan Clarkson, PG/SG (UTA) – Clarkson is one of those players who should always be on your radar because it doesn’t take much for him to get rolling and knock down some shots. In his last few games though, Clarkson has benefited from Donovan Mitchell missing time with a back injury and Mike Conley taking last night for rest. If Clarkson isn’t averaging around 18 shots per game, like he did in his last three, then we obviously are looking at a different player, but we know he can get hot in a hurry. You always want some exposure to Clarkson, but not as much as others. 

Bojan Bogdanovic, SF/PF (UTA) – Take some of what I said about Clarkson, and apply it here. The 24 points Bogdanovic scored last night aren’t all that surprising, but you don’t want to go chasing his 12 rebounds either. At the same time though, with no Whiteside tonight, Bogdanovic might be in the position to be a little more active on the boards once again. 

Dart Throws

Rudy Gay, SF/PF (UTA) – From a playing time perspective, I would expect Gay to be biggest beneficiary tonight with Whiteside sidelined. It would be nice if Gay took 13 shots like he did on Wednesday (making eight of them in fact), but instead our expectations should be closer in line to the 12-point, three rebound, three assist performance we got last night. 

Juan Toscano-Anderson, PF (GSW) – With Green out tonight, Toscano-Anderson slides into the starting lineup and we are hoping 30 minutes of playing time. On occasion he has hit double figures in both scoring and rebounding, so we are hoping for a repeat of that tonight based on the extra playing time Toscano-Anderson is due to receive. 

Andre Iguodala, SF (GSW) – Iguodala should get close to the 24 minutes he has played in each of his last three games tonight. No one would argue with his average of just under eight points per game along with 4.5 assists and three rebounds in that stretch based on the cost and the skills are still there for a little more to not be surprising.