NBA DFS: Nikola Jokic and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Sunday, Aug. 30th

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

• After a couple of days out of business, the NBA came back yesterday and it did so with three games, twp of them turning into season finales: bye-bye Portland. The Lakers put the Blazers to bed and closed the first round with a 4-1 gentleman’s sweep. Praise Portland, though, because they beat all odds to even reach this point in the playoffs. Not so much the Magic, though, which are also out of the postseason after dropping their last game to Milwaukee, which won the series 4-1 too.
• Russ came back from his injury and logged 23 minutes. Pretty meh performance, but at least he’s there to help Houston which had absolutely been missing him.
• Miraculously we didn’t have any injured player yesterday. We had to fools getting ejected, though: Dennis Schroeder for kicking P.J. Tucker in the nuts, and P.J. Tucker for going after Schroeder because of it.
• Speaking of miracles, Carmelo Anthony hopes to rejoin Portland next season to stay active in the L. Here’s hoping it actually happens.
• Shit’s getting real regarding the relations between players and franchise owners. AD has gone the distance to say that if changes don’t take place and agreed measures are not actually completed by the owners then there is a real chance players stop playing entirely. Don’t rule this out considering what has happened during the past few days.
• It looks like Tyronn Lue is on the Sixers radar, and that he wants a big bag ($7M per year), which probably only Philly is willing to hand out. We’ll see what happens, though, as Ty is being linked to every single open position around the league these days.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• It looks like taking a two-day break did wonders for 35-year-old Bron Bron. James came back roaring and led yesterday’s slate with 71.5 DKFP to the tune of a sweet 36-10-10 triple-double while sending Portland packing home. He shot a mental 73.7% from the floor on 19 attempts, which, I mean...
• Another Laker broke the 60-DKFP barrier. You guessed it right; Davis racked up all of 63.75 fantasy points thanks to a great 43-point effort to which he added 9 boards, 4 dimes, a steal, and three triples. Not bad for The Brow, who will need to give it all next to LBJ in order for LA to snatch that chip.
• Four players in the 50-to-60 clip, including Giannis (28-17-3 in just 28 minutes), McCollum (36-6-7), Vucevic (22-15), and Nurkic (16-10-6-5 !!!).
• Not the best outcome he could think of, but the ROI King award went to... Darius Bazley! The Thunder dropped the ball badly yesterday and are on a win-or-go-home situation from this point on after falling to 2-3 in their first-round series. Houston killed Lu Dort’s game yesterday, but that opened the door to Bazley who finished with 30.5 DKFP while priced at just $3.5K getting a nice 10-12 dub-dub. Close to his value were the likes of Andernee Simons, KCP, and Marvin Williams.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Russell Westbrook! Warm welcome, Russ! Russy got the fifth-highest price yesterday and some fools still paid for him knowing it was his first game back from injury and the risks that carried with it. Obviously, the Brodie took it lightly and only played 23 minutes and got 27 fantasy points. Quite a dud. Same as those of Shai (4-3-4 line in 34 minutes...) and Gallinari (one point in 22 minutes, via freebie).
• Just six dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Giannis, Vucevic, Steven Adams, Bazley, Nurk, Khris) and none between points and assists.
• Shout-out to LBJ for his trip-dub of 36 pops, 10 boards, and 10 dimes. He also added a steal and a block, so there’s that. King’s gonna king.
• Special mention to Jusuf Nurkic, who closed the season with a pretty fine 16-10-6-5-1 line. That was just the third performance this season—and the first one to happen since Jan. 20—that included at least 15 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, and a block. The other two came from Bam and Benny Simmons. Not bad for the Nurk.

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

• Love: (C) Nikola Jokic, DEN ($9500, at UTA): This is quite an expensive kid to build a lineup around, that’s correct, but Denver is once more facing elimination and they better step up. Who better to do so than Jokic and partner-in-crime Jamal? Murray is almost $1K cheaper and also carries some serious upside, but I’m going with a rested Jokic today. The Joker is on back-to-back 47+ DKFP performances in which he dropped 29 and 31 points, grabbed at least 6 boards, and dished out at least 4 dimes in the last two matches against Utah. You knew those were high-stakes games because he played 39 and 43 minutes, which can only raise his ceiling. Trust the dub-dub tonight with a bunch of assists for some extra fantasy points.
• Hate: (SF) Paul George, LAC ($8300, at DAL): While Pandemic P got it a little bit right in his last game (43 DKFP) I’m still not trusting him. He played 25 minutes in a blowout, and hit 35 super-efficient points shooting 66.7% from the floor. Prior to that, in four games against Dallas: 15 points per game shooting 27.3%. I mean, not saying PG is a bad player, but let’s say he’s not been incredible as of late. What he did the other day was great, but I have to see it again and there is always the chance the Clips ass-whoop the Mavs again and he gets his minutes cut preserving him for the second round. I don’t know, this is a bit of a smelly play that I don’t really trust today.
• Love: (PG/SG) Fred VanVleet, TOR ($7700, vs BOS): Second-round basketball babyyyy! Toronto enters this game having rested for a bit after the mini-pause of the past couple of days, and that should have helped Lowry recover a little bit from his ankle injury. Even if he’s active—which I think he will, because he’s Kyle Lowry—I just can’t bet against FVV. Freddie has been a freaking tornado inside the bubble. He’s never dropped below the 36-DKFP line whenever he’s played more than 30 minutes, which will happen today, and he’s actually averaged 46 DKFP in those seven games since the restart. He already rested his last game playing just 19 minutes, and prior to that he had gone on a rampage of 60, 50, and 40 DKFP versus Brooklyn. FVV is a virtual lock to finish with 20 pops and 5+ assists and rebounds. Steal at this 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!