NBA DFS: Jamal Murray and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Thursday, Sep. 24th

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 know why we keep getting surprised by Miami’s achievements. They’re tough as nails, and good as hell. Thus, the 3-1 lead and pretty much put the nail in the Celtics’ coffin last night after Herro carried the Heat to another W.
• You read that right. Herro the Hero had a monster, absolutely unexpected top-tier game yesterday and Boston found no way to stop him from murdering them on live television. Tatum, on the other hand, scored all of zero points in the first half. Yikes.
• Looks like Bam got a little banged up yesterday, but he will be fit to play tomorrow in a deciding game that could see Miami make the Finals for the first time since LeBron left South Beach.
• Quote of the day, courtesy of Danny Green on his minor left ring finger injury: “I got nine other fingers. I’ll be all right.”
• News on the head coaching front: Mike D’Antoni seems to be the go-to option for the Sixers and the interest should be mutual. If Mikey is down for it, Philly won’t put any obstacles for him to take the gig.
• More on the beat: the Pacers have interviewed Raptors’ assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren for their head coach opening. I don’t believe it will end in a hire with the names available out there, but we’ll see.
• Landry Fields, yes that Landry Fields, is now an Atlanta Hawk. Not to play any game, though, as he is retired for good and served as the GM of the Spurs’ G-League Austin team and will now take on assistant GM duties for the Hawks at the ripe age of 32.
• Dragan Bender will be playing hoops in Europe next season after signing with Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team from Israel had already signed Ante Zizic earlier this summer, featured former-NBAer Amar’e Stoudemire last season, and will lose uber-prospect Deni Avdija to the NBA in a couple of months when he gets drafted.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Somehow, Jayson Tatum got to lead the slate yesterday with 52 DKFP. That’s insane considering he didn’t score a single point during the first two quarters of the game. He finished with 28 pops and 9 boards, and Boston fell a bit short of Miami in what is now a 3-1 series in favor of the Heat.
• Tyler Herro went bonkers yesterday. He finished with the second-most fantasy points (only one behind Tatum) and playing off the pine he dropped a game-high 37 points on Boston (5 triples) to go with 6 rebounds and 3 dimes. He shot a freaking ridiculous 66.7% from the floor on 21 attempts, hit all of his four freebies, and only committed one turnover. Insane performance from the rook.
• Two more players, both Heat, reached 43+ DKFP: Bam put on a nice 20-12 dub-dub while Jimmy finished with a near-one thanks to his 24-9.
• I told you yesterday when I picked him as a player to Love, and I nailed it as the ROI King award went to... Tyler Herro! Get ready for an ultra-rise in his price, because this kid is for real. Herro scored the most points by an under-21 player other than Magic Johnson (42) by dropping 37 on Boston. Nuts. Crazy. Bananas. Bonkers. 35 minutes were enough for Herro to finish with 51 DKFP and a 37-6-3 line putting Miami up 3-1 and this close to the Finals. The value was just delicious.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Kemba Walker! Kemba was the worst top-tier starter from both teams, finishing with just 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists in his 34 minutes of playing time. It wasn’t a horrid performance, but he fell way short of what Boston needed from him yesterday. The ultimate DOTS was truly Jae Crowder and his putrid 14 DKFP in 31 minutes starting for the Heat, tho he wasn’t tagged with an overly expensive price.
• One dub-dub via points and rebounds (Bam’s 20-10) and one more between points and assists (Smart’s 20-11).
• Andre Iguodala led the slate with 3 steals (!?) while only Tatum got to block 3 shots with no one even reaching two.

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

• Love: (PG/SG) Jamal Murray, DEN (vs LAL): Jamal has stepped up his game during the last couple of matches for the Nuggs and it has made quite an impact on the team overall outcome. Sure, Denver dropped G2, but they pushing the Lakers to a buzzer-beating make-or-break shot by AD. Jamal dropped 25 pops back then, but he was truly great in G3 carrying Denver to its first series W against LA. Murray scored 28, dished out 12 dimes, and even grabbed 8 balls on the boards. That is the Jam the Nuggs will need going forward if they want to pull the upset. Sure, Anthony Davis dropped a dud the other day and that probably boosted Murray’s overall performance, but he seems to have found his pace and he should stay there tonight.
• Hate: (PG/SF) LeBron James, LAL (@ DEN): It’s crazy to hate on LBJ, so don’t really believe what I’m writing here. LeBron can do nothing and still finish with 45 DKFP, so know that before going ahead and dropping him from your lineup. That being said, the slightest of AD’s bouncebacks would see Davis grab a bunch of rebounds and score points without breaking a sweat. That will impact James stats for the bad, and again, though James will be good no matter what, he won’t probably return as much value as others given his price and his fantasy outcome.

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!