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Daily Fantasy Basketball Preview: NBA Week 11
Have a little loot lying around your DraftDay account after the Clippers Courtside promotion? If so, congratulations. That was no easy task cracking the top 50. Now it’s time to look ahead to the upcoming week of NBA action to see if you can take your new-found free money and runitup™ to a nice three- or four-figure balance!
Friday, March 9th
Games on schedule: 10
Teams on back-to-back: Dallas
Deron Williams, New Jersey (Salary: $15,370) at Charlotte
Few players have been as en fuego as Nets point guard Deron Williams as of late. Last week against the Bobcats, he torched them for 57 points, 7 assists and 6 boards in what was arguably the most impressive individual performance of the season. You might want to give some thought to rolling the dice with him when the Nets face the Bobcats again.
Kenneth Faried, Denver (Salary: $9,870) vs. New Orleans
Rookie Kenneth Faried has turning in some impressive numbers lately. His salary is up considerably from its position of $5,264 just six weeks ago. Even NBA mastermind and critic Haralabos Voulgaris is impressed with the young Faried; he recently tweeted, “Denver’s Faried is a pretty darn good NBA player. Really impressed with his activity and athleticism.”
This particular matchup against the Hornets is appealing for a couple of reasons. Primarily, New Orleans is pretty banged up in the front court right now defensively. There is also a reasonable possibility of this game turning into the type of one-sided contest that could lead to substantial playing time for Faried. He’s an interesting gamble for Friday’s games.
Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee (Salary: $13,745) vs. New York
Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings should probably be somewhere in the running for Most Under-Appreciated NBA Player right now. He’s putting up some incredible fantasy numbers this year. Expect him to do just that in a fast-paced game against the Knicks.
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City (Salary: $18,620) vs. Cleveland
Those poor, poor Cavaliers. The only case one could make for not starting Durant on this day is that his services may not be needed after the first three quarters of this contest.
Saturday, March 10th
Games on schedule: 9
Teams on back-to-back: Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Portland, Utah
Nicolas Batum, Portland (Salary: $11,520) at Washington
Batum has been one of the rising stars of daily fantasy basketball as of late after bumping Wesley Matthews out of his starting role in Portland. His second start of the season came against Washington on February 14th. He tied his season-high scoring total with 33 points in that game.
Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City (Salary: $10,250) at Charlotte
Ibaka might have a little extra motivation to go into Beast Mode™ for this matchup in which he’ll face fellow Congolese big man Bismack Biyombo. Look for Ibaka to give the young boy a schooling. I’m sensing another double-digit block performance in this one.
Luis Scola, Houston (Salary: $9,405) at New Jersey
Scola has basically been a fantasy disappointment this season, but he has a good chance for a bit of redemption on Saturday against the Nets who are missing big man Brook Lopez due to injury.
Kevin Love, Minnesota (Salary: $18,880) vs. New Orleans
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chris Kaman and Gustavo Ayon.
Sunday, March 11th
Games on schedule: 8
Teams on back-to-back: Golden State, Houston, Indiana, Memphis, Toronto
Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers (Salary: $15,575) vs. Golden State
Golden State has virtually no defensive presence in the back court. Paul will have his way with this team.
Josh Smith, Atlanta (Salary: $15,270) at Sacramento
Josh Smith is having a career year and DraftDay players have noticed. He seems to be a favorite selection each night the Hawks are on. Expect that to be the case in this matchup against the league’s worst defense.
O.J. Mayo, Memphis (Salary: $8,520) at Denver
O.J. Mayo has had his way with Denver this season (not that pretty much everyone in the league hasn’t as well) averaging 17.5 points in two contests. Contrast this with his season scoring average of 12.1 and he looks to be a very appealing option for Sunday’s games.
Monday, March 12th
Games on schedule: 7
Teams on back-to-back: Boston, L.A. Clippers, Milwaukee, New York
Derrick Rose, Chicago (Salary: $16,065) vs. New York
D-Rose had 32 and 12 against the Knicks last month. As 4for4_John points out, it’s not that the Knicks are bad defensively, they’re actually rather good, it’s that the pace they play is so fast opposing teams usually get a few extra possessions against them.
Kris Humphries, New Jersey (Salary: $11,760) vs. Milwaukee
With Brook Lopez sidelined for three weeks, more weight falls on the shoulders of Humphries to do work down low for the Nets. He should have an easy time of that against the porous Bucks.
Tony Parker, San Antonio (Salary: $12,695) vs. Washington
Why have just one NBA star fresh off of a failed celebrity marriage on your roster when you can have two? Parker is one of the few reliable options on a Spurs team that seems to give fantasy players fits.
Tuesday, March 13th
Games on schedule: 8
Teams on back-to-back: Washington
Alonzo Gee, Cleveland (Salary: $7,975) vs. Toronto
Gee has found his way into the starting line-up recently for a faltering team that seems to be willing to give anyone a chance. He seems to be able to contribute in a number of ways. In this matchup against the Raptors, Gee is positioned nicely to improve upon his career-best stat lines.
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas (Salary: $14,915) vs. Washington
The reigning NBA Finals MVP has been fantasy kryptonite so far this season, but appears to finally have found his rhythm. One can now confidently start him, especially in a soft matchup such as this one.
Josh Smith, Atlanta (Salary: $15,270) at Denver
The Hawks are missing Joe Johnson and giving solid minutes to Tracy McGrady and Jerry Stackhouse and yet somehow are… winning! A major reason for that is Smith who is sure to be a popular selection on DraftDay lineups when the Hawks roll into Denver.
Wednesday, March 14th
Games on schedule: 12
Teams on back-to-back: Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Golden State, Houston, Indiana, L.A. Lakers, Miami, Orlando, Portland, Sacramento, Toronto
Rajon Rondo, Boston (Salary: $12,385) at Golden State
This is Rondo’s last chance before the trade deadline to force the Celtics to second-guess shipping him out of Boston. He couldn’t ask for a softer matchup.
Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin, Houston (Salaries: $13,485 and $10,975, respectively) vs. Charlotte
DraftDay players love taking to the chat box to gripe at their inability to guess right on which one of these two to start on any given night. Going for both of them might not be such a terrible choice when the Rockets host the Bobcats.
Greg Monroe, Detroit (Salary: $13,210) at Sacramento
Put Monroe’s name up there with Brandon Jennings for Most Under-Appreciated NBA Player. In fact, let’s just give him that award right now (sorry, Ryan Anderson). He’s really the only bright-spot on an unfortunate Pistons team that is losing two-thirds of their games.
Deron Williams, New Jersey (Salary: $15,370) vs. Toronto
D-Will with a deserving second mention in this blog. Toronto is pretty decent defensively but D-Will might be too much to handle coming off a back-to-back.
Antawn Jamison, Cleveland (Salary: $13,160) at Milwaukee
Jamison has been a beast lately including a 34 point, 11 rebound performance against the Bucks on February 10th, his most complete game of the season.
Thursday, March 15th
Games on schedule: 5
Teams on back-to-back: Charlotte, L.A. Clippers, New Orleans, Phoenix, Utah
Rodrigue Beaubois, Dallas (Salary: $7,015) vs. Charlotte
This young Guadalupano has shown flashes of great potential in limited minutes this season. He’s an interesting possibility for a Thursday matchup with the Bobcats in which he could see a lot of minutes in a blowout.
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City (Salary: $18,620) at Denver
Durant had a nice little 51 point game against the Nuggets on February 19th. That was, shockingly, the first 50-point output of his career. He might go for numero dos in this Thursday rematch.
John Wall, Washington (Salary: $13,375) at New Orleans
The Wizards offense has actually been scoring points lately. They’ve gone for over 100 in 6 of their last 8. This is the same team that didn’t score more than 96 points in the first 12 games of their season! John Wall seems like a nice fantasy option for the remainder of the season.
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