With DraftKings and Yahoo main slates starting at 7 pm ET tonight, we will focus on just the five games being played from that time on. FanDuel’s main slate starts at 6p ET and players from the Hawks and Bucks won’t be included in today’s Starting-5. Notable inactive players for Sunday include Damian Lillard, Nikola Vucevic and Michael Porter Jr. 

PG James Harden: Tonight should be a swift back and forth between the Nets and Thunder and Harden is a consistent four-category producer. He has produced triple-doubles in three of his last five games and he’s even blocked shots in four of his last six contests. Harden has actually been helpful on defense, which is a stark difference from years past when anyone holding a basketball could get by him. Harden has swiped 1.1 balls per outing. While his scoring has also dipped because he’s not shooting as much, he continues to provide heavy support in rebounding and dishing dimes. Harden has shot at least 50 percent from the floor in 3 of his last 5 contests. He should take 15 shots in this game against his former team. The Thunder are middle of the road at defending point guards. 

SG: CJ McCollum: Will Barton is a solid defender, but with Damian Lillard out tonight, McCollum becomes the prioritized scorer. We should see him take close to 20 shots tonight and he’s scored 20.7 points per game this season. McCollum has also grabbed 1.1 steals per game. He’s a reliable rebounder pulling down 4.5 per game and he’ll get an opportunity to run the point a bit more tonight and that could boost his assists a bit. He dishes 4.3 dimes per outing. McCollum has blocked shots in two of his last three contests. McCollum has shot over 37 percent from beyond the arc, but it’s the mid-range and elbow area where he’s able to burn teams. Attacking Denver isn’t easy and the pace works against their opposition most of the time, but with Lillard out, it should give us more of a floor when it comes to McCollum especially from a shooting standpoint. 

SF: Miles Bridges: Bridges and Gordon Hayward are both in intriguing spots and we’ve seen them beat this matchup before against the Warriors. The Hornets leading scorer has shot 44 percent from the field and he takes 17-18 shots per game. Bridges scored 32 points and grabbed 9 rebounds when these 2 teams squared off a couple of weeks ago. Both the Hornets and the Warriors are top five in the league in pace and Bridges has scored 21 or more points in 2 of his last 3 games. Bridges has also posted three multi-steal games in his last four and he has blocked shots in three of his last four battles as well. He’s improved his game tremendously since last year. He has speed and it’ll be hard for Draymond Green to keep up with him. Bridges has even dished four or more dimes in three of his last four outings. 

PF Darius Bazley: The Nets are actually a bottom-10 team at guarding power forwards and Bazley has hit the 30-minute mark in 4 of his last 5 contests. He should take eight to 10 shots this evening and he’s shot 50 percent or better in 3 of his last 4 games. Bazley has exceeded his scoring average of 11.7 points per game in 4 of his last 5 games. Bazley has blocked shots in eight of his last 10 games. As sad as this may sound, he actually leads the Thunder in rebounding grabbing 6.9 boards per outing, but he’s actually pulled down 7 or more in 3 straight games. It’s a minor pace boost for the Thunder tonight. His scoring has improved and that along with his rebounding and shot-blocking makes Bazley an intriguing value play tonight. He’ll help stretch the floor a bit as he’ll fire away from long-range, but he’s more of an inside player.

C Christian Wood: The Suns are another team that you don’t really like to attack, especially up front, but Deandre Ayton will likely be out once again with an injured Leg. Wood is set up nicely and he’s not too pricey on FanDuel and DraftKings tonight. When the Rockets and Suns squared off 10 days ago, Wood scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and that was with an active Ayton. The Rockets and the Suns are two of the fastest teams in the league and Wood has grabbed no fewer than 15 rebounds in 4 of his last 6 games. Wood has recorded blocks in three of his last five games and he blocked three shots against the Suns the last time they faced each other. Wood continues to be the prioritized scorer in Houston and he has shot 45 percent from the floor. He’s even swiped balls in two of his last four contests.