Less than a month removed from his reinstatement following a 25-game suspension to begin the season, Ja Morant’s basketball season is over following a torn labrum that will require season-ending surgery. The electrifying 24-year-old ended up only playing nine games with the Grizzlies this season. Morant’s return certainly took shots away from others in the Memphis offense, so could Morant’s injury actually elevate Grizzlies like Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marcus Smart when forming an NBA DFS strategy for Tuesday when Memphis plays the Dallas Mavericks?
Smart had 25 points and eight assists on Sunday with Morant out of the lineup after averaging 14.9 points over seven contests since Morant’s return. Does that signal Smart could provide value to NBA DFS lineups starting on Tuesday? With only five games on Tuesday’s NBA schedule, how should daily Fantasy basketball players form their NBA DFS strategy to differentiate from others? Before making your NBA DFS picks, be sure to check out the NBA DFS advice, player rankings, stacks, and top daily Fantasy basketball picks from SportsLine’s Mike McClure.
McClure is a DFS professional with more than $2 million in career winnings. He’s also a predictive data engineer at SportsLine who uses a powerful prediction model that simulates every minute of every game 10,000 times, taking factors like matchups, statistical trends and injuries into account.
This allows him to find the best NBA DFS values and create optimal lineups that he shares only over at SportsLine. They’re a must-see for any NBA DFS player.
On Thursday, McClure highlighted Bucks power forward/center Giannis Antetokounmpo as one of his top picks in his NBA DFS player pool on both sites. The result: Antetokounmpo had 44 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, returning 80 points on DraftKings and 79.3 points on FanDuel. Anybody who included him in their lineups was well on the way to a profitable day.
McClure has turned his attention to NBA action on Tuesday and locked in his top daily Fantasy basketball picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.
Top NBA DFS picks for Tuesday, January 9
For Tuesday, one of McClure’s top NBA DFS picks is Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox, who is listed at $9,300 on DraftKings and $9,600 on FanDuel. Fox is coming off an abysmal 1 of 10 shooting performance with four assists compared to four turnovers, totaling just three points over 26 minutes in a 133-100 loss to the Pelicans on Sunday. McClure expects a motivated Fox and a significantly more efficient performance from the point guard averaging 28.3 points per game this season.
Fox was averaging 27.8 points over his prior six games before a poor shooting effort on Sunday. Tonight, the Kings play the Pistons, who are allowing 133.5 points over their current four-game losing streak. The Pistons have lost 32 of their last 33 games, and this appears to be a strong opportunity for Fox to rebound after a tough contest.
Another part of McClure’s optimal NBA DFS strategy includes Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson ($9,100 on DraftKings and $9,000 on FanDuel). Brunson had 33 points and eight assists in a 121-105 win over the Wizards on Saturday. He’s averaging 26 points and 6.4 assists this season, including 31 ppg over his last three contests.
The Knicks play the Trail Blazers, who are allowing 125.8 points over their last five contests. Mikal Bridges scored 42 points against the Trail Blazers after Luka Doncic scored 41 points against Portland on Wednesday. McClure expects Brunson to follow the trend and put another huge performance together against Portland. See McClure’s other NBA DFS picks right here.
How to set your NBA DFS lineups for Tuesday, January 9
McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Tuesday because of a dream matchup. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You can only see who it is here.