Mr. Fantasy’s Daily Fantasy Basketball Dunks for November 4—Hold The Curry
2015-11-04 14:08:23
By Dave Del Grande
@DaveDelGrande
TIP OF THE DAY
Don’t get caught up in the hype.
It must have been easy scripting the promo for ESPN’s late-night titanic
between the unbeaten the Clippers and Warriors on Wednesday night.
It’s a modern-day Hagler vs. Hearns, pitting the power of Clippers forward
Blake Griffin (FantasyAces $7,000) against the finesse of Warriors guard
Stephen Curry (FantasyAces $7,800).
And these two teams don’t like each other.
Yeah, yeah. But is there fantasy value?
Gotta say: Probably not in Griffin or Curry.
Griffin, who is off to a fast start, averaging 29.5 points and 9.3
rebounds, goes up against one of the best defensive power forwards in
the game today in Golden State’s
Draymond Green (FantasyAces $5,750).
The matchup was a bit one-sided last season, with Green outscoring
Griffin 23-14 and outrebounding him 13-1 in their only meeting in
Oakland, site of Wednesday’s game.
Meanwhile, few teams defend Curry better than the Clippers. They
double-team him at every turn, forcing him to be more of a game manager
than a shooter.
It produced averages of 20.3 points (down 15 percent from his
full-season figure) and just 5.5 assists a game, his second-lowest
figure against any opponent.
And to get these guys Wednesday, you’re going to have to pay the highest
price in the entire FantasyAces game for Curry and the seventh-highest
for Griffin.
No thanks.
Alas, if you want interest in the big showdown, go with Green, who will
battle Griffin for every rebound on one end and slip away from him while
he’s double-teaming Curry on the other.
MUST PLAY
Greg Monroe, Bucks forward (FantasyAces $6,300).
I mention this a lot in my football analysis: In the fantasy game, one is almost always better than two.
In football, it usually relates to running backs. One guy getting all
the carries tends to be far more fantasy-friendly than two guys sharing
the ball.
The same can be true among big men in the NBA.
Take last year’s Pistons, for example.
Monroe and center Andre Drummond posted big numbers as a tandem last
season. If you picked the right one, you often got a nice fantasy boost.
But it wasn’t all that often that both shined on the same night.
Well … this year they’ve separated, with Monroe having gone to the
Bucks. And now it takes two spotlights to capture their successes.
Monroe has been brilliant in Milwaukee, already having recorded 22-and-14 and 23-and-13 double-doubles in points and rebounds.
And now he goes up against the 76ers’ young front line, so you can expect more fireworks. Perhaps his biggest display yet.
Drummond was a one-man wrecking crew in fantasy contests Tuesday night with 25 points in 29 rebounds.
The ball’s now in Monroe’s court.
MUST AVOID
Damon Lillard, Trail Blazers guard (FantasyAces $6,600).
More is being asked of Lillard this season on a Trail Blazers team that
already pretty much has played its way out of playoff contention.
But more Lillard means more shooting amid more defensive attention, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
The young point guard is averaging 25.5 points and 8.0 assists so far, but he’s shooting just 44.6 percent.
All those numbers figure to take a hit Wednesday night at Utah, where he
averaged just 21.0 points and 6.0 assists in two visits last season,
shooting 41.9 percent.
And now Lillard heads into Salt Lake City with a far weaker supporting
cast, and this time will be facing a Jazz defense that has shut down
opposing points guard so far, giving up just 16.7 points per game on
38.5-percent shooting.
If you’re going to invest big in a point guard Wednesday night, it really should be Oklahoma City’s
Russell Westbrook (FantasyAces $7,550) or ...
HISTORY LESSON
The Spurs rank among the NBA’s best at defending four of the five positions.
The one spot where they are by far the weakest: Point guard.
That figures to get exposed Wednesday night when the Spurs, playing
their third road game in four days, go up against one of the league’s
best in Washington’s
John Wall (FantasyAces $6,700).
Wall is off to another fast start this season, averaging 22.0 points and 6.7 assists per game.
He was right around those numbers (20.0 and 8.0) against the Spurs last season, connecting on 57.1 percent of his shots.
Clearly, San Antonio hasn’t improved its defensive capabilities at the
position this season. They rank among the league’s worst in average
points (27.5) and assists (9.5) surrendered to opposing point guards
this year.
And that’s despite having seen the Nets, Celtics and Knicks in their last three games.
Wall trumps anything those guys have had to offer.
ULTIMATE SLEEPER
Jon Leuer, Suns forward (FantasyAces $3,500).
The Suns have very little depth up front, which has thrust Leuer into significant playing time early in the season.
It’s resulted in a couple of good games, including a 14-point, seven-rebound, three-assist outing against Dallas in the opener.
Similar success Wednesday night against the Kings would not be a surprise.
First off, Sacramento comes to town without star big man DeMarcus Cousins, who is out with a strained Achilles’ tendon.
And they flew south a bit fatigued early in the morning, having gotten beaten up by the rugged Grizzlies on Tuesday night.
The Kings nonetheless love to run up and down the court, a style that suits the Suns well.
Don’t be surprised if Leuer is among the Suns who take advantage.
INJURY ALERT
Speaking of teams playing back-to-backs …
This one, because of unique circumstances, actually works in the favor the team on the second night of such a junket Wednesday.
The Hawks had to pour pretty much everything they had into a narrow road win at Miami on Tuesday.
They could use some fresh legs for Brooklyn’s visit on Wednesday.
Lo and behold, that’s exactly what they’ll get from guard
Thabo Sefolosha (FantasyAces $3,800), who isn’t playing back-to-backs early in the season while an ankle injury fully heals.
He took Tuesday off, and figures to be the freshest Hawk on the floor Wednesday.
Sefolosha followed a similar pattern last week when he sat out the
club’s game against the Knicks, then returned to provide four points,
six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 21 minutes against
Charlotte.
A week later, his ankle is in better shape, so he can be expected to be extended well past those 21 minutes.
That promises to produce fantasy-worthy numbers at a bargain price.
Mr. Fantasy offers free advice! Ask your questions on Twitter at @DaveDelGrande.
FantasyAces offer the most NBA roster flexibility of any DFS site! Check out the Scoring tab located on the Gameplay Basics page for more information about our daily fantasy NBA rosters & scoring.
About Mr. Fantasy
Dave Del Grande didn't invent fantasy sports--it only seems that
way. He was the first journalist to write a weekly column exclusively
devoted to fantasy sports published in a daily newspaper,
The Oakland Tribune,
which was the birthplace of fantasy football. Del Grande was also was
the first sportswriter to have a fantasy column syndicated nationally by
Universal Press. He authored the original “Ask Mr. Fantasy” column for
ESPN.com and also helped launch the highly successful fantasy endeavors of
USA Today Sports Weekly and
NFL.com.
He is an award-winning NBA basketball reporter, covering the Golden
State Warriors. Today, Dave continues to cover the Warriors and San
Francisco Giants for The Sports Xchange.
