NBA DFS: Kyle Lowry and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Saturday, Sep. 5th

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

• Reigning and soon-to-be-two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said yesterday that he could play more minutes. Kudos to Mike Budenholzer for not being murdered after playing Giannis and Middleton fewer than 36 minutes even with Milwaukee against the wall... and now down 0-3 to Miami. Bye, bye, Bucks.
• It’s not that I hate the Bucks or anything, but no team has ever come back from being down 0-3 in the NBA so you know Milwaukee’s fate, folks.
• Also, shout-out to the other Mike (D’Antoni) for getting a big win with such a small Pocket Rockets squad.
• Rondo came back and played 24 minutes yesterday, which marked the first time he’s been on a court since Mar. 10. We’ll see if he gears up soon enough to help the Lakers oust Houston, though.
• The Clippers, once more, can say that they have rostered the Sixth Man of the Year as Montrezl Harrell was announced as the recipient of the award yesterday. They did so as Lou Williams was the winner of last year’s edition.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• The Bucks are 0-3 against Miami in the second round. Even playing under 35 minutes, Giannis was still able to lead the slate with his 60.5 DKFP. Why the hell can’t Bud play Giannis like, 40+ minutes? Imagine the outcome! In those near-35 rounds of the clock the Greek put up a 21-16-9 line so close to becoming a trip-dub... while shooting a putrid 33.3% from the floor! Everything is very weird around Milwaukee, that’s for sure.
• Only Anthony Davis (56.5) and James Harden (51) broke the 50-DKFP barrier yesterday. One lost, the other won. AD dropped a monster 25-14-1-3-3 line stuffed to the limit, and JH had a scoring explosion himself dropping 36 pops logging the second-highest usage rate (39.3%) of the day.
• The four players to finish inside the 40-to-50 clip: Butler (30-7-6), Bam (20-16) Russ (24-9-6), LBJ (20-8-7).
• Miami is one game separated from the Eastern Conference Finals, so it made sense that the ROI King award went to... Jimmy Butler & Bam Adebayo! I had to split the trophy in half here. None of these two was super cheap, that’s true, but both put on truly great performances reaching 49+ fantasy points. The Bucks suck, or rather, head coach Bud is making the Bucks suck. Miami is in for the kill. I don’t know who between Boston and Toronto will be there facing the Heat, but they better watch out because the South Beach Boys aren’t joking around. Never doubt the Jimmer, folks.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... LeBron James! There were some worse plays, but LeBron priced at $11K and finishing at “just” 43.5 DKFP was a little short of great. LBJ hit only 20 points and didn’t score at all in the fourth quarter, while finishing with 8 and 7 on boards and dimes. Again, not bad, but not great either with four players getting more DKFP while carrying cheaper tags. Eric Bledsoe and Kyle Kuzma sucked big time too, which aligned with the Ls their teams ate yesterday.
• Only three dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Giannis, AD, Bam) and none between points and assists.
• Robert Covington put up the weirdest line of the night with his 6-7-2-4-1 leading the slate on steals, while AD was the only one to block 3 shots yesterday.

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

• Love: (PG) Kyle Lowry, TOR ($7800, at BOS): The price is slowly but surely catching up, but it’s still manageable to make Kyle a building-block of your daily lineup today. Toronto is back, should be inspired to make a run and tie the series today, and Lowry is the Raps’ engine. I mean, this guy is playing 34 minutes per game since the start of the playoffs and has logged 34, 40, and 46 (no overtime!!!) against the Celtics in the past three matches. The extended playing time is boosting his fantasy upside, of course, but it is not that we will stop playing this many minutes as he’s been doing so all year long. Lowry is a virtual lock for 15+ points, 5+ rebounds, and 7+ dimes any day, and he often gets his couple of steals and a block here and there. That puts Lowry’s floor at 35 fantasy points at the very least, with upside to enter the 50+ realm as they did two days ago (54) when he got a 31-6-8-2 line.
• Hate: (PG/SG) Jamal Murray, DEN ($9100, at LAC): If we’re honest, we can treat Murray’s last game as a true indication of what he’ll do tonight or going forward. Denver was demolished by the Clips, and Murray’s—along with the rest of Denver’s starters—playing time was cut super short finishing with just 33 minutes on the court. But it’s been two games in a row of under-30 fantasy points for Murray, and I don’t think we’ll see Super-Saiyan Murray against the LA Clippers at any point. He shot 15 times the other day hitting just 33.3% of those shots, could only put up a 12-3-6 line, and went to the free-throw line exactly zero times. Hard to see him put on such a bad performance twice in a row, but I don’t think even getting it right means big upside for him in this series.
• Love: (C) Montrezl Harrell, LAC ($4300, vs DEN): Something is wrong here, right? I mean, how come 6MOTY Monty is tagged at this ridiculously low price!? I mean, I get it, Monty is a low-maintenance guy that in the best of cases plays around 25-to-27 minutes, but he’s always doing the most of the situation. If you have little budget left once you fill your main positions with top-tier players, Harrell looks like a monster-play to me. He put up 26 DKFP on 19 minutes the other day, and that was a game that was decided by the third quarter. If Game 2 turns into a close affair Harrell will need to put on a greater effort to stop Jokic and that can only mean a higher floor/ceiling for him, which could easily put MH into the 35+ DKFP realm while carrying a bargain 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!