NBA DFS: Robert Covington and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Thursday, Mar. 5th

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

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• Finally, Steph Curry’s Day is here! The Warriors made it official yesterday and he will be back tonight facing the Raptors on TNT! Yay!
• Zach Randolph is back balling, only not on NBA courts. Sucks, but hey, we will enjoy Z-Bo hoops in the BIG3 this season. Can’t wait.
• Ten days after signing his 10-day deal (quite obvious, isn’t it?) Dragan Bender has been released. These are your present-day Warriors. Throwing crap at the wall doesn’t mean it’ll always stick, and Bender’s crap wasn’t good enough it seems.
• Troy Daniels, released by the Lakers a few days ago, is singing with the Nuggets. Not that it has any great impact in fantasy or real-life basketball terms.
• Clint Capela will remain out for at least a couple more weeks and then be re-evaluated. Long wait for the Hawks faithful to watch its new big man put on work on the actual court.
• Kevin Porter Jr. was about to start his second game in a row for the Cavs... until he forgot to put on his jersey so Matthew Dellavedova got the start in his place. LOL.

Duds and Studs: Last night slate roundup

• The man, the myth, the living legend. Luka entered yesterday’s slate with a “Questionable” tag attached to his forehead and facing half-man half-volcano Zion Williamson but Doncic stepped up his game and led the night with his 73.25 DKFP in 41 minutes. The line read 30-17-10-1-1, the contribution came from all across the board, and the sweet trip-dub just rounded it all.
• Second in fantasy scoring, and the only other player into the 60s, was Kristaps Porzingis. That’s right. Both Mavs hit big-time in the same game and Porzingis got himself 66.5 DKFP to the tune of a 34-12-3 line with 5 (!) blocked shots. Impressive performance by both Euros.
• Eight more guys in the 50-to-60 DKFP clip: Tatum (58.75 DKFP; 32-9-6-2-1), Lonzo (57.75; 25-11-6-2-1), Vucevic (56; 22-16-7 and a block), Giannis (55.5; 29-12-6-1), Hassan (55.5; 24-16-2 and 4 blocks), Sexton (55.25; 41-3-6-1), Love (55; 26-14-5 and a block), and Larry Nance Jr. (53.25; 19-15-4-4).
• One clear ROI King: Semi Ojeleye of Boston who reached some sweet 37 fantasy points in 30 minutes while tagged at $3.3K (22-6-2 with a block and 5 triples). A few more good value-returners, but none so impressive with Donte DiVincenzo (40.75 at $4.3K) leading the pack.
• And the DOTS Award goes to... Spencer Dinwiddie! Spicy D could only rack up 18.5 DKFP priced at $7.8K. Other pretty horrific lines were logged by DLo (29.75 at $9.1K), Bam (25.75 at $8.4K), and Brogdon (11.5 at $7K).
• Sexy night for the double-digit nerds. Up to 13 dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Valanciunas and Dieng missed on it by one and four points, Tatum and Christian Wood by a single board) but not a single one counting dimes (four guys fell one assist short though).
• Shouts to Luka for his triple-double of 30-17-10 to which he added a steal and a block. Kudos to both Kristaps and Maxi Kleber for blocking 5 rocks each, leading the slate.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from the past seven days

• Tyus Jones is the best value these days among those with four games played in the past week. His price would make you laugh and he’s available in almost every league out there. The line reads 12-3-5-2 in 20 minutes and he’s contributing in each and every cat you can imagine with a usage rate over 23%. Not bad.
• Mychal Mulder is somehow keeping his game up. Not that he’s doing that much (12-4-1 in 30 mpg hitting 2.8 triples per game) but if you need a quick fix for peanuts he’s your man.
• Silly cheap values: Brandon Knight (18-2-6-1 and 4.7 3pm in 29 mpg), George Hill (12-4-4-1 in 22.7), Mike Scott (9-5-2-1 and 2.7 3pm in 24.3)
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Porzingis (32-13-3-0-4 in 39.7), OG Anunoby (20-8-3-5 in 38.7), Lonzo Ball (19-8-9-3-1 in 35.8), Collin Sexton (30-4-4-1 in 39.3)
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Trae Young (22-2-10 in 31), Kawhi (25-5-3-2 in 30), Jimmy Butler (18-6-6-1 in 34), Spencer Dinwiddie (17-3-8-1-1 in 28)
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Brandon Knight (17.7 ppg in 29 mpg), Gary Trent Jr. (15.3 in 32.8), Rudy Gay (14 in 27)
• Cheap threes: Svi Mykhailiuk (3.3 3pm in 30.3), Cam Johnson (3 in 26), Mychal Mulder (2.8 in 30)
• Cheap boards: Willy Hernangomez (8.7 in 16.7), Alex Len (9.3 in 19.5), Chris Boucher (6.3 in 17.3)
• Cheap dimes: Tony Snell (5.3 in 33), Matthew Dellavedova (5.3 in 25), DJ Augustin (5.3 in 19)
• Cheap steals: Justin Holiday (2.8 in 19), Brad Wanamaker (2.3 in 23.3), Shaq Harrison (2 in 18.7)
• Cheap blocks: Alex Len (2 in 19.5), JaVale McGee (1.8 in 18), Garrett Temple (1.3 in 24.3)
• Cheap shooting: Duncan Robinson (57 fg% on 9.5 fga), Jordan Poole (55.5% on 9.7), De’Andre Hunter (51.3% on 11)

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

• Love: (PF/C) Robert Covington, HOU ($6700, vs LAC): The matchup will scare but at this price you can’t pass on RoCo. Seriously, the algorithm went crazy with this one. It’s been two games in a row getting 46+ DKFP and I see no reason for that to change, Clips or not in front of Cov. The minutes have been bonkers at 39 and 34 in the last two, and while the usage as remained grounded at around 16% Rob has still made the most of his chances scoring 10+ in his last four games while grabbing 6+ boards in all of them, including 16 and 13 in the last two matches to complete a couple of dub-dub performances. The blocks are never sustainable, but RoCo is defying history with his numbers: in the last seven games he’s played he’s blocked either 3 or 4 shots every single game except in one! The triples also come in bunches with an average of 3.1 made threes per game in the last month. Cov is sooooooo unreasonably cheap.
• Hate: (PG) Stephen Curry, GSW ($8000, vs TOR): Curry is back! Yay! Curry is back! Ugh! Fade Steph if only today, please. The Chef is coming back at a monster $8K in his first game playing in the last five years or something after getting injured. I’m sorry, but I’m not buying this one. We all know Curry. We all know he just needs a bunch of moderately-open shots or just pulling from half-court to get 25 pops, 7 triples, and whatever, but I just can’t trust a man who has been out since Oct. 30 and logged all of 112 minutes in 4 games this season. I just can’t. Not today. Let him marinate.
• Love: (PG) Kyle Lowry, TOR ($8600, at GSW): On the other hand though... Lowry sounds like music to my ears. The price you’ll have to pay is high, that’s right. His eight-plus dollar tag ain’t no joke, but who knows what the Warriors will do today with their rotation, if Curry will stay on the court for long while limiting his efforts on D, etc, etc... Lowry’s price might be high but so are his numbers from the last month. In the past 10 games going back to Feb. 5 Klow is averaging 45 DKFP per game, playing like a top-20 player in his slates, and dropping nightly 19-6-9-1-1 lines. That’s mental. He logged four dub-dubs leading up to the ASW break and two more after he came back from it. He’s on a three-game streak in which the lowest points-rebounds-dimes he’s logged would read 17-5-6. Even that would be enough to make him a reasonably valuable play, so you know what to do.
• Hate: (PF/C) Al Horford, PHI ($7000, at SAC): The Sixers might trade Big Al this summer. I can’t do that, but I can definitely fade the hell out of Horford and keep him out of my lineups. So should you. Sure, AH had a good game reaching 42.75 DKFP just last week... against the Knicks. In back-to-back Angeleno Nights he reached 26 and 31 DKFP versus Clips and Lakers, both at Staples. Turn to visit Sacto now, which doesn’t stink so much lately, so this might be a trap and Al might be on the verge of another collapse. Just in case you’re not too deep into basketball, Horford is a middling player on average, so you’d be paying $7K for a mediocre player at best. The points might reach 15, and the rebounds around 7 or 8 in the best of his nights, so you know what I mean. Too bad Philly’s injuries are making the Sixers rely on such a fool.

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!