NBA DFS: LeBron James and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Sunday, Oct. 4th

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. On top of that, I’ll bring you some news, statistical trends from the past few days, some studs/duds from the last slate of games, and much more!

Hoop Land Times: News and notes from around the Association

• Our worst fears are turning into reality. Miami missed both Dragic and Bam in Game 2 and the Lakers dominated the Heat to put the Finals at a near-definitive 2-0 in favor of LA.
• Bam should be back for Game 3, and there are no news on Dragic although his injury was more concerning so it’s probable he misses it.
• It is not that I know a lot about this, but trading for Anthony Davis—whatever the price—looks like it was a right move, amirite? It’s been 21 games in which Bron and AD have scored 60+ points combined and they are 20-1 in those... LeBron will play to a Finals-MVP level, and he’s probably the best player in the world, but AD is inching closer and closer by the day—assuming he hasn’t surpassed LBJ already.
• Dwayne Wade himself agreed yesterday that Anthony Davis is the best teammate LeBron has played with ever. That’s the level AD’s at, folks.
• Saucy development in Sacramento: Buddy Hield is not returning calls from Luke Walton, and you can start betting on which team will land him via trade in time for the start of the 2021 season. He’s done with the Kangz.
• Speaking of the 2021 season, Adam Silver has said that he doesn’t plan to schedule summer-break for Olympic Games. Looks like the NBA would then use something similar to the NHL model, in which players just leave the league for the span of the Olympics and then come back. The problem is that by the time the Olympics arrive the NBA should be starting the postseason (if the season starts late and expands into the summer).
• Ty Lue interviewed with the Pelicans and plans on doing so with the Clips and the Rockets this upcoming week. If the Clips lose him to other team I’m going to laugh hard at them, take that for granted.
• The Nuggets somehow reached the WCF this season, overperformed once more, but ultimately fell short of the Finals. There were whispers of an interest in Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday back in February and it looks like the Nuggs might entertain a deal for the point guard that could send Harris/Barton the other way.
• Jalen Lecque, the latest kid to go prep-to-pros, has signed with Rich Paul of Klutch Sports to represent him. Welcome (soon) to the Lakers!

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• LeBron read yesterday’s column and decided to screw with me leading the slate to the tune of 63 DKFP. That was another insane performance by 35-year-old Bron, who is definitely going for that Finals MVP award. He dropped a game-high 33 pops on Miami in 39 minutes while falling one board and one dime short a trip dub after closing G2 with a 33-9-9-1-1 stuffed line. He hit 3 triples and 11 of his 12 freebies without a single turnover.
• Two players with 53+ fantasy points, and they were the obvious ones: Jimmy finished second with 56 and a 25-8-13 line that wasn’t enough for Miami to pull the miracle off, while AD had another dub-dub with 32 points and 14 boards.
• Olynyk and Rondo, both coming off the pine, finished with 38 DKFP each. Rondo put up a dub-dub (16-10) while Olynyk was this close with a 24-9 performance.
• Not even the best of Jimmy Butler’s versions could help Miami in beating the Lakers, and neither could the ROI King award... Kelly Olynyk! Olynyk always comes cheap as peanuts because he basically doesn’t have a place in Miami’s lineup when Bam is available. Yesterday, he wasn’t, so Olynyk ate. He came off the bench, played all of 37 minutes, and finished with a sweet 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists while hitting 3 triples. Call me crazy, but it was a good enough game as to consider KO a potential starter in G3 even if Bam comes back. Duncan Robinson sucks, and he should hit the bench in favor of another biggie just to see if Miami could stop AD/LA’s bigs in any capacity.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Kyle Kuzma! This doesn’t make much sense but I had to pick someone. Kuzy finished with just 14 DKFP yesterday after scoring 11 points and getting a couple of boards and a dime. I mean, he’s doing what he’s tasked with, and it is not that the Lakers need a lot from him, but even with that he was a little disappointing shooting just 37.5% from the floor and turning the ball over 3 times.
• One dub-dub via points and rebounds (AD’ 32-14) and two on points and assists (Butler’s 25-13 and Rondo’s 16-10).
• Danny Green led the game with 2 steals, while Dwight did so with 2 blocks.

Gotta Win The Day: Best/Worst DraftKings plays for today’s slate

• Love: (PG/SF) LeBron James, LAL: I was absolutely wrong hating on Bron for G2. Folks, LeBron is going for it. Not the chip, not a win, no sir. The Finals MVP, that is. I should have known better after 17 years of watching this fool playing hoops... LOL. James is going for the kill against Miami, wants the third ring, and also wants to oust AD in the run for the Finals MVP award, which I’m 100% convinced he will get after missing on the regular-season trophy. James has two near-trip-dubs in the first two games of the series (25-13-9 and 33-9-9) and he’s just murda-killing the Heat. The only question here is when—not if—he will get that sweet triple-double and if he and the rest of the Lake Show will celebrate a full sweep or a gentleman’s one.
• Hate: (SG/SF) Jimmy Butler, MIA: Jimmy was incredible in a G2 that Miami fought for through the full 48 minutes but just didn’t have enough to take from Los Angeles’ hands. That being said, though, Butler needed to play almost 45 minutes—by far the most he’s been on the court since forever—and he was there alone with Bam and Dragic out for the night. While Dragic will be out once more (most probably), I expect Bam to come back and that will mean Butler will defer to him a bit. Not liking the upside of this play for G3.
• Love: (PF/C) Kelly Olynyk, MIA: As I just said above, I expect Bam to come back from his injury and G2 absence today and face the Lakers in Game 3 to try and help the Heat win at least one game in this Finals. Kelly Olynyk, coming off the bench and playing Bam’s role two days ago was excellent for Miami. He played 39 minutes and most analysts think he should actually start today even if Bam is out there on the court, giving Miami more size inside while stretching the court—Olynyk hit 3 triples and dished out 2 assists in G2. KO looks like a very good sneaky play for tonight’s game with upside to finish with a high fantasy-point tally if Bam and Jimmy get the tougher assignments from the Lakers, freeing Kelly a bit.

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!