I gave you the head’s up on Luis Scola, and I hope you put him into play with some good players. And after the latest no show from Roy Hibbert, I advise you to double down on the big Argentinian for Game 4. He might just move into the starting lineup.
Indiana needs a boost from someone now that they trail the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in their best-of-7 series, and Scola is available at the bargain basement price of $7,333. He scored 17 points in just 20 minutes in Game 3, and coach Frank Vodel said afterward that he will look at everything in preparing for Game 4. We might even see C.J. Watson take over for George Hill as the starting point guard after Hill shot 1-for-11 and could not contain Jeff Teague. Watson, by the way, will cost you only $6,978.
I have drafted one of those players in my $11 entry fee league, which is allowing me to fill out the rest of the roster with studs.
In my $2 entry fee leagues for Thursday-Friday games, I got lucky with Kendrick Perkins (21.25 DS points) but not so lucky with Derek Fisher, who I drafted onto the same team. That eight-man squad also features Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, but it will be tough to overcome Fisher’s 6.75 DS points.
Of the half-dozen teams I selected, this one — with no studs — has the best chance to finish in the money:
Of course, I need a big game from the Wizards tonight, and getting three Wizards to put up big numbers is never an easy task — even more so when they are playing the defensive-minded Chicago Bulls. Washington is a 3-point favorite, and the over/under line is only 182 1/2.
The highest over/under over the next two days is on tonight’s Portland-Houston game, 216. So I will pad my $11 entry team with as many of those hombres as possible, cross my fingers and hope for overtime. The big questions in Game 3 of that series are whether James Harden can break out of his 29 percent shooting slump and whether LaMarcus Aldridge can put up another 40. I expect Kevin McHale to use Omer Asik a lot more on Aldridge in an effort to slow him down.
This is really the best week of the season to be playing fantasy basketball.
There are six games to choose from in the two-night leagues, and if you can nail the correct low-priced guy(s), it makes it all that much easier to cash.
Take a look at the fellow who won the $11 Wednesday-Thursday tournament that I entered:
This fella won the tournament easily because he hit on four flyers: Dorrell Wright at $4,947, Gerald Henderson at $8,618, Devin Harris at $9,410 and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at $8,519. That allowed him to draft three studs who all produced monster lines — DeAndre Jordan, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant.
I might just copycat him tonight.
For the uninitiated, here is how DraftStreet’s fantasy contests 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.
Here are some prices on studs and duds:
| DraftStreet | Price |
| Stars | Over $19,000 |
| LaMarcus Aldridge | $22,788 |
| Kevin Durant | $22,248 |
| Stephen Curry | $21,425 |
| Paul George | $19,632 |
| James Harden | $19,211 |
| Value Plays | Under $9,100 |
| Michael Kidd-Gilchrist | $9,043 |
| Amir Johnson | $8,901 |
| Gerald Henderson | $8,843 |
| Luis Scola | $7,333 |
| Vince Carter | $6,890 |
Aldridge’s price has risen an astonishing $2,500 since yesterday, when 41 percent of the players in the $2 league selected him. Durant’s price is remarkably high given the pedestrian game he played Thursday night as the Thunder lost in OT to the Grizzlies, and James is about where you’d expect him to be.
The centers who has been producing the most, Dwight Howard, is at $18,411 and will be on my team in the Friday-Saturday league.
The pressure is on him to lead his team to a victory, and he should see the ball a lot more in the low post as McHale schemes to have Harden take fewer shots. I’ll go so far as to say that a 20-20 game is a likelihood.
I also am taking Joakim Noah for $18,254, balancing out the two duds I mentioned up top — Scola and Watson. (UPDATE: I ditched Watson. Too many value picks in the $10-11,000 range).
The other four spots?
Hey, I am not giving away my entire strategy. But suffice to say I will go for players in the game that are expected to be high-scoring.
I also will enter a second team in the $11 entry fee contest for which I will disclose none of my strategies.
Check back tomorrow for an update on what went down Friday, plus a lookahead to the Saturday-Sunday leagues when there will be eight games to choose from. For now, the bankroll for the week is minus-$51.33. Good luck to y’all. Again, you can enter by clicking this link.