The city of Cleveland is ready and waiting for LeBron James and their beloved Cavaliers to return home with a chance to put a stranglehold on their Eastern Conference Finals. They are up 2-0 on the Atlanta Hawks and they can almost taste the finals. If you’re playing DraftKings on Sunday, you’ll have to be wary of all sorts of injuries (Kyle Korver, DeMarre Carroll and Kyrie Irving) as well as fatigue as the Hawks looked fried in Game 2.
PG: Jeff Teague, Atlanta
Salary: $7,300
Teague has consistently been the Hawks best player throughout the postseason and he is the one Atlanta player that is both a top talent and reasonably priced. However, he is coming off a fairly lousy effort, totaling just 12 points, six assists and two threes and two blocks in Game 2. For the playoffs, though, Teague has averaged 16.2 points, 7.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals and if he can at least come close to matching those averages, he will be the smart play at the PG spot with Kyrie Irving nursing an injury and not at full strength.
SG: J.R. Smith, Cleveland
Salary: $4,900
The reality is that with Kevin Love out and Irving dealing with an injury, it is Smith who has become Robin to LeBron’s Batman. His ability to stretch the defense and score from anywhere on the floor makes him an excellent play – particularly at home where the crowd will be behind the Cavaliers. Anybody who took Kyle Korver and Iman Shumpert at a higher price than Smith earlier in this series undoubtedly regrets it.
SF: LeBron James, Cleveland
Salary: $11,400
The one position where there really is no debate about who to plug in for Sunday’s Game 3 is the SF spot where LeBron is the player that every fantasy GM should build around. LeBron has been the best player in this series and with the opportunity to take Cleveland on his back for Game 3 at home, it’s amazing to think about what kind of numbers he has the potential to put up on Sunday.
PF: Paul Millsap, Atlanta
Salary: $8,000
There really isn’t many options available at the PF spot or with the forwards in general, so it should be no surprise that we plug each of the top two PF eligible players in to our lineup for Sunday. Millsap really needs to step up if the Hawks are going to have a chance in this series and even though he is the second-most expensive player in our lineup, we don’t mind because of the potential to put up the best numbers of any power forward in this game.
C: Timofey Mozgov, Cleveland
Salary: $4,800
Mozgov isn’t nearly as dominant of a player as Al Horford but he is available at $3K cheaper. Considering we have already locked in Teague, Smith, LeBron and Millsap, it only makes sense that we use him here and save money for elsewhere. Mozgov has played pretty good in these playoffs, so it’s not like settling for him here really hurts our lineup for Sunday’s Daily Fantasy Leagues.
G: Matthew Dellavedova, Cleveland
Salary: $3,800
The run on Cavaliers players continues based mostly on their salary as Dellavedova is $1K cheaper than Dennis Schroder and that will help us fill in the next position we have available on the board. Dellavedova isn’t going to light up the stat sheet but he has the potential to put up decent numbers at a discount price at the position. He had 11 points, four assists and two threes in Game 2.
F: Tristan Thompson, Cleveland
Salary: $6,000
Thompson is $2K cheaper than Millsap and we have just enough money to plug him in here as a difference maker in our lineup for Sunday. Thompson has really stepped up in a major way since Kevin Love went down with an injury and he had another nice outing in Game 2. He had just seven points but raked in 16 rebounds and also had a couple of blocks.
FLEX: Kent Bazemore, Atlanta
Salary: $2,300
Bazemore isn’t going to put up dominant numbers in this game but he should provide enough of a spark off the bench that he is worth using at the FLEX position. James Jones, Shelvin Mack and John Jenkins can’t be relied on, so we will plug in the best available option we still have enough salary room left to use in this spot, which is Bazemore.
