NBA DFS: Giannis Antetokounmpo and best DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Thursday, Nov. 21st

Welcome to your daily NBA DFS digest at FakeTeams, gents. Every day I’m here with a handful of pro-tips to roster a winning team just a few hours from now.

You might be new to fantasy hoops, so let me tell you this: the world doesn’t end in LeBron James. Each night gives us a pretty good batch of surprising performances and leaves us in the dust with more than a few upsetting outings by those we played. First world problems, carry on. That’s the beauty of this game. There are so many matches going on every single day and such a big roster available that you can’t fixate yourself in the very same player on and on but instead you need to keep things fluid.

So read on, take note, play cool, and win the day. (Player salaries pulled from DraftKings.)

Love: (PG) Jrue Holiday, NO ($8200, at PHO)

We’re so close to Christmas time, it already feels like Holidays. And Jrue might be getting an early present tonight if Ricky Rubio is not around. Not that he needs any extra goods, though. Jrue has finished five of his last six games inside the top-12 players of the DraftKings’ main slates averaging a massive 48.65 DKFP in those matches. That’s Jrue, I mean, true. Or both, actually. Jrue takes no holidays, though, as he’s averaged almost 37 MPG in his last six while dropping 20.6 pops and dishing 8.7 dimes per. He’s also taking on the Grinch role this season with 2.0 steals a day in his 12 games and 0.7 (!) blocks. If he’s too rich to your blood you can always go with Biceps Bledsoe or take a flier on Anfernee Simons (read below).

Love: (SG) C.J. McCollum, POR ($7500, at MIL)

Lord have mercy, for we have sinned. CJ Mac is about to cook his plenty-a-burger and eat it whole. The same as ten pennies make for a dime, a Mac makes for a Lillard. Dame is out tonight and that means point-CJ will need to put on work against the Bucks. Sure, Savior Melo will also play, but allow me to be the one to tell you that Mac will be the one riding here. Just two days ago with Dame out of the lineup—and Melo already in—CJ’s usage rose to 27.8% even with Melo getting a ridiculous 33.7% himself. No wonder, Mac updated his OS in Lillard’s absence and finished with a sweet 22-4-5-2-1 line while shooting 40.9% from the floor. Milwaukee is good as a team, but their point-men are not that great at defending so I’m all in for a feasting CJ. If you’re going for the value, then stay with Portland and play Rodney Hood as he’ll probably see a bump up in minutes thanks to Lillard’s injury.

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Love: (SF) Kelly Oubre Jr., PHO ($6700, vs NO)

Poor Oubre was sucked by LeBron’s magnetism a little over a week ago and he could do nothing on his 19 minutes of playing time. He was just too busy trying to do something on defense against the Washed King. Other than that, Kelly has been a Machine Gun. He’s scored in double-digits in each and every game and is averaging a pretty palatable 17 PPG on the season along with 5.7 boards, 1.6 dimes and 2 neat stocks. Not even he can believe his shooting from the floor (47.3 FG%, compared to his career average of 42.7%) through 13 games, and he’s also going to the charity stripe more than a lot (4.7 FTA at 78.7%). Nice play if you’re a little bit on a budget.

Love: (PF) Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL ($10600, vs POR)

Let me laugh at this one but it’s so obvious, even if it will cost you an eye. Expecting the Blazers to stop Giannis is like dropping a bonsai inside of the biggest volcano full of flaming lava on earth and expecting it to come out alive. No, it won’t make it. I’m sorry for the poor souls from Portland, and I’m sorry if for some reason Portland decides to put Melo on Giannis in defense. I’m not crazy if I tell you that the Greek could easily drop a 50-bomb tonight. His usage has been mental lately (38.6% in his last four games) but he has yet to reach 40 points this season. He’s averaging a dub-dub easily (30-14) and rounding it with 6 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 1.4 BPG. Oh, and he’s still not finished a game scoring fewer than 10 points or grabbing fewer than 10 rebounds. That’s a true dub-dub player, my friends, and the rest are just fakes.

Love: (C) Hassan Whiteside, POR ($6500, at MIL)

Look, I get it. I get what Chuck said, and I get what basically everybody agrees with. Hassan is a bad man. Not in a good sense. Hassan is a bad man because Hassan doesn’t give a fudge. He’s the most Jokic player other than Jokic himself. Hassan makes a living wandering through the court. Hassan doesn’t put on a great effort. Hassan is worthless and useless. Really, folks? Are we going that way? Come on. I don’t care about Hassan’s attitude as long as Hassan Whiteside gets the Home Work done, and you bet he’s at it. The Blockula is averaging a dub-dub, that’s enough for me. He’s scoring 14.9 a night and snatching 12 boards per. His assists and steals are virtually non-existent, but what do you want? He’s giving you 1.8 blocks already, fool, and shooting 58.7% from the floor. Shaking my head to the haters. They’ll never learn.

If you have any comment or question about the daily column, tonight’s games, players involved in them, or even season-long fantasy NBA topics, just drop it below or reach out to me on Twitter at @chapulana and I’ll get back to you as soon as I grab a keyboard!