NBA

FanDuel Single-Game Daily Fantasy Basketball Helper: NBA Finals Game 6

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.

Celtics-Warriors Overview

Away Home Game
Total
Away
Total
Home
Total
Away
Pace
Home
Pace
Golden StateBoston210103.25106.751424


It might be all she wrote tonight.

The Warriors have a chance to close it out with a win, and really for both teams, a quiet injury report has been a sigh of relief.

Golden State still has Otto Porter (foot) and Andre Iguodala (knee) listed as questionable, but both have played through their injuries for multiple games.

The same can be said about Boston's Robert Williams (knee), who is even slowly working back to a full-time role.

Player Breakdowns

At The Top

Stephen Curry ($16,000): This slate presents what I call "tiny questions" that will greatly shift popularity. One of them is did Boston find a way to lock down Curry, or was it just an off night? The Celtics were faceguarding Curry and held him to his lowest usage rate of the series (30.0%). He'll likely be better, but he was an unstable candidate to keep producing at a FanDuel MVP level based on his 66.4% true shooting percentage in the first four games. He's a pivotal fork in the road at the top once more.

Marcus Smart ($13,000): If this series has taught us anything, it's that Boston has no go-to guy. Jayson Tatum has arguably played better in losses than wins. It's not out of the question to stick Smart in the MVP spot tonight if you're scripting a Boston win. He's averaged 1.00 FanDuel points per minute in Boston's postseason wins this year, and that's dropped to just 0.67 in losses. Typically, if the C's are winning -- especially in blowout fashion -- it is because Smart is taking care of the ball and hitting threes.

Others to Consider: Jayson Tatum ($15,500), Jaylen Brown ($13,000)

In The Middle

Klay Thompson ($10,500): Let's say you're new to NBA daily fantasy. You're probably going to be confused and shocked why Klay Thompson is overwhelmingly the highest rostered player today, but it's because of the legend of "Game 6 Klay" dating back to his nuclear performance in 2016 against Oklahoma City. There's no reason to buy into that now six years later, but beware that with the bonus popularity, Thompson did finally turn around his shooting with a 5-for-11 effort from deep in Game 5.

Al Horford ($10,000): Boston has an Al Horford problem. They've got a 119.0 defensive rating with him on the floor this series, and his plus-minus was -19 in Game 5 to Robert Williams' mark of +11. This is more so a cautionary warning that the Celtics -- in what is likely their last chance to adjust -- could turn to Grant Williams over Horford if they're aware of this analytically. Grant hasn't been anything special himself, but this salary may not necessarily be the steal it appears on the surface.

Others to Consider: Andrew Wiggins ($12,500), Robert Williams ($12,000), Draymond Green ($11,000)

At The Bottom

Derrick White ($8,500): The Celtics' bench is mostly just getting a free ticket to the same drama as fans right now. Other than White and Grant Williams, they played just 10 minutes combined in Game 5, and 5 of those minutes came in garbage time. White still logged 21 minutes to lead the way, but he's also a candidate for bonus time if Horford shifts out of the lineup. It's crucial to chase minutes over production in these single-game playoff series formats, so don't mind White's 0-for-4 shooting stinker last time out.

Gary Payton II ($7,500): While Boston's "others" just are watching, Golden State's are just a mess. Otto Porter is now starting, but he's been capped at 15 minutes in two straight. Jordan Poole only saw 14 minutes in Game 5, and it's hard to count on a better shooting night in Game 6 when his field-goal rate usually drops 2.1 percentage points on the road. The defensive stopper Payton played 26 minutes in Game 5, but he was held to just 11 in the previous two games Kevon Looney wasn't in foul trouble.

A balanced build makes a ton of sense with all the uncertainty in the value tier combined with stars not always playing like stars at the moment.

Others to Consider: Kevon Looney ($9,500), Jordan Poole ($9,000), Grant Williams ($8,000)