In a traditional FanDuel NBA lineup, you have a $60,000 salary cap to roster nine players. The salary cap is the same in the single-game setup, but the lineup requirements are different.
You select five players of any position. One of your players will be your MVP, whose FanDuel points are multiplied by two. You also choose a STAR player (whose production is multiplied by 1.5) and a PRO (multiplied by 1.2). Two UTIL players round out the roster, and they don't receive a multiplier for their production.
This makes the five players you select essential in more than one way; you need to focus on slotting in the best plays in the multiplier slots rather than just nailing the best overall plays of the game.
Read this piece by Brandon Gdula for some excellent in-depth analysis on how to attack a single-game slate in NBA DFS.
Heat-Celtics Overview
| Away | Home | GameTotal | AwayTotal | HomeTotal | AwayPace | HomePace |
| Miami | Boston | 215 | 103.0 | 112.0 | 29 | 20 |
Today's injury report has no substantial traffic.
Only Malcolm Brogdon (forearm) has an unconfirmed status, and he's probably after logging a good chunk of minutes on Wednesday for Boston.
The Heat do have a situation that could change at some point in this playoff run. Tyler Herro (hand) is reportedly making some progress but is out for Game 2 -- and the foreseeable future.
Player Breakdowns
At The Top
Interestingly, Jayson Tatum ($17,500) stuck to the top of the FanDuel player pool despite a tough Game 1.
His 7 boards were the lowest total in five games for the Celtics' star, and he had 4 turnovers and took just 17 official shots. All things considered, it was about as poor of a Tatum effort as we've seen since the Atlanta series, and his bounce-back effort would be instrumental in Boston covering a nine-point spread.
Jimmy Butler ($17,000) should be the most popular choice at MVP, but there are some red flags. The spread is one; it's not likely Miami would win decisively in three periods, so he'd likely totally collapse in fantasy during a blowout. Butler also had six steals to contribute to a slate-high 66.6 FanDuel points on Wednesday. He's good for some (2.15 per 36 in the playoffs), but that was excessive.
Again, I do see a path forJaylen Brown ($15,500) at MVP. If you went there in Game 1, it was a bit unfortunate to not work as his 32.0% usage rate dwarfed Tatum's (27.7%) at a fraction of the MVP popularity. With six turnovers, most of Brown's mistakes directly fed to Butler, too.
I will also move Bam Adebayo ($13,500) into this tier today. He's unlikely to surpass these other three, but Adebayo's ceiling is a lot larger when he posted 20 points and 8 rebounds in Game 1. He'd just need a ceiling game from stocks (steals plus blocks) after just one total on Wednesday. In a clunky game with a ton of rebounds, the probability he's the optimal MVP is higher than zero.
In The Middle
Al Horford ($12,000) remains a bit of an enigma here.
He closed ahead of Robert Williams ($7,500) in this one -- and that likely stays the case. He went just 1-for-5 from deep in his catch-and-shoot-only offensive role, so a hot night from the field could absolutely result in a monstrous score. He'll continue to ebb and flow based on the accumulation of stocks.
Marcus Smart ($10,500) worked his way into the perfect build in Game 1 with a playoff-high 11 assists. I'm not expecting that to stick, but he's comfortably playing ahead of Derrick White ($7,500) at this stage. He logged 33 minutes to White's 21.
Malcolm Brogdon ($9,500) actually topped both (37), but he was a constant target for Butler at the defensive end, so I'm not sure he sticks if his shooting isn't elite like it was in Game 1 (58.6 eFG%).
Oddly, Kyle Lowry ($10,000) drew just 27 minutes on Wednesday, playing behind Max Strus ($8,000) and Gabe Vincent ($8,000). He was even hot from the field (62.5 eFG%), but both Strus and Vincent were hotter, topping a 75.0 eFG% themselves. I still expect Lowry draws a full role for whoever doesn't have it going, but, coming off the bench, he's at great risk to see very little court time in a blowout.
At The Bottom
This tier is pretty wide open, setting up a fun single-game slate where you don't have to swallow the chalk.
That should be the aforementioned Brogdon after logging the most minutes of any Boston guard, and he's got significant room for improvement if that role sticks. He's averaging 30.7 FanDuel points per 36 minutes in the playoffs.
Sometimes I get one right likeCaleb Martin ($8,500) in Game 1. Don't give me too much credit; his length is a natural fit opposite Brown and Tatum, so he posted 29 minutes. I just wouldn't expect the 15 real-life points to stick on the offensive end.
Strus and Vincent are pretty identical plays in Miami's backcourt. They're both at risk of being benched for Martin and/or Lowry in the event of a slow start. I'll always lean toward Vincent when 53.7% of his playoff FanDuel points have come from scoring. That mark is 61.8% for Strus, so his path to failure is much more obvious.
Robert Williams should be the most popular play in this tier as a starter, and he logged 26 minutes in Game 1. As Boston adjusts and shuffles its rotation, do keep in mind he's consistently lost out to Horford on crunchtime minutes. I still prefer him to Derrick White, who couldn't even turn 60.0% shooting from three into FanDuel viability.
Kevin Love's playing time is shrinking, so the last name I'd mention here is Grant Williams ($6,000). After Butler's monstrous Game 1, they could turn to Williams, who averaged 30.4 minutes per game and did an excellent job defensively on Butler in last year's East finals. Plus, even if that dart fails and this ends up a rout by the C's, Williams routinely plays garbage-time minutes.