We have a five-game NBA DFS main slate on Thursday, January 18th, on DraftKings and FanDuel with three teams on back-to-backs as the Toronto Raptors, New York Knicks, and Minnesota Timberwolves all played yesterday. We have the stars out tonight as Domantas Sabonis, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lauri Markkanen, and Jalen Brunson taking the floor. Two games of the five have implied totals of over 240 points, so there should be a LOT of points scored tonight.

NBA DFS Tools to dominate tonight's NBA DFS slate!

Make sure to check out today's NBA DFS projections and NBA DFS ownership projections before finalizing your lineups today. We also have the NBA Consistency Report to help identify players that have exceeded value based on their current price tag this season and of course our NBA DFS Lineup Generator!

Here's the NBA DFS Podcast for today's slate. Like the video and subscribe to our channel!

Notable NBA Injury Updates

QUESTIONABLE

OUT

PROBABLE

Back-to-Backs

Pace Up Spots (Last 15 Games)

Pace definition: Pace is the total number of possessions a team uses in a game.

*key* Green is elite pace of play, Blue is decent pace of play, & Red is slow pace of play.

Green = Fast Paced team

Blue = Neutral Paced team

Red = Slow Paced team

  • Thunder: 10th @ Jazz: 4th
  • Wizards: 5th @ Knicks: 19th
  • Pacers: 8th @ Kings: 17th
  • Bulls: 27th @ Raptors: 12th

Defensive Ratings (Last 15 Games)

NBA Game Totals

Top Tier Core Plays

Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings

Sabonis has triple-doubled in back-to-back games and has five triple-doubles in eight games. Indiana is 2nd overall in pace and 27th in DRtg. Indiana has struggled defending centers this year and I love Sabonis as my top spend tonight.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder

SGA has struggled over his last two games but we haven’t seen him put three bad games together consecutively. Utah has been good defensively lately, but they haven’t defended the point-guard position well this season. They allowed SGA to score 30 actual across just 28 minutes. This is a nice little pace-up spot, too, between two top-10 paced teams.

De'Aaron Fox, Sacramento Kings

After a tough stretch, De’Aaron Fox looks all the way back coming off 32 and 33 actual points. He’s put up 47+ DKP in each game and his price has dipped into the low-9’s, so there is still upside at it. Fox gets a nice pace up spot against a bottom-five defense.

Mid-Tier Core Plays

Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks

There are only two players, since January started, that averages more potential assists per game than Brunson’s 15.3 and he’s had 7+ in six of seven games this month. This is as good of a match-up as it gets, we just need the Wizards to keep this game somewhat competitive and we’ll get full run from Brunson.

Lauri Markkanen, Utah Jazz

Boy, Markkanen has been so freakin’ good lately. He’s put up 50+ DKP in back-to-back games and has 48+ DKP in five of six overall. Since 12/14, when Utah changed their starting lineup, Markkanen has averaged a team-leading 1.29 FP/min and has a 25.6% USG.

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

I reallllllly like Scottie Barnes’ price going down to 8.1K on DraftKings. Without Siakam, Onunoby, and Poeltl this year, Barnes has a 25.7% USG and averages 1.23 FP/min, and is a guy who has consistently shown a massive ceiling at this price.

Chicago Bulls

Someone on the Bulls is going to have a good game tonight. Since the start of January, the Raptors are bottom-10 defensively and top-10 in pace. Figuring out which is the hardest part. Zach LaVine is a great price but has back-to-back games of sub-30 DKP. Also has a 60 DKP ceiling over his last four games. I love DeMar DeRozan, and that’s probably the direction I’d go. Toronto’s struggled to defend forwards and has allowed a LOT of FP to that position. Obviously, with Jontay Porter and Thaddeus Young operating as the team’s centers, Nikola Vucevic is appealing too. Shout out to Coby White because if his shot falls, he also has a ceiling.

Would rank: DeMar DeRozan - Nikola Vucevic - Zach LaVine - Coby White

Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder

What can’t Jalen Williams do? He’s had back-to-back 25+ point games and 35+ DKP in seven of eight. Over that span (dating back to 1/3) Williams has averaged 1.25 FP/min and has a 23% USG, which are both up from his season averages. This is an elite game environment and Williams should continue to dominate while SGA and Holmgren get all the defense's attention.

RJ Barrett, Toronto Raptors

Barrett continues to be flat-out great on this Raptors team. He scored another 26 points and 41 DKP last night and has scored 23+ points and 36+ DKP in five of his last six games. Barrett has a 26.5% USG and 1.19 FP/min without Siakam and Poeltl this year.

Malik Monk, Sacramento Kings

The last time out was not Malik Monk’s best outing considering he was 5-for-16 from the floor but he’s so good peripherally (3 REB, 8 AST, 1 STL) he can still make up for that (29.25 DKP) and has a decent night. When the shot is falling, he has a massive ceiling. He has 35+ DKP in three of five games and has a 62 DKP ceiling this year. He has a big ceiling in this spot in a game with nearly 250 total.

Collin Sexton, Utah Jazz

Since December 13th, the first game Sexton entered the starting lineup, he’s averaged 1.28 FP/min along with a 29.1% USG rate. Utah has been involved in a ton of blowouts lately and despite that, he’s averaged 35.8 DKP/game in 22.2 minutes over his last five. In competitive games, Sexton will get an additional 4-10 extra minutes.

Value Tier Core Plays

Luke Kennard, Memphis Grizzlies

Without Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Derrick Rose, Kennard is starting at point guard right now for Memphis. Kennard’s played 29+ minutes in three straight and 30+ in back-to-back. Kennard’s put up 20+ DKP in four straight games and if his three ball is falling, he has 30+ FP upside.

Keyonte George, Utah Jazz

George has looked comfortable coming off the Jazz bench with each passing game posting a 22% USG or better in three straight games including 19+ points in two straight. I like the sub-5K price tag and he’s shown he has high-20’s minutes upside.

Gary Trent Jr., Toronto Raptors

No surprise to see Trent Jr. check in as one of the highest-rostered plays of the slate after he drew a start yesterday and scored 28 points. With the Raptors trading away Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, along with Jakob Poeltl being off the floor, Trent has a 21% USG rate. There’s no reason to think he won’t start here again and if he makes shots at the rate he did on Wednesday he’ll be hard to avoid.

Marvin Bagley III / Patrick Baldwin Jr., Washington Wizards

With Daniel Gafford out, Mike Muscala traded, and Marvin Bagley not listed on the injury report, the Wizards center room is Bagley and Baldwin Jr. If you look at how the Wizards have operated lately, they’ve used Baldwin as the backup center and if the Wizards are hesitant to throw Bagley out there for monster minutes tonight, they could turn to Baldwin. Bagley is super chalk and I understand it but Baldwin is an interesting GPP pivot in large-field tournaments.

GG Jackson, Memphis Grizzlies

Jackson’s one of the slate’s more polarizing players. He didn’t start the last game with JJJ and Santi Aldama back and was the THIRD player off the bench, but he played 29 minutes including the final 16 minutes of the game. He’s been incredibly efficient scoring the basketball shooting 64% or better in each of the last two games. Jackson played over Ziaire Williams in the 4th, which could flip if the shots not fall. Keep that in mind.

Late-News Core Play Section

*Section for players we are considering “core plays” based on late-breaking news & research

Check out our NBA DFS Livestream tonight at 5pm ET 

Remember to like the video and subscribe to our channel! 

Player Pool

$ Tier {{pos.alias}}

Stacks

{{stack.team.name}} {{player.name}}
DraftKings {{player.fantasy.price.value[8]}}-
Fanduel {{player.fantasy.price.value[6]}}-