Hi there! I’m Aaron/AFriedman15 (@AFriedman15DFS)  and this is Friedman’s Fighting Five, where I will include 5 of my favorite plays from the new Prop site and DFS Army Partner Monkey Knife Fight, using information from the DFS Army NBA Research Station (RS),  NBA WOWY, and other sources. I will also offer slate commentary based on DraftKings and DK pricing.   Some days, when there is a smaller slate, there will be fewer picks.  I will generally list them in order of personal preference. My research is focused around DK and the DK Research station, so keep that in mind. Players may be viable to varying degrees at the other sites as well. I will generally try to write Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Weekends, but I may have some spare time on other days as well.

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In my articles, I will use a few terms which may or may not be familiar:

DKFPPG = DraftKings Fantasy Points Per Game

DKFPPM =DraftKings Fantasy Points Per Minute

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Phoenix at Cleveland: 

Our return to the “2nd half” of the 2018-2019 NBA season kicks off with the Suns at Cavaliers. This should be a decently competitive game between these two lottery teams. Devin Booker is somewhat interesting in GPPs, but not a prime target. I will have much more of Collin Sexton ($4.9k), who is averaging 21.2 points per game in February. Monkey Knife Fight presented a rapid-fire prop option below, and I was glad to grab Sexton +3.5 AST compared to Devin Booker. I love this cushion here for Sexton and Phoenix is nothing special defensively against point guards, ranking 23rd in the league. On the other side, DeAndre Ayton gets to go against Cleveland’s poor rim protection, so I like Ayton to get more rebounds than Nance.

 

Miami at Philadelphia:

I don’t usually like playing guys against the Heat, but it will be impossible to ignore a super cheap Boban Marjanovic and Ben Simmons in your cash games. I am not seeing any props I like here, but I do like Boban and Simmons in DK cash builds.  For Miami, Bam Adebayo and James Johnson are somewhat interesting as  GPP fills in for just $3,500 and 3,700.

A must read for all NBA DFS Players  — Madness DFS’s GameBreak

Portland at Brooklyn:

Bombs away here as some of the best three-point shooters in the league square off in what should be a super close game according to our betting service Beat the Bookie (below). This is a great chance to take advantage of the Monkey Knife Fight Three-Point Shootout prop contest as you can pick the top three-point shooters on the court to 2x, 3x, or 5x your bet. Over the All-Star break, we saw Joe Harris took down the Three-Point Shootout, and Lillard and Russell both take a lot of three-point shots, so I love this combination. Harris is also a great DK value (see chart above), and I will be in on Caris Levert in a buy-low spot.

  

Boston at Milwaukee:

MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks host the Celtics in a division of upper-division Eastern Conference teams. Giannis has been dynamite in this matchup and has been over 28 points in six consecutive games vs. the Celtics dating back to March 2017, so the over point prop was easy to grab here on Monkey Knife Fight. Meanwhile, I do like Horford for cash on DK ($6k), but he is not a huge steals and blocks guy, averaging 1.4 blocks per game and 0.9 steals per game. Horford has gone over 3 combined steals and blocks just once in the last four meetings in this series. I  like Giannis “over” 26.5 points and Horford “under” 2.5 steals and blocks. With Hayward doubtful, I will look at a few shares Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris in GPP, but certainly not core plays for me.

 

Golden State at Sacramento:

DeMarcus Cousins ($6,100) will be super popular tonight with his minutes restrictions being moved past around 25 mins/game. Which can only hurt Curry, who is still yet an interesting GPP play along with Durant. I feel like Curry’s point totals are a little high here, so I grabbed the under on two different point props for him. I do like Fox to get to 7 assists here, which is basically his seasonal average (7.2).  I normally love Bagley III and I will have some GPP shares, but 8 boards is feels like a big ask for a rookie bench player. With that said, Bagley being on the second unit does benefit from not having to go against Cousins. From a DK perspective, my two favorite Kings are Bogdan Bogdanovic and Harrison Barnes.

 

 

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Houston at Los Angeles Lakers:

It will be interesting to see how the return of Clint Capela changes James Harden’s historic run. I really think LeBron shows up in a big way tonight, and I am taking LeBron over Harden with the +1.5 differential in the STL+ BLK category. Outside of Harden and Bron, I don’t have a ton of DFS interest in this game, but I do like Kuzma over Tucker here as well.

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Those are your Fighting Five Props! Some are going to be commonplace, and some won’t.  These are players my research led me to and some will contain risk.  Your research may indicate you agree or disagree, and that’s ok….we discuss these things in our coaching channels nightly.  Good luck tonight!  Check the coaches picks for even more confidence in your plays.  And always consult all of the unlocked tools (including the Research Station) before lock!  And, if you are catching me on a #FreebieFriday, you are going to want to unlock those coaching channels by admitting……

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