NBA DFS: Jamal Murray and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Tuesday, Sep. 1st

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

• I don’t think it’s time to panic, but the Bucks dropped the first game of their series against Miami, the second time in a row that has happened this postseason for them after doing so against Orlando. I guess they’re happy knowing how the first round ended.
• Russell Westbrook Russell Westbrooked and helped Houston lose Game 6 yesterday, with OKC forcing a Game 7 tomorrow to decide who faces the Lake Show in the second round. Sound the alarms, Houston, cause we might have a problem.
• Shout-out to Brandon Ingram for winning the Most Improved Player award! He truly stepped up his game in his first year outside of Hollywood. Quite the refreshing move for Bones BI.
• Joel Embiid showed love to Jimmy Butler yesterday... and I will never stop thinking JoJo is a super troll that will eventually force his way out of Philadelphia.
• Devastating news coming from Orlando: Jonathan Isaac will miss the whole 2020-21 season while recovering from his ACL injury. Too bad.
• BIG free agent news: Shams Charania, Woj’s enemy no. 1, is re-signing with The Athletic. What were you thinking when I said big, folks?
• Speaking of media... Vince Carter has joined ESPN as an analyst. Can’t get enough Vinsanity, so that’s cool.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Jimmer (53.5) went all-in against Milwaukee yesterday—as if there was any doubt he’d do so...—and dropped a 40-burger on the Bucks to kick the second round off. Jimmy Butler paired that with 4 boards, and a 2-2-1 in dimes, steals, and blocks while shooting 65% (!) from the floor on 20 fga, and put the cherry on top making 12 of 13 fta. Jeez.
• James Harden (51.5) was the only other player to reach 50 fantasy points in yesterday’s two-game slate, but the effort went for nothing as the Pocket Rockets dropped Game 6 to OKC... with Harden not even touching the ball in the Rockets’ last three possessions. LOL. The Bear had a nicely rounded 32-8-7 game hitting 3 triples.
• Six players in the 40-to-50 fantasy clip, them being Chris Paul, Giannis, Khris, Bam, Dragic, and Robert Covington.
• I’m going to cheat and give the ROI King award to... Robert Covington! If we go by the pure numbers, P.J. Tucker was slightly more valuable than RoCo, but Tucker also scored 32.25 DKFP compared to RoCo’s 41.75. Covington did so at just $5.8K, which was a truly low price for that level of production. RoCo finished the game with a sweet 18-5 that was ultra-boosted by his 5 (!) steals and 3 (!) blocks.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Russell Westbrook! It’s happened the last two times Russy has been part of a slate, and it makes sense if only because 1) his playing time is super-cut (27 minutes yesterday) and 2) he’s been horrific since coming back from injury. Westbrook finished with 25.5 fantasy points while carrying the third-highest price of the slate and committed 7 turnovers. Overkill.
• Only two dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Bam’s 12-17 and Giannis’ 18-10) and none between points and assists.
• Already covered, but super-shout-out to Covington for becoming the slate-leader in both steals (5) and blocks (3)!

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

• Love: (PG) Kyle Lowry, TOR ($7700, vs BOS): Even though his fantasy points weren’t super high and Boston ran Toronto off the court, Kyle still put up a great 17-6-8 line that wasn’t higher because of foul trouble, and that included 5 turnovers so the fantasy tally was cut a bit shorter than it should. Anyways, Toronto better step up its game today if they don’t want to put on a massive effort going forward and coming back from an 0-2 hole. Lowry’s price is quite lower than it has been since the restart but he keeps playing a boatload of minutes and with Siakam a little shaky he should be the one to go with for the Raps. Pretty nice value-play if you ask me.
• Hate: (C) Rudy Gobert, UTA ($7900, at DEN): What has happened to Gobert? No, seriously, where is the true Croissant? I mean, Gob keeps dropping daily dub-dubs (it’s been four in a row with at least an 11-11 line) but he’s shooting a horrid 41% from the floor and not doing crap even while playing more than 41 minutes per game. I already had my doubts entering this postseason that Gobert still was the best Utah Jazz player with DoMi taking that spot from him, and the last few games are only proving that righter than ever. Fade Rudy, fade him hard.
• Love: (PG) Jamal Murray, DEN ($9700, vs UTA): Donovan Mitchell is more expensive than Jamal today. WTF. Murray’s last three games: 50, 42, and 50 pops. 9, 4, and 9 triples. 11, 8, and 5 rebounds. 7, 8, and 6 dimes. He’s scored 64.8% of the 81 shots he’s attempted from the floor, which is to say he’s scored like a madman no matter the range, shape, or whatever about the shots he’s taken. Also, he’s playing 41+ minutes, which is absolutely impossible. It makes no sense, seriously. Murray is making history in the bubble, for real. The fantasy points have stayed north of 67 in those three games peaking at 82.25 in Game 4. Pay the hell out of Jamal. Just pay for the man.

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!