FanDuel Single-Game Basketball Helper: Clippers at Mavericks (1/21/20)

In a traditional FanDuel NBA lineup, you have a $60,000 salary cap to roster nine players: a center and two point guards, shooting guards, small forwards, and power forwards. Among those nine players, the top eight scores will count toward your team's total.

In the single-game setup, the salary cap is the same, but the lineup requirements are different. You select five players of any position. One of your player selections will be your MVP, whose FanDuel points are multiplied by two. You also select 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 to their production.

This makes the five players you select important in more than one way, as 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.

Clippers at Mavericks Overview

Tonight, two of the NBA's best teams face off with plenty of rest. The Los Angeles Clippers haven't played since Saturday, and the Dallas Mavericks last played Friday night. The total is 231.5, and the Mavericks are favored by 1.5 at home.

Injuries and What-Ifs

Paul George ($13,500) has missed five straight games. Despite his hamstring injury, he is traveling with the team but is listed as out, so we can proceed as if he were to miss. That's huge. There would be a lot of extra value options for the Los Angeles Clippers. If he plays, we'll be short on cheap plays across the entire game. Maurice Harkless ($6,000) missed Saturday's game for the Clippers, as well, but is listed as probable.

Kristaps Porzingis ($12,500) is planning on returning for this game but is listed as questionable. If he plays, then Dwight Powell ($10,000) and Maxi Kleber ($9,500) take hits as possible sources of value.

Player Breakdowns

At the Top
Luka Doncic ($17,500) - Doncic should be a no-brainer play in most lineups, as he is second in the NBA in FanDuel points per minute (1.62) and is third in usage rate (36.0%). Doncic is the key cog in the Dallas Mavericks' offense. While the Clippers have multiple paths to production, the Mavs' offense flows through Doncic -- especially without Porzingis With Porzingis out, Doncic has a stellar 38.9% usage rate and averages 61.66 FanDuel points per 36 minutes. With Porzingis, Doncic is still elite at 35.7% and 55.18, respectively. Last time they met, the Clips threw a lot of different looks at Doncic, but he still had 42.6 FanDuel points, most of any Maverick by 8.1 points.

Kawhi Leonard ($16,500) - With Paul George off the court, Leonard boasts a massive 37.2% usage rate and averages 57.62 FanDuel points per 36 minutes. With George, Leonard is still a team-best performer with a 31.3% usage rate and 47.27 FanDuel points per 36 minutes, but he does drop noticeably in those stats. He'd take a hit if George suits up but is still an MVP candidate as a pivot away from the obvious Doncic. (In the unlikely even that George plays, he looks really enticing. He led the first matchup in FanDuel points (49.8) on the strength of 11 three-point attempts en route to 26 points (plus 6 steals). George had as many field goal attempts (11) in that game as Leonard did and is a full $3,000 cheaper.)

Montrezl Harrell ($12,000) - After Doncic, Leonard, George, and Porzingis (two of whom may not play), we get to Harrell in projected value. Harrell is facing a beatable Mavericks defense that ranks fifth-worst in fantasy points per minute allowed to versatile bigs over the past four weeks. Harrell averages a 27.4% usage rate and 1.23 FanDuel points per minute without George. He ranks top-five in ceiling value as well.

In the Middle
Dwight Powell ($10,000) - If Porzingis misses, we can look to Powell, who has a lowly 14.3% usage rate and 0.87 FanDuel point per minute average when Porzingis is off the court. The boost comes in opportunity. Powell has averaged 29.4 minutes and 26.4 FanDuel points over the past 10 games without Porzingis.

Ivica Zubac ($8,500) - Zubac projects for 1.10 FanDuel points per minute and averages 1.16 on the full season. That's a top-60 rate among qualified players. Zubac posted 19.4 FanDuel points over 18 minutes in the first meeting between these teams back in November. Zubac has a 17.2% usage rate and a per-minute average of 1.26 FanDuel points when George is off the floor, so he's some salary relief who can pay off in limited minutes.

Delon Wright ($8,000) - Wright was limited to 7.3 FanDuel points in 18 minutes in the first meeting, but he has averaged 1.01 FanDuel points per minute on the full season. Wright is projected for 20.2 minutes tonight and is one of the few possible value plays from Dallas worth targeting.

At the Bottom
JaMychal Green ($6,500) - Green recorded 21.1 FanDuel points in 23 minutes against the Mavericks in their first meeting and has a volatile game log that includes four games with fewer than 16.5 FanDuel points in his past five -- but one with 32.6, thanks to an 11-point, 13-rebound outing against the Orlando Magic this past week. Maurice Harkless ($6,000) is also in the mix, but Green rates out slightly higher in numberFire's projections.

Landry Shamet ($6,500) - Shamet is projected for 26.7 minutes tonight, in line with his usual role. He's played 24.8 or more minutes in each of the past five games. Shamet is a terribly inefficient fantasy producer (0.55 FanDuel points per minute) but opens up a lot of salary cap to get to the studs.

Jalen Brunson ($6,000) - Is a full punt option. He has a 20.6% usage rate and a per-minute average of 0.86 FanDuel points when Porzingis is sidelined slight boosts to his rates with Porzingis. Brunson has played fewer than 20 minutes in nine straight contests but got to 19.4 in the last game against the Portland Trail Blazers when he put up 13 points and a few peripheral stats for 16.9 FanDuel points.

Takeaways

Odds are that you'll want to load up on at least one stud -- Doncic or Leonard -- in the MVP slot because they're so heavily involved in their team's respective offenses, especially if Porzingis and George, respectively, miss the game tonight.

A balanced build thereafter makes sense because of few certainties for cheap, but the higher-upside strategy is to take a stand on a value play in hopes he hits his true ceiling. Keep on tracking numberFire's updated projections throughout the day to see where value opens before tip-off.

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