The NBA schedule is fully stocked for Wednesday night with 20 teams in action and that means plenty of options and permutations for Daily Fantasy League lineups. Here is some important fantasy advice to keep in mind ahead of Wednesday’s NBA action.
Weak Defense To Target: Los Angeles Lakers
Only the Philadelphia 76ers have fewer wins than the Lakers right now and it’s telling that Philadelphia’s lone win this season came against Los Angeles last week. The Lakers are an absolute mess right now and while they have struggled to put the ball in the basket, they certainly haven’t been any better at their own end of the floor where they are giving up an average of 105.5 points per game this season. They’ve allowed at least 100 points in 11 straight games. LA’s 27th-ranked scoring defense will be in tough when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night with Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine all strong plays as they look to take advantage of the favorable matchup. The only good news is that the Timberwolves have slumped at home this season, winning just two of 11 home contests.
Player Who’s Hot Right Now: Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors
The Raptors’ point guard has been their best player again this season. He has really heated up of late including a monster performance against the Golden State Warriors in which he put up 41 points with seven assists, four steals, three rebounds and a block in a losing cause this past Saturday. Lowry followed that career-best performance with a game-high 27 points, seven rebounds and six assists in Monday’s win over the Lakers and has averaged 28.8 points, 6.5 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 4.0 three-point shots and 2.5 steals per game over the last week of action. You have to love that head coach Duane Casey is riding him hard as Lowry is playing 37.5 minutes per game this month. To put that in perspective, he’d be second in the NBA in minutes per game if that was his season-long average.
Toronto has another tough matchup with the San Antonio Spurs in town on Wednesday but considering how Lowry performed against the Warriors, he should be a strong play again as a player who is absolutely on fire right now.
Injuries & Rest Create Opportunities For… Alex Len, O.J. Mayo
Phoenix Suns center Tyson Chandler could return from a hamstring injury at some point this week but even when he does, his minutes will likely be limited. That means Len should continue to get the majority of the opportunities at center. Len has averaged 10.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game over the last week of action and should be in for another strong performance against the visiting Orlando Magic on Wednesday night regardless of whether Chandler returns.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks have been hit hard by the injury bug at the point guard position and it is O.J. Mayo who has benefited from it. Mayo has averaged 16.0 points, 3.5 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game over his last two starts. His minutes have skyrocketed due to the aforementioned injuries. He’s averaging 34 minutes per game over his last six. He should be in line for similar numbers when Milwaukee hosts the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
Highest Scoring Game Of The Night: HOU @ WAS
The Houston Rockets and Washington Wizards both rank in the bottom third of the NBA in points per game allowed, so there isn’t any reason to believe Wednesday’s matchup between them won’t be another high scoring game. The Wizards had been a strong defensive team last season but that’s faded. James Harden leads an impressive offensive cast in Houston with Terrence Jones and Patrick Beverley among the other options worth considering for the Rockets. For the Wizards, options like Gary Neal and Otto Porter Jr. have certainly been good enough of late to consider adding as value plays if you can’t afford to have John Wall or Bradley Beal on your roster.
