NBA DFS: Domantas Sabonis and best/worst DraftKings daily fantasy basketball plays for Wednesday, Feb. 10th

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

• The Heatles of 2011 didn't have a losing streak of more than five games. The Nets of 2021 are currently at three straight Ls after yesterday’s loss... to the Pistons. WTF
• As stupid as it sounds, Seth Curry is on pace to become the first-ever 50/50/100 shooting-splits player. That is, simply put, bananas. It also is part of why the Sixers are getting some extra juice while Dallas is sinking.
• Al-Farouq Aminu played for the Magic yesterday after spending the last two-plus years on the shelf. Props to Aminu for pulling off the comeback.
• It looked like Anthony Davis’ injury wasn’t going to be so bad, but there is a certain aura of mystery around it with AD being out without a concrete return date nor timetable. The Lakers are obviously not going to risk a thing, so we’ll see how this impacts the rotation and how many games AD is rested/stays recovering.
• Injured for good: De’Andre Hunter, now confirmed out for between 7-to-10 weeks. Yikes.
• Mark Cuban acknowledged yesterday that he was the main brain behind the no-anthem operation. All franchises are given full freedom on how to operate pre-game, so it’s fair game for Cuban and the Mavs.
• JaVale dreams of playing in Brookly, obviously, but so far he’s downplaying the rumors and just going day by day. Kudos to the man for keeping the head low and stay working.
• With less than a month to go, there are rumors regarding the potential opt-out of some All-Stars from the Mar. 7 AS Game in Atlanta. Doesn’t look very probably (cuz dollarz), but never say never.

Duds and Studs: Yesterday’s slate roundup

• I’m not 100% sure this is the first time it’s happened this season, but I’m 99% positive it should. Three players tied for the lead in yesterday’s slate at 62 FP, with those being Embiid, Mitchell, and Harden.
• JoJo edged the other two by the decimals thanks to a 25-17 dub-dub two which he added 6 dimes, 2 steals, and 2 blocks while hitting 13-of-14 freebies.
• DoMi put on a scoring show dropping 36 pops on Boston (including 6 treys) to go with 4 boards, 9 assists, a steal, and a couple of swatts.
• Harden, as he’s been doing all year, kept up the do-it-all prowess with a 24-6-12-2-5 stuffed line, though his 7 turnovers killed some of his ROI.
• Two more players with 60+ fantasy points: Vucevic got there with a 27-15-4-2-2 and Fox did so with a 34-6-10 packed line.
• Only three guys in the 50-to-60 clip: Jimmer, Hart, and Plumlee, all of them getting dub-dubs on the night, with eight more at 40+ DKFP.
• The ROI King award went to... Josh Hart! Not a normal game, but that doesn’t matter a lot here, folks. Hart played 40+ minutes for the Pels yesterday and that enabled him to finish with a monster 20-17-3-1-2 line, shot 50% on 16 FGA, and kept his turnovers/PF at bay with just two of each. Impressive 53 DKFP performance by the reserve, who did it coming off the bench. Willy Hernangomez thrived for the Pels to, same as Plumlee, Danuel House, and Delon Wright.
• And the DOTS (Dud of the Slate) Award went to... Gordon Hayward! I was this close to picking Luka, but at the end of the day he hit 42 FP so it’s not that bad. Hayward, though, stopped his count at 31 DKFP even though he reached 33 minutes on the court, finishing with a complete-and-good-but-definitely-not-great 19-5-4 line shooting a putrid 36.4% from the floor on 11 FGA. Luka, Lowry, Morant, and DLo sucked too.
• There were eight dub-dubs via points and rebounds (RoCo, DJJ, and Kanter missed on points; no player finished 10-9 missing on one rebound) and three between points and assists (Draymond fell four points short, and three players one dime from reaching the feat).
• No triple-doubles yesterday, with Ben Simmons the closest to it with a 14-7-9 line. Shame on Jimmy for his 26-8-10, Harden for closing 24-6-12, and Draymond for his nightly stupid lines (6-7-11 yesterday).
• More silly numbers: Bruce Brown led the slate with 4 thefts, while Harden (???) was the one with the most swats at 5.

What’s cooking? Statistical trends from Week 7 (Feb. 1 to Feb. 7)

• Finally, Steph claimed his throne for a week. Curry played three games during the past seven days and finished with the highest DKFP average at 63.3 per game. That’s just bonkers, and his 1.75 FP/min is the highest mark among players with 3+ games played, even those with much smaller MPG averages. Somehow Curry dropped 41 PPG to go with 5+ RPG, 6+ APG, and 1+ SPG while shooting 57.1% from the floor and hitting 7+ 3PG.
• The closes player in PPG to Curry, Joel Embiid, could only score 34.7 pops per game. Fox, Doncic, and FVV were the only others to score 30+ through at least three games played.
• No player was able to close the week averaging a trip-dub in 3+ games, although James Harden was the closest clocking in with a 22-8.7-12 per-game line with a steal to spare. Butler was close too at 19-9-8, and Draymond was his usual frustrating self with a stupid 5-8-12-3-2 stuffed line.
• Although FVV finished with the sixth-highest DKFP per game mark (53.8), he was also the most bouncy player among all with 3+ games played, logging a DKFP-deviation of 23.9 FP. Reasonable, considering he alternated a career-night (77 FP) with a resounding dud (30 FP) and a good-not-great game sandwiched in the middle (53 FP).
• Josh Jackson keeps rebuilding his image in the L, and he was the best sixth-man of the week to the tune of 36.9 DKFP with an average 20-6-3-1-1 line in three games. Haliburton put up 34.6 DKFP also off the bench in all of his four games, although LaMelo was the clear Rookie of the Week thanks to his four starts and 41.3 DKFP average on those.
• Silly cheap values: Toscano-Anderson, Bazemore, Kenrich Williams, Monk, Patrick Williams, Valentine, Favors, Muscala, Kaminsky, Forbes, Roby
• A little more expensive but still with massive ROI: Draymond, Boucher, Josh Jackson, Horford, Josh Richardson, Tristan Thompson, Portis, Diallo
• Some very expensive players not doing enough to help their owners: Anthony Davis, Beal, Russ, Wood, Drummond, Middleton, Oladipo, Brogdon, Booker, Morant
• Cheap points (min. 3 games played in the past seven days): Monk, Forbes, Patrick Williams, Payton, Milton
• Cheap threes: Monk, Forbes, Shamet, Danny Green, Snell, Bullock, Danuel House, JJ Redick
• Cheap boards: Tristan Thompson, Hart, Whiteside, Giles, Toscano, Kleber, Favors, Kaminsky, Pat Williams, Willy Hernangomez, Gafford
• Cheap dimes: Satoransky, Augustin, Rondo, Bembry, Payton, Milton, Brunson, Bane, Anfernee, E’Twaun Moore
• Cheap steals: Layman, THT, Roby, Moore, Iggy, Danuel House, Favors
• Cheap blocks: Roby, Favors, Len, Eubanks, Gafford, Whiteside, Bitadze
• Cheap FG% (min. 9 FGA): Forbes, Pat Williams, Korkmaz, Valentine, Nowell, Bullock, Bane, Bacon, Monk, Milton, Payton, Rodney Hood

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

• Love: Domantas Sabonis (SF/PF). The Pacers are facing the super-losing Nets tonight in a game that could mark the fourth-consecutive loss for Brooklyn. Odds are they pull off the miracle and get back to the W column if only to avoid the public shaming, but color me shocked if Sabonis doesn’t rack up numbers tonight. The Pacers have been off for two nights, which means three days of rest for Sab entering this game. That’s a good start, but the best about it is that the Nets stink inside, DeAndre Jordan can’t stretch the floor, and Durant is still out after his COVID blunder a few days ago. Who is going to cover Domas, I don’t know. Who is going to drop a banger on Brooklyn, I sure do.
• Hate: Devin Booker (SG). The Suns are putting together a rather nice season, and the best news for them is that Booker hasn’t been that much of a necessity for the squad to put up crazy numbers in order to win—which is a paradox in and on itself, considering Booker’s best performances all came in losses tho. Booker has geared up of late, with back-to-back games last Sunday and Monday reaching 47 and 54 DKFP. That’s great, and if he puts up such marks once more today you’re going to hate me for hating Book. But prior to those couple of games Book had five of six games below 33 FP, which... ugh. Booker’s ROI on the season has been subpar at best, suicide-inducing at worst. The price isn’t the highest out there, but Milwaukee doesn’t look like the best possible matchup for Book to put on his third explosive performance in a row.

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!