Top 5 FanDuel NBA Picks For Your Jan. 27 Lineup

Playing FanDuel NBA on Jan. 27? Here are the top five picks of the night with respect to their cost.

With college football in the books, the NFL winding down and the NHL approaching the All-Star break, the NBA is poised to take center stage in the sports world amid the background noise of ongoing Super Bowl hype.

As a result, Wednesday will be the league’s second consecutive eight-game slate, featuring an even mix of intriguing matchups (e.g., Houston Rockets at San Antonio Spurs, Charlotte Hornets at Utah Jazz) and blowouts in the making (Phoenix Suns at Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers at Detroit Pistons).

The scheduling influx has led to a number of teams playing their second of a back-to-back Wednesday evening, and among them the L.A. Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks will be on their fourth game in six nights; all three squads will be traveling to face the Atlanta Hawks, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors (respectively), who will all be rested and awaiting them at their home arenas.

With those caveats in mind, here are the top five players for your FanDuel NBA lineup:

(5) Isaiah Thomas, Boston Celtics ($8,300) vs. Denver Nuggets: You have to go back two seasons to find the last time Thomas faced the Nuggets, but even then his 23.7 points per game in three meetings exceeded his 20.3 points per game overall when he last played for the Kings.

More from Fantasy Basketball

Fast forward to present day, where Thomas is making a bid for his first All-Star selection as a reserve, he’s coming off a 41.3 fantasy point performance in his last outing, and the Nuggets are third-worst overall vs. PGs on FanDuel NBA, and you have an excellent chance for the Pizza Guy to return value in this matchup.

Although the Nuggets’ 17-28 overall record is not too impressive, they have actually won half of their last 10 games, including upsets of the Warriors, the Indiana Pacers and the Pistons (all three of which were at home, but still …), so it seems fair to say that their giant-killer potential could allow them to stay in this game longer than expected.

In other words, they are competitive enough to potentially allow Thomas to receive his full complement of starters’ minutes, but at the same time they are generous enough to his position to allow him to factor heavily into the Celtics’ offensive game plan.

(4) Paul Millsap, Atlanta Hawks ($8,900) vs. L.A. Clippers: Of the three rested home teams facing potentially “tired” teams this evening, the Hawks probably stand to gain the most since their game is expected to be tightly contested, as the Hawks opened as a mere three-point favorite.

In addition, Blake Griffin‘s allegedly imminent return from the disabled list was delayed much further due to a broken hand he incurred in an altercation with a staff member, so that buoys Millsap’s chances in a matchup that could have been less savory if the former Sooner had returned.

Instead, Millsap gets to face a Griffin-less Clippers team that has slipped to the middle of the pack vs. power forwards over their last five games on FanDuel NBA. He’s also playing at home, where he averages 19.4 points per game as opposed to 17.6 points per game away from Philips Arena.

Furthermore, Millsap averaged 20.0 points per game against the Clippers in two meetings last season, which was well above his 16.7 points per game for that campaign, and the Clippers had Blake Griffin for both of those contests.

But perhaps more significant than his success against the Clippers franchise is the fact that Millsap has played quite well lately, as he is averaging 42.7 FPPG over his last four outings.

For most of his career he has been somewhere between “afterthought” and “best of the rest” when ranking the top power forwards, but maybe it’s time to start giving him his due if he continues to provide multi-category juice on a regular basis.

January 25, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates during the third quarter against the San Antonio Spurs at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Spurs 120-90. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

(3) Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors ($11,300) vs. Dallas Mavericks: With the Mavs in the midst of a condensed schedule, it’s feasible that they could rest key players against either the L.A. Lakers (who they played late Tuesday) or the Dubs, if they view this as a “give up” game.

That being said, one of Golden State’s four losses this season came at the hands of this Dallas Mavericks team, so this could be viewed as one of the few scores they need to settle even though Curry was not available for the initial match.

The Mavericks have been average to decent versus point guards for most of the season, but Curry has proven to be a rule breaker for fantasy trends, most recently with 37 (actual) points in just 28 minutes against a Spurs team that is still second-toughest overall against his position on FanDuel NBA despite the recent outburst.

While that sort of efficiency may not seem sustainable, Curry’s ridiculous league-leading 33.07 PER has been typified by recent outings like the one on Monday night, where he’s still been able to return value despite the lopsided final score.

To that effect, the baby-faced assassin hasn’t fallen below 52 fantasy points in his past five contests even though he played just 28 minutes in two of them (against the Spurs and the Cavaliers).

Still, with a few unresolved “ifs” surrounding Wednesday night’s affair, Curry can’t be listed as the No. 1 option Wednesday night, but he is certainly worth a flier in tournament games given his recent history and the revenge factor against the team that surprisingly dealt them their most lopsided defeat (23 points) since they fell to Houston in the 2012-13 season.

(2) Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz ($7,200) vs. Charlotte Hornets: When Derrick Favors returned to action on Monday night, the Jazz were as close to full strength as they had been in quite some time.

Jan 25, 2016; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) dunks the ball in the third quarter against the Detroit Pistons at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports /

Although the team came up short against the Detroit Pistons, we still got a taste of what Utah’s frontcourt rotation is capable of doing with its full complement of players, as Gobert turned in an impressive double-double (17 points, 17 boards) that was reminiscent of last season’s performances after the Enes Kanter trade stabilized the Frenchman’s playing time.

While the Jazz have been getting healthy, the Hornets have been dropping like flies. They were able to survive the Sacramento Kings in double OT with a skeleton crew, but the Kings allow the most points per game in the league (107.7) and Utah is fifth-stingiest in that regard (97.4), with more than 10 points less allowed per contest.

In the absence of Al Jefferson, the Hornets had still been serviceable vs. centers with Cody Zeller as the next man up. But with Zeller on the shelf indefinitely with a shoulder ailment the team has slid into the bottom third over their past five games against the position.

While DeMarcus Cousins has been on an absolute tear this month, he set the franchise record with 56 points against Charlotte in the aforementioned contest, which was something he did not accomplish against the L.A. Lakers or the New Orleans Pelicans, and they have had season-long struggles against his position.

While Gobert is unlikely to drop half a hundy on Charlotte himself, his penchant for rebounding and blocked shots should help to offset his limited (by comparison) offensive ceiling in this favorable matchup.

(1) Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs ($7,500) vs. Houston Rockets: The Spurs are in dire need of redemption after getting humiliated against the Warriors on national television (by “national” I mean the 50 percent of Americans with access to NBA TV).

Either way, there’s no time like the present with their in-state rival coming to town having won three straight and seven of 10.

More from Hoops Habit

Despite the Rockets’ recent success, the AT&T Center hasn’t been kind to them lately, as evidenced by their 18-point loss in the Alamo City earlier this month, and the Spurs swept their two home games in the series last season as well.

Normally Leonard isn’t an ideal candidate for fantasy since he plays for a defense-oriented team that dominates games early. You look at his typical stat line and nothing really jumps out besides the fact that he seemed to do a little bit of everything, he led the team in scoring with around 18 points and yet the Spurs won by 25.

That’s San Antonio basketball at its finest.

But every now and then, the Claw has a chance to put his full repertoire on display, and that’s when you get the 40-plus fantasy point night from him.

Although the Rockets’ offense is seemingly in high gear these days, their defense has been a travesty for much of the season; in particular they are third-worst against opposing small forwards on FanDuel NBA, so the conditions are in place for Leonard to go off against a Bizarro-world version of Trevor Ariza who’s averaging 30.0 points per game over his last two contests but can no longer contain his opposing counterpart.

More hoops habit: NBA: Top 10 Candidates For 2015-16 Coach Of The Year

Reasons to follow @mike_yaffe on Twitter:

Last minute injury updates
Bonus lineup tweets
I believe that a not guilty plea and a $950,000 settlement are two completely different things.