Fantasy Spin May 25, 2015

It was supposed to be a stroll in the park for Cleveland. Then LeBron James $11700 missed his first ten shots and the extreme underdog Hawks had the lead. Then things got even crazier.

For 19 minutes, Al Horford $7500 was playing his best game of the series. That is, until he hooked arms with Matthew Dellavedova $3900 and pulled the smaller man across a fallen DeMarre Carroll $6500 to the floor. Presumably trying to retaliate against Delly having ended the season of Kyle Korver (ankle) when they both dove for a loose ball in the previous game, Al fell on top of him. All of that was “no call” until Horford threw an elbow at his foe’s head.

After a lengthy review it was declared a Flagrant 2 and an automatic ejection. Somehow the furious Hawks forced overtime but Bron not only found the range, he posted an incredible triple-double — 37 PTS, 18 REB, 13 AST, 3 STL — while hobbling with what he said in a postgame interview were too many injuries to list.

DraftKings matches your first deposit 100% (up to $600) with bonus funds that convert to cash, plus you get a FREE entry in the $60K Sharpshooter — the top score earns $4,000 and 4,625 of 22,988 teams will get paid.

In Mo-Tue DFS action, salary raises for a few key role players have made it difficult to use all three of LBJ, James Harden $10500 and Stephen Curry $10500 in the same lineup, which I’ve recommended the last few nights. Instead, I’m betting that Horford will be inspired to play brilliantly tomorrow. Atlanta still might get swept, but for a change I’m not scrimping at the C position with Andrew Bogut $5000 or Timofey Mozgov $4900.

Game Four in the West could go either way. Still no idea why the Rockets seemed to give up on Saturday in a must-win on their home court. Harden missed 13 of 16 shots and Dwight Howard $8800 was the only teammate with energy, though Josh Smith $5500 was OK. It’s possible they could salvage one win tonight but it will take a much better effort by everyone and only delay the inevitable.

Leaving out Harden could easily backfire; he might be dominant. However, it allows us to use Horford and Draymond Green $8000, leaving only four spots to fill with “scrubs,” instead of looking for five bargains. Kent Bazemore $3500 did a nice job as the starting SG and deserves his $1200 raise, while the controversial Mr. Dellavedova played 45 minutes but DK has once again made a starting PG eligible only at SG. (It’s an annoying habit; Jason Terry $4000 gets the same treatment.)

The ultra-cheap PG play is Shelvin Mack $2100, who was very effective in 28 minutes and seems to have taken over for Dennis Schroder $4800 as the primary backup to Jeff Teague $7400. It can be argued that if Mike Scott $2700 had made even one of his five 3-point attempts, the Hawks would have won. His all-around game is still better than Pero Antic $2200 as the third big man behind Horford and Paul Millsap $7600.

It’s quite possible that we are about to go an entire week (or more) with no basketball. The Finals are not scheduled to begin until June 4; if both series wrap up in the next 48 hours, that would give Kyrie Irving (knee) a chance to heal before the showdown with Golden State. We’ll either shift the Spin to baseball — there’s a million-dollar MLB contest tomorrow ($27 buy-in) with a $100,000 top prize — or take a mini-vacation.

Pos	Premium	Midrange	Bargain
PG	Stephen Curry $10500	Jeff Teague $7500	Shelvin Mack $2100
SG	James Harden $10500	M. Dellavedova $3900	Kent Bazemore $3500
SF	LeBron James $11700	Trevor Ariza $6600	Josh Smith $5500
PF	Draymond Green $8000	Paul Millsap $7600	Mike Scott $2700
C	Dwight Howard $8800	Al Horford $7500	Andrew Bogut $5000