If you can believe it, today marks the last day of January! With a plethora of NBA developments slated for the next four weeks, including the All-Star Game and the trade deadline, it can be easy to overlook the upcoming evening of hoops at this stage of the season. Tonight's slate features five solid games, providing us with countless DFS lineup opportunities, so we took to FanDuel to enter the $375K Tuesday NBA Clutch Shot ($100K to first).
Here's the schedule for Tuesday, the final night of hoops in an action-packed month of January:
- Heat at Cavaliers (7:00 p.m. ET)
- Lakers at Knicks (7:00 p.m.)
- Hornets at Bucks (8:00 p.m.)
- Clippers at Bulls (8:00 p.m.)
- Pelicans at Nuggets (10:00 p.m.)
That's a lot of contenders in a five-game slate, including a handful of MVP contenders like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and LeBron James. With the playoff race heating up now that the regular season is well over 60 percent complete, daily fantasy contests are getting more and more fun to enter. Let's review our FanDuel Clutch Shot squad for Tuesday night, and briefly detail why we drafted each player to our lineup.
Before we break down all of our selections, here are the most notable scoring rules for FanDuel contests: Made three-point shot (+1 point), rebound (+1.2 points), assists (+1.5 points), steals and blocks (+3 points), field goal made (+2 points) and free throw made (+1 point).
MORE TUESDAY DFS: DraftKings lineup
Tuesday night's FanDuel Picks: NBA DFS lineup for GPP tournaments
Tuesday main late swap slate, $60,000 budget.
PG Jalen Brunson, Knicks vs. Lakers ($7,500)
Brunson's breakout year just seems to get better and better as the season progresses, and we fully expect him to be one of the names selected for the All-Star Game this Thursday night. How can we not love this guy at $7,500? He averages 37.5 fantasy points per game, but he's finished above 40 points nine times since Jan. 4. He put up 49.3 in Boston last week against a tough Celtics defense, finishing with 29 points, seven assists, four rebounds, and two blocks. It was textbook Brunson: hyper-efficient both with the ball and his shooting. He turned the ball over just once, hit 12-of-25 field goals, two-of-six threes, and three-of-four free throws. Against a soft Lakers defense at Madison Square Garden this evening, he should put an exclamation mark on his All-Star candidacy.
PG Russell Westbrook, Lakers at Knicks ($6,700)
It's almost against my DNA to pick Westbrook for anything fantasy-related at this point, but let's face it: he's enjoying a tremendous stretch — especially in points formats — coming off the bench. His baseline now is 35 fantasy points per game, but he's posted three 50-pieces since the calendar turned to 2023. He remains incredibly active and beats up on opposing reserves like the Montrezl Harrell of guards. The Knicks, just like the Lakers, struggle to defend backcourts, so don't hesitate using Westbrook at this price and hoping for a repeat of his 41.6-point night in Brooklyn on Monday.
SG Paul George, Clippers at Bulls ($8,300)
George has missed some time recently with knee and hamstring issues, but he's been lighting it up when he sees the floor. The veteran wing has averaged 24.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 6.6 assists, and 1.2 steals over 34.8 minutes across his past five appearances, good for a collective average of 43.9 fantasy points per game. We're sticking with the theme of attacking below-average defenses with above-average wings, so fire up PG13 against the Bulls, who surrender the eighth-most fantasy points to guards.
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— NBA Players Highlights (@NBAPlayersHigh) January 28, 2023
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SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Nuggets vs. Pelicans ($4,900)
KCP may seem like a boring DFS pick, but his across-the-board statistical contributions certainly add up. He has not scored over 11 points or racked up more than a five-count of any other peripheral stat over his past six games, yet he averages 23.2 fantasy points over that span. He does a lot of things well, like rebounding, passing, and shooting, but his unbelievable steals numbers over the past couple of weeks have really pushed him above and beyond the field of DFS values.
SF Kawhi Leonard, Clippers at Bulls ($9,600)
Leonard joins PG13 as our first of two star-stacks, and honestly, he was a no-brainer. He has averaged 50.12 fantasy points over his past five games, thanks in large part to a ferocious scoring stretch. He has scored at least 24 points in 10 straight games, and he has 29 boards over his past four. He also still consistently creates for others and obviously still serves as a "stocks" beast every time he laces up. Anything under $10,000, especially against a bad Chicago defense, seems like a value for Kawhi.
SF Norman Powell, Clippers at Bulls ($5,500)
Powell joins PG13 and Leonard as the third Clipper on our squad, and he joins Westbrook as our second Sixth Man of the Year candidate. He never contributes much on the defensive end, but he's always a threat to turn it on for 25-30 points with his three-level scoring prowess. A 26-4-3-1-1 line with some triples is always in play for Powell, especially against poor defensive units. That would be a quiet 35-40 fantasy points for just $5,500, a range he has finished in twice since Jan. 18.
PF Julius Randle, Knicks vs. Lakers ($9,400)
Here's another guy I don't love in 9-cat fantasy but consistently use in DFS tournaments. Randle sometimes makes you scratch your head with his shot selection or brutal turnovers, but we can't deny the overall impact he has on this Knicks squad. He has hit the 50s in fantasy points 12 times since Dec. 23 and the 60s four times in that span. He scores, rebounds, and dishes assists as well as any power forward in the game, more than making up for his defensive ineptitude. The Brunson-Randle stack completes our second of two star-stacks, and we're starting to really love our potential to win some DFS loot this evening.
PF JT Thor, Hornets at Bucks ($3,600)
We had to put a scrub in one of our last two roster spots, so we're opting for Thor, as he at least plays 12-17 minutes per game. Even if it's garbage time, Thor can put up five to eight fantasy points — and garbage time in a Hornets at Bucks game could be an inevitability.
C Larry Nance, Thunder at Nuggets ($4,500)
One of our favorite role players in the NBA, Nance consistently puts effort in on both sides of the floor and plays intelligent basketball. He had a double-double in New Orleans' last game, and he has eclipsed 25 fantasy points in two straight contests. He also had a 40-burger 10 days ago at Miami, finishing with a fantasy-friendly line of 12-7-4-1-4. The Thunder will need as much Nance as it can get against Nikola Jokic and the crafty Nuggets.