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The difference between winning big and winning small in daily fantasy is painful to experience.
I won $9 last night in the $2 two-day league that I referenced in yesterday’s fantasy column, and I would have done better — maybe even earned the $300 first prize — if Harrison Barnes had made more of his garbage time in Golden State’s 40-point loss to the Clippers.
Barnes played 30 minutes — second on the team behind Stephen Curry’s 31 — but scored only eight points on a night when Mark Jackson emptied his bench early.
That lack of production left me with a final total of 251.75 points on a night when 275 would have meant some serious cheddar.
As it was, I finished 34th out of 1,100. Not bad.
My big play in Monday-Tuesday leagues was an $11 wager, and I also put two entries into $2 leagues and loaded up on players from the Warriors-Clippers series because the over/under was set so high.
A stunning 40 percent of the entrants selected Blake Griffin, and he did not disappoint with a 35-point night that produced 42.5 DS points. I also have Russell Westbrook on that team, but it appears I will be undone by two of my other picks — Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala. Hey, when you go hard on one team or one game, you run this risk.
Today, I will be keying on the players in the Rockets-Blazers series with the over/under having been set at 214 1/2. It is the only over/under over the next two nights that is higher than 200.
For the uninitiated, here’s how DraftStreet’s two-day playoff fantasy leagues work.
You pick three guards, three forwards, one center and one utility player using a salary cap of $100,000, and then you root for them to fill up the box score. You can sign up here, or by clicking the banner at the top of this post.
For tonight, I debated putting three or four teams in the $5 leagues, but instead went for the gusto with a $22 league chasing the $1,200 first prize. Here are the studs and duds:
| DraftStreet | Mar. 210 |
| Stars | Over $15,000 |
| LeBron James | $20,929 |
| James Harden | $19,426 |
| Al Jefferson | $19,023 |
| Joakim Noah | $18,962 |
| LaMarcus Aldridge | $18,240 |
| Value Plays | Under $9,000 |
| George Hill | $8,448 |
| Brandan Wright | $8,242 |
| Kirk Hinrich | $8,105 |
| Kyle Korver | $7,932 |
| Roy Hibbert | $7,774 |
I want no part of Al Jefferson and his plantar fasciitis, and though I like LeBron James at that price — it is about $2500 less than he usually costs, I am worried that the Heat are due for a letdown. Hey, they had a ton of them during the regular season, so better safe than sorry. There are plenty of value picks who can produce 20-plus points.
My team WILL include both James Harden and LaMarcus Aldridge, but I am sure I will not be alone — especially after the monster game Aldridge produced in Game 1.
As for my value picks? Hey, I am trying to win this thing.
I am listing five of them, but prudence dictates that I not divulge which ones I am taking. But I will say this … I like playing players who are expected to be involved in high-scoring games.
Hill’s price is up from where it was listed yesterday, and Hibbert … well, as I mentioned yesterday, he needs to break out of his slump sometime, right?
There will come a time when Luis Scola breaks out his his doldrums, too, and the trick will be to have those guys in your lineup when they figure things out. It would seem to me that Game 2, trailing 0-1, would be the proper time for the Pacers’ funk to end.
So I will use at least one Indiana guy.
But that piece of advice is as far as I will go without tipping my hand.
So good luck to all of you tonight, and as the playoffs continue. Also, DraftStreet offers daily action on baseball, too. And for golf fans, you can enter four-day PGA Tour tournaments. There are a pair this weekend with $10,000 prize pools. Again, this is your link for signing up.