NBA DFS: Khris Middleton and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Sunday, Sep. 6th

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

• Things are getting spicy in the bubble. Toronto came back from a 0-2 hole by getting its second W in a row against Boston to make the series a 2-2 affair, and Denver snatched its first W against the Clippers to tie it all at 1-1.
• The Lakers are thinking about playing Anthony Davis at the center position, which AD himself would hate and have always disliked. Whatever they do, we only know one thing: P.J. Tucker held AD to exactly zero points in Game 1 when defending The Brow. Uh, oh.
• Giannis is questionable for Game 4. Actually, he might end playing more minutes that way than he does when healthy...
• Gordon Hayward will be back in the bubble today, but he’s still far from getting on the court. Remember, Hayward got injured in the first round and he should be out at least for two more weeks.
• If the Knicks end trading for Chris Paul, which has been rumored for weeks, odds are they pursue Carmelo Anthony too. Please, don’t play with my emotions.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s Slate Recap

• Finally, Jokic got it right right. The Joker logged his first 60+ fantasy-point game in a while thanks to a monster 26-18-4 dub-dub including three blocks and shooting 58.8% from the floor. He even committed 6 turnovers, so the bounty could have been even bigger. Enough for the Nuggs to snatch that much-needed W and tie the series entering Game 3 tomorrow.
• Mister Minutes, aka Kyle Lowry, played all of 44 yesterday and was the only other player to get more than 45 fantasy points (55.25). He did so to the tune of 22 pops and 11 boards to go with 7 dimes, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. That, folks, is what I call a very stuffed line. And this fool did it shooting a paltry 31.3% from the field. No wonder Toronto got that sweet victory.
• Five guys inside the 40-to-45 clip, including Jamal (27-3-6), Kawhi (13-10-8), Paul George (22-8), Siakam (23-11), and Tatum (24-10).
• Toronto came back from a second-round 0-2 to a 2-2 tie winning yesterday’s game, so it makes sense that the ROI King award went to... Kyle Lowry! Somehow, Kyle keeps finding the strength to play 40+ minutes nightly, and it is not that he waste those extended runs. Lowry put up a monster 22-11-7-2-2 stuff line that fell just 3 dimes short of becoming a trip dub and helped the Raps balance their series against Boston.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Jaylen Brown! The Celtics looked super great in the first two games of the series, but they’ve flopped a bit as of late. Kemba finished with 31 DKFP, and Brown was the worst value from the C’s getting just 24 fantasy points in 37 minutes while priced at $7.6K. Sucked to watch.
• Not a bad day on the double-double department, with six dub-dubs via points and rebounds (Jokic, Siakam, Lowry, JaMychal Green, Kawhi, Tatum) but none between points and assists.
• Kawhi was the only player with 3 steals, while both Jerami Grant and Jokic blocked 3 shots each.

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

• Love: (C) Brook Lopez, MIL ($5800, at MIA): Sure, go ahead and put Giannis in your lineup, but do so knowing he’s got the highest price of the slate and that he’s not been even remotely close to providing enough value as you’d expect from him. The most obvious outcome today would be a booming performance, yes, but Brook is the sneaky play here, folks. I’m convinced if only for once, the Bucks will get a win today, and Lopez can turn into a great play for Milwaukee if the whole squad gets it right for a day. Brook remains an under-$6K play affordable for every pocket. He’s playing more each passing game going from 27 to 32 to 38 minutes, and you know he’ll get some treys no matter what. The boards almost always fall short of 10, but the 20-7 line is not out of the equation and he can get into the 40-DKFP realm tonight. For that price, you can’t ask for much more while rounding your lineup.
• Hate: (PG/SG) James Harden, HOU ($11200, vs HOU): That’s a monster price right there. Now, let me clarify something: Harden is going to cook no matter what. I mean, that is obvious. He will finish with 40+ fantasy points. That doesn’t mean this is the most valuable play. For that price I’m convinced LeBron or AD could give you more today. Harden reached 51 DKFP the other day, but he needed to shoot 60% from the floor (which he hadn’t done on 20+ fga since Game 4 against OKC in Aug. 24th), and wasn’t it for his 36 points (his highest mark since OKC’ G3) his fantasy points would have dropped a lot (he grabbed just 2 rebounds and dished out 5 assists). He logged an impossible 39.3% usage rate, and I think the Lakers would revamp their defensive schemes to put a stop to The Beard—to an extent, at least—exploits today.
• Love: (C) Khris Middleton, MIL ($8100, at MIA): SIt’s hard to pick any Buck because they have been atrocious, but coach Bud won’t be taking any risks today and all of Giannis, Midd, and the rest of the starters will most probably stay on the court more than they have all playoffs long. Even playing “bad”, Midd is still averaging 42.5 fantasy points per game on 35 mpg. He’s carrying a 23-5-7 average line, hitting threes, and shooting over 40% against Miami. That’s not bad, and the price is not really that high, which makes Khris a very nice value play nightly and even more today with Milwaukee needing a great effort from everybody to extend the series as much as they can—before ultimately losing, because, you know, nobody comes back from an 0-3 hole...

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!