Three of the four teams in the East portion of the 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament were also in this position a year ago. Miami, Atlanta and Chicago were play-in participants in 2023, making the NBA Play-In Tournament 2024 the debut in this event for Philadelphia. With a playoff-like atmosphere, should NBA DFS lineups turn to stars like Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey as they take on Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Miami? That will be a popular NBA DFS strategy, but one should, perhaps, proceed with caution in regards to Embiid.
In his MVP season last year, Embiid averaged 33.1 points in the regular season but just 23.7 points in the postseason. Yes, he was banged up during the playoffs, but that's also the same case this year. Bypassing Embiid for daily Fantasy basketball lineups would then open up lots of NBA DFS salary cap space to utilize on others, but who should those other players be? 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 Tuesday, McClure highlighted Pelicans forward Zion Williamson as one of his top picks in his NBA DFS player pool on both sites. The result: Williamson had 40 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, returning 65.25 points on DraftKings and 63.7 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 Wednesday and locked in his top daily Fantasy basketball picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.
Top NBA DFS picks for Wednesday, April 17
For Wednesday, one of McClure's top NBA DFS picks is rostering Hawks PG/SG Dejounte Murray, who is listed at $8,800 on DraftKings and $8,200 on FanDuel. Murray is coming off a stellar season in which he averaged a career-high of 22.5 points to go along with 6.4 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals. He also logged 20 doubles -- more than twice as many as the eight he had last year -- as he took on more distributing responsibilities when Young was sidelined. With Young back, Murray can operate more as a scorer and he dropped 32 points in the final regular season game.
Murray has scored exactly 17 points in each of his last four games against the Bulls, but he's also combined for at least 10 rebounds plus assists in each of those. Playing off-guard favors him in this matchup more so than running the point, considering Chicago struggles more versus two-guards. The Bulls are a top-four defense against opposing PGs in terms of Fantasy points allowed on both DraftKings and FanDuel, as opposed to being in the middle-of-the-pack against SGs. Thus, Murray is a better option than Young for tonight and is justified as the most expensive SG on both sites.
Another part of McClure's optimal NBA DFS strategy includes rostering Heat PF Nikola Jovic ($4,400 on DraftKings and $4,100 on FanDuel). A 2022 first-round pick, Jovic finally established a consistent role with Miami over the last month of the regular season. Over his final 14 games, Jovic started in each one and averaged 11.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists. He surpassed Kevin Love in the rotation, and the Serb produced 11 points with five rebounds in less than 20 minutes of action earlier this month versus Philadelphia.
Jovic shot 40% from beyond the arc this past season, ranking second on Miami, and that floor spacing will be needed with Embiid patrolling the paint. Philly just allowed PF Noah Clowney to score 16 points in its last game -- which was the third-most of his career -- and it gave up a 22-15-7 stat line to PF Paolo Banchero in its previous game. So, defending power forwards appears to be a weakness for the Sixers, and Jovic is the type of low-cost, high-reward option that could outproduce his NBA DFS price tags. See McClure's other NBA DFS picks right here.
How to set your NBA DFS lineups for Wednesday, April 17
McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Wednesday 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.
Who is DFS pro Mike McClure putting in his optimal NBA DFS lineups for Wednesday? Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NBA DFS picks, rankings, advice, and stacks, all from a professional DFS player who has over $2 million in career winnings, and find out.
