Daily Fantasy Basketball 2015: NBA DraftKings Best Lineup for April 2
There may only be three games Thursday night, but they certainly don't lack in star power. Three of the top four MVP candidates will take the court. I'll be sliding two of them into my DraftKings lineup.
| Position | Player | Opponent | Price |
| PG | Pablo Prigioni | @ Dal | $3,100 |
| SG | James Harden | @ Dal | $11,300 |
| SF | LeBron James | vs. Cle | $9,900 |
| PF | David Lee | vs. Pho | $4,400 |
| C | Tyson Chandler | vs. Hou | $5,300 |
| G | Monta Ellis | vs. Hou | $6,500 |
| F | Brandan Wright | @ GS | $4,100 |
| Utility | P.J. Tucker | @ GS | $5,300 |
James Harden ($11,300) at Mavericks
Harden will be extremely highly owned. He's coming off a 51-point, eight-board, six-assist game (good enough for 72.5 fantasy points) against the Kings. Hopefully people will be scared off because he's on a back-to-back. I am not.
Harden barely loses anything in the second night of a back-to-back. According to Statmuse.com, in the 17 games the Rockets have played after playing the night before this season, Harden's averaging 46.4 fantasy points. That's only 3.6 fantasy points below his season average.
If the Warriors hadn't clinched everything already, I would like Stephen Curry more than Harden. But I just can't trust that Steve Kerr will keep relying on Curry for big minutes in meaningless games. Plus, according to Statmuse.com, the Warriors are beating opponents by an average of 16.1 points per game at home this season.
Curry has already missed 15 fourth quarters this year because the team didn't need to waste his energy in blowout victories.
LeBron James ($9,900) vs. Heat
LeBron, currently playing for his original former team, plays his final regular-season game in his first season against his second former team. Woah, that was a mouthful.
Anyway, when King James plays his former team, he's really good.
In 17 career games vs. his former employer (14 with the Heat, three with the Cavs) James is averaging 46.8 fantasy points per game. He also provides a sky-high floor. He tallied over 33 fantasy points in every one of those games.
In this game, a hobbled Luol Deng will get the first shot at trying to contain LeBron. Deng has frustrated LeBron in the past but never truly shut him down. If Deng misses Thursday's game, the task will fall to Henry Walker, Dwyane Wade and, eek, Michael Beasley. The King will reign if these three take turns guarding him.
David Lee ($4,400) vs. Suns
David Lee is a must-start every night that Draymond Green rests. The Warriors guards spread the floor so well that David Lee would have trouble not posting a 25-point fantasy night. The only thing that scares me about Lee is the equally impressive play of teammate Marreese Speights.
Speights is currently 10th in the league in points per minute!
I give the slight fantasy edge to Lee because he gets the majority of the minutes and has the longer pedigree playing with the starters, but if Speights keeps putting up numbers in limited minutes, he'll likely steal some more floor time from D-Lee.
Brandan Wright ($4,100) vs. Warriors
Here's another crazy stat. Brandan Wright is leading the league in point differential per possession. Basically, when Wright is on the floor, his team(s) score way way way more than the opposing team.
The craziest part about Wright's season is that it's happened on three different teams! It's rare that a player with an obvious positive impact on his team gets traded once, but twice in one season?! That's ludicrous.
Anyway, Brandan Wright will play a lot of minutes against the Warriors if center Alex Len sits out with a broken nose.
