NBA DFS: Anthony Davis and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Saturday, Sep. 12th

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

• It came down to a seven-game series, but we finally know who will face Miami for a place in the Finals. Boston ousted reigning-champ Toronto and will battle the Heat starting Tuesday. Bring it on!
• Denver did the impossible and came back from a 16-point deficit against the Clippers yesterday to leave the series at 2-3 in favor of LA. The Nuggets came back from 1-3 to defeat Utah in round-one. Also, Denver is 4-0 in elimination games this postseason. Just saying...
• Speaking of Denver, it was Michael Porter Jr. who hit a freaking three that pretty much guaranteed the win for the Nuggets. LOL
• The Rockets face elimination against he Lake Show tonight, and there are rumblings already about a potential James Harden trade. We tend to overreact to this type of thing, but it’s not that crazy considering Houston is going to have it Harder (pun intended) going forward.
• Danuel House Jr. is off the bubble and done for the season after the investigation carried by the NBA proved him guilty of bringing someone into his room for hours. Uh, oh.
• Gordon Hayward was on the court yesterday prior to Boston’s Game 7, and is expected to make it to the court at some point during the ECF if they go for long or the Finals if Boston reaches the final round of the playoffs.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Let’s consider this a draw between Tatum and Kawhi for the slate lead yesterday (60 DKFP each). Tatum helped Boston reaching the ECF in his 44 minutes of playing time with a 29-12-7 effort, while Kawhi was able to match Tatum’s fantasy tally in just 39 minutes with a neat 36-9-4-3 stuffed, near-dub-dub line while hitting 5 treys. The former won, the latter lost. Cold world.
• Only two more players, both from the Nugs vs. Clips contest, reached 50 DKFP yesterday: Jokic did so with a monster 22-14 dub-dub to which he added 5 assists, and Paul George played 42 minutes in which he dropped 26 points and finished with 6-6 boards and dimes.
• Both Jamal Murray and Jaylen Brown finished with 40+ DKFP, the only two to do so, both dropping 21+ points and grabbing 8 rebounds.
• The Celtics sealed their tickets to the ECF, so it makes sense that the ROI King award went to... Marcus Smart! That’s not entirely true and I’m cheating, as the real ROI King was Jayson Tatum, but his price was the third-highest of the slate so picking doesn’t look right. Smart put up 36 DKFP at just $6.8K, which wasn’t cheap, but really productive nonetheless. Smart blocked a Norman Powell attempt inside the final minutes of the game that proved crucial and finished with 16 pops, 2 boards, 6 assists, and a couple of steals. Paul George and Paul Millsap were also good value plays yesterday.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Kyle Lowry! Rather disappointing performance but Kyle, which makes me sad. Lowry could only finish with a meh 16-6-4 line shooting 33.3% from the floor and fouling out at the end of the game missing the last few possessions of the Raps and not being able to help them in the super-final stretch. But it’s Lowry, so you know he’ll come back stronger and angrier and hungrier next season.
• Three dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Tatum, Jokic, Siakam) and none between points and assists.
• Jaylen Brown led the slate with 4 steals (three players finished with 3), while no one was able to block 3 shots (six guys blocked 2, though).

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

• Love: (PF/C) Anthony Davis, LAL (vs HOU): Kudos to Frank Vogel for recognizing the McGee-Howard pairing sucked big-time in Game 1. After that loss, Dwight hasn’t logged a single minute while McGee has played 14 minutes and didn’t even see the court in Game 4. That means that Davis is eating as many minutes as he can digest... and he’s murdering Houston alive. AD is averaging a dub-dub this series (28-13), has posted double-digit lines in all four games, and the fewest points and boards he’s reached have been 25 and 10 respectively. Not happy with that, he’s also dishing out four dimes per contest. LeBron is the clear no. 1 Laker, sure, but AD is the one actually playing to that level, don’t fool yourself.
• Hate: (PG/SG) James Harden, HOU (at LAL): You never bet against super-duper-stars, and Harden will most probably finish with his good 50+ fantasy points, but I’m not buying into him as my lineup-leader today. See, Harden straight flops in deciding playoff games. That’s just how it works with him. Even while putting up those 50 DKFP in Game 4 two days ago, Harden shot a putrid 18.2% from the floor (2-for-11) and he reached that mark only because of his unsustainable 10 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks. With the season on the line Harden will probably shoot 25 shots tonight, but knowing how he’s performed in this kind of situation in the past I really doubt he’ll explode for a monster fantasy performance.
• Love: (PG) Rajon Rondo, LAL (vs HOU): I’m not going to write a lot about RR here, you can just go back and check past columns, because Rondo has featured in all of them. Check RR’s numbers this series: 12-5-8 averages with 3 steals per game, shooting 53.2% from the field, and hitting at least one triple in each of those matches. The value is insane, Houston doesn’t know how to freaking stop him, and he’s become a true series-decider for these Lakers. As ridiculous as it sounds, but here we are.

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!