Tonight’s small 4-game slate has no shortage of starpower. Look no further than this Spurs vs. Mavs DFS NBA Showdown slate, which should be a fun one. 

Here are our San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks NBA DFS picks and playbook for one-game contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.

 

 

 

NBA DFS Showdown Playbook: Spurs vs. Mavs Game Preview On TNT

These two teams saw quite a bit of roster turnover this offseason.

The Mavs reinforced the role players supporting Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, the team’s two generational game-changers. We should see an even more entertaining "Lobs & Bombs" offensive scheme, with a heavy dose of drives, dishes, 3-pointers and alley-oops each game.

It should be a more efficient offense, too. In 2023, Dallas averaged the second-most 3-point attempts per game (39.5) in the NBA, but finished with only the 13th-best shooting percentage (36.9%) from deep. The offseason additions of sharpshooters Klay Thompson and Quentin Grimes are intended to provide this sorely-needed shooting upgrade.

The team also returns its top three bigs - Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington - meaning Dallas both shored up its most significant need and kept its core intact. So no matter how you slice it, this team is poised to make another postseason push.

The Spurs are still technically in rebuild mode, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they turn out to have one of those “tweener” seasons where they win enough games that they ultimately get stuck in-between trying to make the playoffs and tanking to take home another lottery pick. They were bad in 2023, but they inarguably will be better in 2024.

Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes were signed to provide the cliched veteran presence. Combined with the tutelage of Hall Of Fame Head Coach Greg Popovich, San Antonio should take a significant step forward this year compared to last.

How much of this will we see on Opening Night? What parts matter for our DFS NBA picks? Tonight, the thing that will guide our final fantasy picks actually are the scoring rules of each site.

 

 
 

 

Spurs vs. Mavericks NBA DFS Showdown Strategy - Thursday, October 24, 2024

There are three key differences in scoring between DraftKings and FanDuel DFS NBA that we need to be especially mindful of tonight. All three of these will impact who you prioritize playing from site-to-site on tonight’s Showdown slate.

  • Defensive stats count more on FanDuel than DraftKings. FanDuel awards 3 points for steals and blocks. On DraftKings, steals and blocks are only worth 2 points.
     
  • Made 3-pointers are worth more on DraftKings than FanDuel. DraftKings gives a 0.5-point bonus for each 3-pointer made, for a total of 3.5 fantasy points per successful 3pa. On FanDuel, a 3-pointer is worth 3 fantasy points only. 
     
  • Double-doubles and triple-doubles receive bonuses on DraftKings, but not on FanDuel. You’ll receive an extra 1.5 and 3 points, respectively, when a player dub-dubs or trip-dubs on DraftKings. On FanDuel, it’s bragging right only.

Doncic is a walking triple-double, and Wemby is a walking double-double with hilariously huge defensive upside. Both have salaries priced in the stratosphere. If push comes to shove and you have to decide between only one versus the other, make sure you factor that site’s DFS NBA scoring into your decision. The swing in points projects to be significant.

 

 

 

Spurs vs. Mavericks Notable Injuries & Lineups

San Antonio Spurs Key Injuries

  • Davin Vassell, SG - Out (Foot)

San Antonio Spurs Projected Lineup

Dallas Mavericks Key Injuries

Dallas Mavericks Projected Lineup

 

 

 

NBA DFS Showdown MVP Captain Picks For Spurs vs. Mavs On TNT 

Luka Doncic - $12,400 DK, $18,000 FD

I'm not sure that Doncic's 28.9 / 9.5 / 8.1 stat line from last season gets enough credit. The 25-year-old was on the cusp of averaging a 30-point triple-double.

Only two players in history have averaged a triple-double over the course of an entire season: Russell Westbrook (4x) and Oscar Robertson (2x). Both were named MVPs in one of these respective years.

We’re not worried about the Slovenian’s season-long outlook, but you should still MVP Doncic in your DFS Showdown lineups tonight. (See what I did there?)

Victor Wembanyama - $12,000 DK, $17,500 FD

Wemby's expected sophomore-season breakout could be at a scale we’ve never seen before. Despite his rookie status and a strict minutes cap, the 20-year-old averaged 21.4 / 10.6 / 3.9 in only 29.1 minutes per game last year.

That's before we mention the 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals he averaged per game as well. These are Defensive Player Of The Year-caliber numbers. And from a rookie. On a minutes restriction.

While he might only see ~28 minutes in tonight’s Season Opener, he likely will be only one of many regulars on both rosters who still are ramping up their minutes. So it might sound counterintuitive, but this is one game where I’m not going to fixate on how much floortime Wemby will see. For this one-game slate, it most certainly should be enough to Captain him with confidence.

Kyrie Irving - $8,600 DK, $14,000 FD

Kyrie actually is the key to this slate - especially on DraftKings, where we pay 1.5x to crown our Captain.

If Kyrie puts together his traditional 25 / 5 / 5 stat line, he arguably becomes an even better Captain option than Doncic or Wemby. You can much more easily roster all three superstars with Kyrie as Captain. 

Conversely, when you Captain Luka or Victoryama (why is THIS not his nickname instead of Wemby?!) you’ll end up over-extending in your search for value and wind up picking players who are dart throws at best tonight. 

On FanDuel, you literally cannot roster all 3 players. You’ll be guaranteed to exceed the cap. In my initial builds, I kept ending up with Kyrie and one of Doncic or Wemby, and you should expect to end up doing the same.

Tl;dr Kyrie is, as always, a solid play on both sites. He’s worth a long look as Captain on DraftKings, but should be limited to Star or Pro on FanDuel. 

 

 

 

Mid-Tier Plays & NBA DFS Picks For San Antonio vs. Dallas

Jeremy Sochan, PF - $5,200 DK, $10,500 FD

Sochan can be a frustrating fantasy play at times. He fills up all categories of the stat sheet, but his scoring is extremely erratic and adds a bit of a volatility to his fantasy output from night-to-night.

Sochan is projected to start in the frontcourt alongside Wemby and Harrison Barnes, so we’ll need to swallow our cognitive biases and not shy away from selecting him on this Spurs vs. Mavs DFS Showdown slate. He’s an especially solid pick on DraftKings. At that price, he very easily could wind up with the highest fantasy-point-per-dollar value on the slate.

PJ Washington, PF - $6.200 DK, $10,000 FD

The same as Sochan, Washington is far from consistent with his fantasy output. He’s starting though, and will see the 3rd- or 4th-most minutes on the Mavs tonight. If his shot is falling, you will need to have Washington in your lineup to take down a tournament. 

Klay Thompson, SF - $6.800 DK, $11,500 FD

I’m fading Klay completely tonight. I think he’s washed. More importantly, I think he’s worth more to the Mavs than he is to any of us for fantasy purposes. He’s a one-category player and, in this offense, I would call him “co-3rd-option” at best.

Remember: Dallas is doubling-down on a “Lobs n Bombs” offensive scheme. Doncic has the green light to chuck as he pleases, and even when he drives, he’s looking to lob to one of Gafford or Lively every bit as much as he is to dish to Washington, Kyrie or Klay.

Did you see how many names I just named? That’s too many names to trust Klay for anything fantasy-related until further notice. 

You can even look at this mathematically. Our NBA DFS Projections have Klay scoring 30.1 DraftKings points via a very Klay-like 18.7 / 3.6 / 2.4 line. That’s decent DFS production, but terrible DFS value from a dollar-per-point perspective. So, at a minimum, his price needs to come down before we play him.

I don’t think is much of a flag plant.

 

 

 

Spurs vs. Mavs DFS Value Picks For Thursday, October 24

Naji Marshall, SF - $3,200 DK, $7,500

Naji signed a 3-year, $27 million contract with the Mavs this offseason. That’s the kind of contract you give to a key rotation piece - a role Naji has proven he’s more than capable of filling. 

Speaking of filling, Naji can fill up the stat sheet in a hurry. He has a boom-or-bust element to his game, but on a DFS NBA Showdown slate that’s scarce on value, we’ll need to take this plunge if we’re building multiple lineups.

Stephon Castle, SG - $4,200 DK, $7,000 FD

Castle was drafted #4 Overall in this year’s NBA Draft. He has not only seen solid minutes all preseason long, but has looked nothing short of great each game.

Since San Anotonio still is in relative rebuild mode, they’ll want to play Castle consistently for development’s sake. This means his minutes are blowout-proof. With Devin Vassell out, there might even be a bit of upside to his minutes projections tonight.  

Castle is viable on both sites, but he’s priced close to the minimum on FanDuel. If you’re building multiple lineups, he shouldn’t be in all of them. But if you’re only building one, don’t shy away from selecting Castle if he makes the rest of your roster work.

 

 

 

Example Lineup - DraftKings GPP

Example Lineup - FanDuel GPP

 

 
 

 

Player Pool

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