After a relatively quiet night in the NBA on Tuesday, the basketball schedule ramps up again for Wednesday with 10 games on the board. The Golden State Warriors might not be undefeated but they are still a ridiculous 29-1 heading into a date with the Dallas Mavericks. There is no reason to think they will slow down anytime soon as long as their star-studded lineup stays healthy, so keep that in mind when building your optimal NBA fantasy lineup. Here is some important fantasy advice to consider for Wednesday’s action.
Weak Defense To Target: Phoenix Suns
After hanging around the final playoff seed in the Western Conference for a little while the Suns have hit a wall with five straight losses including allowing the Philadelphia 76ers to pick up their first road win of the season. A big part of the problem has been the team’s defensive performance as Phoenix ranks 27th in the NBA with an average of 105.2 points allowed per game this season. It won’t get any easier for the Suns when they visit the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night and while Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge are quality options that also happen to be pretty high-priced you might want to consider Tony Parker or even Boris Diaw as decent value plays since they have put up decent numbers of late and should be in for a strong performance versus Phoenix.
Player Who’s Hot Right Now: Nikola Vucevic, Orlando Magic
The Magic are currently holding down a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and Vucevic is a big reason for it including in particularly of late as he has been absolutely on fire. Vucevic has averaged 23.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.0 steal per game over the last week of action and he should be in for another solid fantasy performance when Orlando hosts the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night.
Injuries, Rest Create Opportunities For…. J.J. Barea, Taj Gibson
Dallas will be in tough to slow down the Warriors at home and it doesn’t help that they won’t have Deron Williams at full strength since he is dealing with a hamstring injury but one player that has stepped up in Williams’ absence has been J.J. Barea and he is worth taking a shot on in Daily Fantasy Leagues for Wednesday. Barea has averaged 18.5 points, 6.5 assists and 3.8 three-point shots per game over the last week of action and should put up some strong fantasy numbers at a decent price as the Mavericks try to keep up with Golden State on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, an injury to Chicago Bulls’ center Joakim Noah has opened the door for Taj Gibson to play more minutes and he has taken advantage of the opportunity with better numbers of late. Gibson has averaged 9.7 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.0 block per game over the last week of action and like Barea there is a good chance his production against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday is a lot higher than his relatively low price tag would otherwise indicate it will be.
Highest Scoring Game Of The Night: PHI @ SAC
The matchup between the Warriors and Mavericks will certainly be a strong candidate to produce the highest scoring game of the night but another candidate that might fly under the radar a bit is the clash between the Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings. Sacramento quietly ranks third in the NBA in points per game with an average of 104.1 this season but the problem for the Kings is that they haven’t been good enough defensively all year. The 76ers recently picked up their first road win of the season versus Phoenix and while we don’t think they will win this game they should be able to score enough points to make this one of the highest scoring games of the night. Omri Casspi and Darren Collison are both solid fantasy options for Sacramento while Ish Smith is definitely worth considering for Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
