NBA DFS: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Thursday, Aug. 20th

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

• The Bucks and the Lakers dropped their Game 1s, but we didn’t worry that much. The Clippers won theirs, but they have now lost the second one against Dallas and are 1-1. Kristaps was ejected from Game 1, remember. So are we really looking at a virtual 0-2 Clippers here? Now, that’s worrying.
• Small update on Westbrook: there is no timetable for his return. Told you yesterday, and I’m telling you today, I’m not feeling this and I think there is something deeper going on here in terms of how bad this whole injury is.
• Will Barton left the bubble for good in order to rehab his knee. Good move, considering it was getting a little stupid to be playing the whole “he’s coming, he’s not” daily.
• Joe Harris committed a silly turnover yesterday. He then exited the bubble for personal reasons. Link those two things if you might. Also, he could have played his last game as a Net considering he’s a free agent this offseason and he might not be back/quarantine in time to play again if the Nets get swept.
• Sixers’ head coach Brett Brown could very well be cooked after dropping to 0-2 against the Celtics putting on a mediocre 101-128 show yesterday.
• Brent Barry is a candidate to become the Sacramento Kings GM and you bet I’m all in for it.
• The Wizards are making re-signing Davis Bertans a priority, per Fred Katz, and that means Washington is going to run with the whole Beal-Wall-Bertans core next season putting big bucks on all three of them. Is that a good—and healthy—enough trio, though?

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Nightmarish night for hoops fan around the world yesterday, as no player even reached 55 DKFP on the slate. Funny enough, though, was the fact that two fools tied for the lead at 53.5 DKFP... while eating an L. Kawhi finished with a 35-10 dub-dub in almost 41 minutes while JoJo put up a 34-10 double-double himself in a more efficient 34-minute performance.
• Three other players finished 50+ DKFP, namely Jokic (28-11-6 with a monster 40.3% usage rate... also eating an L), Tatum (33 points including 8 triples, 5 boards, 5 dimes) and Luka (28-7-7 in just 28 minutes of playing time after getting in foul trouble).
• Really bad night on the ROI King award front, which I’m handing out to... Royce O’Neale! It is not that he put on a show, for sure, but here we are. Utah ran Denver off the court and Royce helped them do so with a 9-7-8-1-2 all-around stuffed line that amounted to 37.25 DKFP at just $3.7K. Yes, that was the most valuable line of the night... Other notable value plays: Jordan Clarkson (26-4-3) and Norman Powell (24-6).
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award goes to... Jamal Murray! While Ja was absolutely insane in Game 1, he dropped a very big dud yesterday finishing with 22.75 fantasy points while tagged at $7.2K. Murray could only put up a 14-3-4 line that didn’t cut it at all. Another incredible dud: Al Horford (8.5 DKFP) and his impressive 4-2 (yes, 4 pops and 2 rebounds...) line in 23 minutes.
• Again, not the greatest of days when it came to double-doubles either with just seven between points and rebounds (Jarrett, Joe Harris, Jokic, Tobias, Kawhi, JoJo, Paul George) and only two between pops and dimes (FVV and LeVert).
• Nobody could steal three balls and two players (Jarrett and Brad Wanamaker) led the slate with three blocks. Seriously dumb-bad night of hoops.

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

• Love: (PG/SG) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC ($6300, at HOU): What are the odds SGA has another horrid performance today? Just check the numbers. Last Tuesday marked the first time since Dec. 16 (!) that Shai dropped below 10 points. He shot a putrid 25% from the floor, something that has happened to him two times since Jan. 29. His usage was a season-low 13.6%. And all of that in 35 minutes. I mean, if there is a definition of an outlier then that game must be it. Shai is more of a 15-5-5 threat with upside to getting into the 20+ points realm and a virtual lock to reach 35+ DKFP any day. Westbrook is still out, and seriously, there is no way he drops another egg like the one he curated two days ago. OKC is 0-1 two and will need to beat the hell out of Houston if the Thunder don’t want to get into serious trouble.
• Hate: (C) Myles Turner, IND ($6800, vs MIA): Myles has played eight games since the NBA came back and he’s only been able to finish with 10+ points in four of those matches. Also, for a big man, it’s quite ridiculous to find him only getting more than 9 rebounds once in his last eight games... and he did so facing the Pocket Rockets in the regular-season finale. Turner is playing 32+ minutes per game, but he’s doing pretty much nothing to help Indiana, which is very frustrating. You don’t normally bet against biggies because they have it too easy to drop a 10-10 any day, unless they are Myles Turner I guess. The price has dropped a bit but it is not that his 9-9 performance against the Heat in G1 is encouraging going forward, and he even bulked up his fantasy tally with 3 blocks that are far from becoming a realistic daily achievement.
• Love: (SF) Khris Middleton, MIL ($7200, vs ORL): Pretty similar situation for Khris as for Shai (read above). Milwaukee somehow managed to hand Orlando the W in Game 1 but that will be hard to repeat itself through this series. Khris couldn’t catch a break the other day. He finished with 14 points (his bubble-worst mark) and shot 33.3% from the field. Those numbers are just plain wrong when talking about Midd’s abilities and what we know he can do. In the four games he played 32+ minutes during the restart Middleton finished with 39, 50, 53, and 45 DKFP, which is pretty much what you can expect from KM on daily contests, far from the 30 DKFP he put up in Game 1. Expect a sweet comeback from Midd today while tagged at a very affordable price and a very possible chance at getting to 45+ fantasy points.
• Hate: (PF/C) Jusuf Nurkic, POR ($900, at LAL): I don’t hate Nurk per se, but I hate the situation. Nurkic has been insane since getting back from injury. This fool is averaging the 11th-most fantasy points inside the bubble at 44.7, which you gotta love, but the price is rising quickly and I’m 100% convinced both LBJ and AD will do everything in their hands to cut Nurk’s production today and snatch that series-tying W today. Facing LA two days ago and playing 33 minutes Nurk dropped a nice 16-15 line, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t get much further from the 10-10 tonight given the Lake Show will probably put the clamps on every living Blazer out in the court. Zach Collins’ injury benefits Nurk because he’ll get extended runs, but I’m just not seeing it, even more at his sky-high price.

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!