NBA daily fantasy picks: Five players who could help your lineup for Dec. 9
Wednesday greets the DFS community with its standard 10-game slate, though there is just one five-figure player (James Harden), compared with six in just six games on Tuesday. That might actually grant more freedom in lineup construction. While you could pair any of those six players on Tuesday, or even use three of them, you had to get at least two in your lineup. The dearth of huge names available on Wednesday means there are far more players who could be the nucleus of your lineup. We find ours in the backcourt north of the border.
All prices are courtesy of FanDuel and based on a $60,000 budget.
PG: Kyle Lowry ($9,300) vs. SA: Lowry’s career season continues unabated. He has four straight games with at least 42.4 fantasy points, and is now carrying averages nearly every point guard in the league envies. The ninth-year player out of Villanova is averaging 22.2 points, 6.2 assists, 4.9 rebounds and a league-leading 2.6 steals per game.
SG: Terrence Ross ($3,800) vs. SA: Ross stepped into the starting lineup for the injured DeMarre Carroll in Toronto’s last game and had his best night of the season. He played 39 minutes, scoring 22 points, pulling down six rebounds, and adding two steals to boot. Carroll is out for the foreseeable future with a knee injury, making Ross an intriguing player in season-long leagues, as well.
SF: Otto Porter ($5,600) vs. HOU: Porter has double-doubles in consecutive games, and posted 31.8 fantasy points per game in his last three trips to the court. He scored just 22.4 points in the first game of that stretch thanks to five turnovers, which are uncharacteristic for a player who doesn’t have significant ball-handling duties. The Rockets have allowed the third-most fantasy points per game to small forwards, and the over/under on this game is 215, the highest on the board by 10 points. Porter should keep on rolling.
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PF: Blake Griffin ($9,300) @ MIL: Grabbing Ross and Porter at their affordable price tags gives us the freedom to spend on Griffin at power forward. He hasn’t had the ceiling to justify a five-figure number next to his name, but he rarely fails to justify spending up to get him in your lineup. The assists have been a nice bonus this year, and he has turned into even more of a point forward of late. Griffin has at least five assists in each of his last six games.
C: Karl-Anthony Towns ($6,900) vs. LAL: The Lakers have surrendered the sixth-most fantasy points per game to centers, making this a great matchup for the surging Towns, who has pulled himself out of the first downturn of his career. In his last two games, he has 45 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks.
