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The Golden State Warriors will look to continue their charge up the Western Conference standings on Sunday, in hot pursuit of a good seed in the league’s postseason play-in tournament. In their way will stand the ... um ... tanking Sacramento Kings and their historically bad defense. Golden State has struggled on that end as well, so there’s a potential for a lot of points here, and that could make for a fun Showdown.
Without further ado, let’s get into how to construct your Showdown lineups for Sunday evening.
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Captain
Stephen Curry ($17,700 CP)
It’s hard not to pay up for maybe the league’s biggest offensive threat against the league’s least-threatening defense. Curry has been averaging 25 field goal attempts over the past five games, which is what you want from the guy you’re spending this kind of coin on, and his usage rate has climbed up as high as 48% in recent games. That speaks to just how reliant this offense is on Curry’s scoring — he’s the entire unit. This is going to be a chalky play but it’s hard to pass it up.
Tyrese Haliburton ($10,800 CP)
Haliburton should get minutes on top of minutes in this one, with the Kings playing their first game after De’Aaron Fox entered into the league’s health protocols. At this price, you could see 6X value, and that’s exactly what you want out of your captain, especially at this price. He managed 31.8 DKFP despite playing just 29 minutes last time out, so you can do the math on what should be expected of him if he sees 35 minutes and more usage on top of that.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA Showdown $200K Fadeaway [$50K to 1st] (SAC vs GSW)
Fades
Hassan Whiteside ($6,400)
I’m not sure if you were thinking of playing him, but I figured I’d give the heads up just in case. Whiteside has been largely ineffective in his limited minutes off the bench but is priced up here because he filled in recently for an injured Richaun Holmes ($8,200), seeing an increase in points just by default. The matchup is a good one, but I don’t think he’ll play enough to warrant the cost with Holmes returning, and he also hasn’t been rebounding the ball particularly well this year anyway.
Value FLEX Options
Kevon Looney ($3,600)
If you want to talk about value, look at Looney down here under $4K. He faces a Kings team ranking dead last in the league in rebounding rate over the past 10 games, and one that will be still deploying Whiteside for at least 15 minutes, who has struggled to rebound and defend. I don’t think Looney is the greatest talent in the world, but without James Wiseman and Eric Paschall, he’s been playing close to 30 minutes per game. That kind of playing time mixed with a good matchup on the boards should make for a spectacular value.
Mychal Mulder ($2,200)
You want to talk about even greater value? Mulder is your guy here down in the $2K price range after he was given a spot in the starting five on Friday in place of an absent Kent Bazemore. That’s right — Steve Kerr went with the rookie over Kelly Oubre, Jr. ($7,800), which shows how much they believe in this kid. Even if he doesn’t start, he should be locked in to over 20 minutes, and against a poor defense, I’m taking anyone who will see that many minutes at this price. It doesn’t hurt that he’s got a decent scoring touch, either.
The Outcome
The Kings will continue to struggle on defense, but so will the Warriors, which should lead us to a shootout. The problem is that Sacramento’s offense has sputtered of late, too, so I’m not ready to say this will be a close one. Curry should have himself another splendid night scoring the basketball en route to a big win.
Final Score: Warriors 127, Kings 107
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA Showdown $200K Fadeaway [$50K to 1st] (SAC vs GSW)
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is jetsfan196) and I may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.