Today’s nine-game evening slate should satisfy everyone’s Monday blues. There’s just about a month left of NBA DFS basketball (regular season, that is) and it’s time to crank it up a notch.
Here are the top value plays for Monday, March 14.
Value Play of the Night
Nikola Mirotic, Bulls ($8,400)
A knee injury will keep Pau Gasol from playing in the Bulls’ next two games, and a few players are likely to benefit: Nikola Mirotic, Taj Gibson and Bobby Portis.
Mirotic offers the most upside of the three, in my opinion, as he can fill up the stat sheet in multiple categories. The 25-year-old has scored 13.5, 31.5, 29.0 and 12.8 fantasy points since returning from an appendectomy that cost him 16 games. That kind of inconsistency can be maddening, but it’s the near-30-point upside that has me liking him more than Gibson, who has put up more than 25 fantasy points just twice in his last 14 games. If you want a safe play, I’d go with Taj, who is $100 cheaper, but Mirotic is a guy who can really turn the tides in your contests.
Portis is the odd man of this group. He may eventually be the best of the three, but his minutes are too all over the place to risk rostering him on a slate as big as tonight’s.
Other Players to Consider
Tyson Chandler, Suns ($8,400) – Tyson Chandler‘s box scores aren’t eye-turning, but they’re usually enough to guarantee he reaches value. The veteran center is averaging 23.5 fantasy points in his last nine games and 26.5 over his last five. He makes for an unexciting, yet safe play on Monday and is worth rolling out in a game featuring one of the larger over/unders of the evening (219 points).
Shaun Livingston, Warriors ($7,000) – Livingston got a heaping of minutes (21) in Saturday’s win over the Suns, and Steve Kerr hinted that will likely continue with Andre Iguodala ruled out for the next two weeks. The former No. 4 overall pick scored seven points while doling out six assists and adding a block and a steal to his stat line Saturday, and DFS contestants can expect similar numbers tonight vs. a Pelicans team that has been 27th since the All-Star break when it comes to defending opposing guards.
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