NBA Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 1/4/19

If you're new to daily fantasy basketball -- maybe you started your DFS journey during the MLB or NFL seasons, or maybe basketball is your sport and this will be your first year giving it a shot -- you're in for a treat. The NBA scene changes hugely on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

With so much changing so quickly, we're here with plenty of tools to help you out. We have daily projections, a matchup heat map, a lineup optimizer, and a ton of other great resources to help give you an edge.

We'll also be coming at you with this primer every day, breaking down a few of the day's top plays at each price point.

Let's take a look at who you should target on today's main slate.

Best of the Best

Russell Westbrook ($11,600): A triple-double machine as usual, Russ has triple-doubles in half of his 22 games since returning from his most recent injury on November 19. In that time, he ranks fourth in the NBA in fantasy scoring (54.4 per game), though his price tag really doesn't reflect it, coming short of that $12,000 range that we have seen for most of the top fantasy scorers this year. He's averaging 37.0 minutes per game over his last five, and with the Oklahoma City Thunder sitting as 1.5-point underdogs against Portland, he should see no shortage of run tonight, either. The Blazers are a middling matchup, allowing the league's 15th-most FanDuel points per minute to opposing point guards, and Russ is cheap enough that the potential for big minutes makes him a top play in all formats.