Tastefully curated today by LineStar Fantasy Expert @GLandry on NBA chat.    

We witnessed some NBA basketball at its finest yesterday.  First, the Celtics and Bucks traded threes with one second left (I didn't think this was possible) to force overtime before Boston ultimately won.  Then, the Pacers were up by as many as 23 before the Cavs cut it to 8 at the start of the 4th quarter.  Things heated up when Lance Stephenson was issued a technical for hitting LeBron James in the head but the Pacers proved too much and blew out Cleveland by 18.  Playoff Paul George was on full display and put on a clinic as the Thunder took care of business against the Jazz.  In the final game, Derrick Rose is back in our lives but it wasn't enough as the Timberwolves dropped a close one to Houston behind 44 points from James Harden.

Today, we've got a mini two-game slate to talk about.  If you're playing in tournaments you'll need some reserve players with potential upside so we are going to focus most of our attention on some of those guys for today's article.  One benefit we have is all teams have now played one game which gives us at least a little insight into their playoff rotations.  Before we dive in let's first take a quick look at the notable minutes' breakdown from game one of the four teams who are playing today: 

San Antonio:

• Patty Mills: 27

• Bryn Forbes: 25

• LaMarcus Aldridge: 24

• DeJounte Murray: 23

• Danny Green/Rudy Gay: 22

• Pau Gasol: 20

• Davis Bertans: 18

• Manu Ginobili: 17

• Tony Parker: 13

Golden State:

• Draymond Green: 34

• Kevin Durant: 32

• Quinn Cook: 25

• Andre Iguodala: 23

• Kevon Looney: 20

• Shaun Livingston: 19

• JaVale McGee/David West: 16

• Nick Young: 8

• Jordan Bell: 7

Miami:

• Goran Dragic, Justise Winslow, Kelly Olynyk: 31

• Josh Richardson: 27

• James Johnson: 25

• Bam Abedayo: 21

• Dwayne Wade, Wayne Ellington: 19

• Tyler Johnson: 18

• Hassan Whiteside: 12

Philadelphia:

• Ben Simmons: 34

• Marco Belinelli: 33

• Ersan Ilyasova: 32

• Dario Saric, J.J. Redick: 31

• Robert Covington: 27

• Amir Johnson: 22

• Markelle Fultz: 14

• Richaun Holmes: 6

This doesn't mean the rotations will be exactly the same today but it's interesting to see how the minutes were divided up.  Both of these games got a little out of hand so we'll have to assume that may have played at least some role.  The Warriors and 76ers ran fairly tight rotations while the Spurs and Heat had minutes that were more spread out.  Things that stood out to me were Bryn Forbes and Patty Mills getting the most guard minutes for San Antonio, Hassan Whiteside only getting 12 minutes for Miami, Justise Winslow, and Kelly Olynyk tying for the most minutes in Miami, Dario Saric and J.J. Redick playing equal minutes to their reserve players Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli.  Alright, with all of this out of the way, let's see what we can find today.  

As always you can feel free to tag me in the LineStar chat rooms @glandry or follow me on Twitter @GP_Landry.  I'm always up for talking DFS and would love any feedback about the daily articles so we can be sure they are adding value to your research process.  

Guards

Marco Belinelli, PHI [vs. MIA] (DK: $4.8K, FD: $5.9K)

Our theme of players being expensive on FanDuel but underpriced on DraftKings will apparently continue today.  Given Belinelli's recent production, I'd say he's fairly priced on FanDuel and a steal on DraftKings with his $1100 price difference.  He's been nothing short of brilliant since he joined the 76ers, picking up extra minutes off the bench in Joel Embiid's absence and scoring at will.  He has a 24.1% true usage rate in the last eight games.  It's not a great matchup with Miami only allowing 12.3 fantasy points per game to shooting guard reserves.  But, as we saw in game one, Miami was clearly overmatched and likely staring at a sweep in this series.  Belinelli certainly did his share, putting up 39 fantasy points in 33 minutes.  It looks like Philadelphia is going with a very tight rotation with the starters plus Belinelli and Ilyasova all playing over 30 minutes and then very little left for anyone else.  He's a top value today on both sites.  

Shaun Livingston, GS [@SA] (DK: $3.3K, FD: $3.8K)

To everyone's surprise, Golden State started Andre Iguodala at point guard in game one, forcing Quinn Cook back to the bench.  It's an interesting move as I would have thought the Warriors would prefer to have Iguodala's abilities on the second unit but perhaps they thought Quinn Cook, who's played exceptional this season, could provide that offensive spark with the 2nd group instead.  The experiment in game one did not go well (though the Warriors still won).  Neither Iguodala or Cook played well in their new roles.  Cook had 16 fantasy points in 25 minutes of action.  Meanwhile, Shaun Livingston was much more efficient scoring 19 fantasy points in 19 minutes of action.  San Antonio, normally a very bad matchup for guards with Dejounte Murray's excellent defense, is much less scary against reserves ranking 20th in average fantasy points allowed over their final ten games.  Livingston had some success against them as well putting up 29 fantasy points in only 24 minutes back on March 8th.  Clearly, Livingston is the more efficient guard off the bench, but Cook thrived as the starter during the regular season without Steph Curry.  This will be an interesting situation to watch today.  

Bryn Forbes, SA [@GS] (DK: $3K, $3.7K)

There was a lot of talk in chat and on twitter prior to game one about Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker stepping up with all their playoff experience.  To everyone's surprise, however, it was Bryn Forbes who played the most minutes at guard off the bench for San Antonio.  Even more surprising, Forbes played more minutes (25) then starting point guard Dejounte Murray (23).  Only Patty Mills (27) played more minutes than both of them.  So, this is a bit of a mess as it's not what I expected.  Game one obviously did not go well with the Spurs losing so it's hard to say exactly what will happen tonight.  But, given how the minutes were divided up I think Forbes needs to be on your radar in tournaments.  He's near minimum salary and played well in game one with 19 fantasy points.  That's a 6.5 times return on investment on DraftKings.  He's worth a look today especially if the rest of the field is more likely to roster Ginobili and/or Parker.  

Forwards

Kelly Olynyk, MIA [@PHI] (DK: $6.1K, FD: $6.4K)

As it turns out, Olynk is the center to have exposure to on Miami and not Hassan Whiteside (Olynyk is only power forward eligible on FanDuel so we are listing him here).  While Whiteside was held to just 12 minutes, Olynyk exploded for 26 points in 31 minutes resulting in 38 FanDuel points and 41 DraftKings points in game one.  It may be a good day to jump aboard the Olynyk train as Joel Embiid will not play tonight in game 2 but it doesn't sound like this will last much longer.  Embiid has cleared the concussion protocol and is inching closer to a return.  Once he does, it will make it much more difficult for the Miami big men to put up points.  Look for Miami to trail in this game once again and lean on Olynyk to provide a scoring spark and hopefully keep them within striking distance.  

Justise Winslow, MIA [@PHI] (DK: $5.1K, $FD: 5.3K)

Winslow is a player I rostered often during the last couple of weeks of the regular season.  He's been very consistent, averaging 34.2 minutes per game and nearly a double-double with 10.7 points and 8 rebounds per game during the last week of the season.  He's had five straight games with at least 22 fantasy points.  In game one, he had 28 fantasy points in 31 minutes.  As expected, the Heat had a deeper rotation than most playoff teams, with five bench players getting 19 minutes or more.  Winslow, as well as the aforementioned Olynyk and starter Goran Dragic, led the team with 31 minutes each.  With Josh Richardson struggling badly in game one scoring only four points in 27 minutes, I'd expect Winslow to get plenty of opportunities today and he's definitely someone to have on your radar.  

Rudy Gay, SA [@GS] (DK: $4.9K, FD: $5.8K)

With LaMarcus Aldridge struggling in game one, Gay attempted to pick up the slack leading all players in scoring with 15 points in just 22 minutes.  He started the second half over Kyle Anderson, who also struggled with zero points in just 11 minutes.   I would anticipate, with the Spurs needing to throw everything they have at the Warriors to stay alive, Gay will be more involved in the game plan for tonight.  He's been extremely consistent of late, with eight straight games of at least 20 fantasy points.  He's more appealing on DraftKings with his price still under $5K but he's an option to consider on both sites.  I'd love to see what he could do if he were given 30 or more minutes in a must-win game tonight for San Antonio.  

Centers

JaVale McGee, GS [vs. SA] (DK: $3.6K, FD: $4.5K)

Center is ugly on this slate, particularly on FanDuel.  I feel like I say that a lot but tonight is even worse than usual.  The most expensive player available, again on FanDuel, is Hassan Whiteside at $6.8K.  We talked earlier in this article about how we can't use him after only getting 12 minutes in game one.  After that, your remaining choices are $4.6K or less and feature players like an unreliable Pau Gasol or Zaza Pachulia who played exactly zero minutes in game one.  On DraftKings, you can add LaMarcus Aldridge and Kelly Olynyk into the mix, which makes it a little better.  But even Aldridge's struggles in game one give me pause.  I'm only going to go with two recommendations today at this position as I don't want to make a case for a player I would never consider myself.  McGee started for the Warriors in game one, as a defensive move, to keep Aldridge at bay and it worked very well.  I'd expect this trend to continue through the rest of the series.  The issue, of course, is unless the Spurs can find a way to make some of these games close McGee will likely never see more than 20 minutes.  The good news, however, is he was very efficient with his minutes in game one.  He had 15 points on 5-7 shooting, with four rebounds and two blocked shots.  Good enough for 26 fantasy points in just 16 minutes and seven times return on investment on both DraftKings and FanDuel.  On DraftKings, his price stayed the same, making him one of the better values today.  On FanDuel, he saw a $900 price increase which makes him less appealing though you may not really have a choice on this slate. 

Bam Adebayo, MIA [@PHI] (DK: $3.5K, FD: $3.6K)

This is really your only other option and frankly, it's not a great one.  Adebayo is a player we roster occasionally when he gets a spot start.  He typically provides some salary relief and value in those cases.  But even then, the floor is pretty low and the ceiling isn't great either.  Today, he won't get the start, he's mixed in with Whiteside and Olynyk for minutes.  What complicates things even more, is while Whiteside isn't playing enough minutes to roster in DFS, he's playing just enough minutes to take away from Adebayo and essentially make both of them unplayable.  You can consider him, in a large field GPP, as he did manage to get 21 minutes in game one.  He's definitely capable, especially at his price point, of giving you six or seven times return on investment in only 20 minutes if the stars align just right.  I'm not confident, but if I were playing multiple teams in a large field GPP today (please don't do this - save your money) I could see him making the cut on a small percentage of teams at low ownership and hoping for the best.  

Injuries 🤕

Miami at Philadelphia

Miami:

• No injuries reported

Philadelphia:

• OUT: Joel Embiid - C

• UPGRADE: Ersan Ilyasova - PF/C

San Antonio at Golden State

San Antonio:

• OUT: Kawhi Leonard - SF

• UPGRADE: N/A

Golden State:

• OUT: Steph Curry - PG/SG

• OUT: Patrick McCaw - PG/SF

• UPGRADE: Andre Iguodala - SG/SF

That's it!  Two game slates can be fun and I get wanting to have some investment in the playoffs but just don't go crazy.  You'll need to prioritize the starters for today that you want to have exposure to and then figure out how some of these recommendations above can fit in while still giving you some upside.  Remember, everything above is for tournaments only.  If you're playing cash then stick to the starters who minutes are actually secure.  I'm putting a lot of faith in these recommendations based on a one-game playoff sample.  The rotations could certainly change today.  Good luck!  I'm sticking to NBA all this week as we are going to cover the playoffs at least through the first round until the slates get to the point where they become unplayable. Tag me on chat @glandry with any questions or feedback!  Thank you for reading!   

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