Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.
A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense is shut down.
A high-salaried NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will post high scores just about every night.
While this consistency puts us in an excellent position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud will likely leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.
Which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today?
Giannis Antetokoumpo, PF/SF, Bucks ($11,600)
Though he's been scratched plenty of times from the exact probable status he has today, Giannis Antetokounmpo is worth a plan on this slate.
The further we inch toward lock, the more it does appear Giannis is set to play. That's especially true with Khris Middleton set as questionable, so perhaps it's Middleton's night to sit. In that event, Giannis should destroy the tanking Indiana Pacers.
In the month of March, Indiana has the league's worst defensive rating (122.4), and they've allowed the second-most paint points per game (59.1). Both of those could prove disastrous against the paint-scoring beast.
Giannis averages 60.3 FanDuel points per minute with Middleton off the floor for Milwaukee, so despite the lofty salary, there's actually a bit of value that would come from his absence.
Despite the Pacers' personnel shortcomings, the 238.5-point total here is the highest of the day, too.
Domantas Sabonis, PF/C, Kings ($10,200)
Domantas Sabonis is another star that figures to bludgeon a tanking squad for as long as it lasts.
The Kings are the latest squad to stop through Portland, and the Blazers are down in the dumps -- to say the least. With four starters out on Monday, they posted a 90.9 offensive rating against the Pelicans. Woof. The same guys are out, so this game is absolutely in three-quarter territory for DFS.
The good news is Sabonis' particular rotation actually gives him a pretty solid floor of minutes. He's played at least 31 in every game since the break -- including several lopsided results in both directions, and Domas should absolutely pummel the Blazers' weakened interior. They're a bottom-eight squad in rebounding rate and points in the paint allowed per game this month.
He's numberFire's top-projected big man (per dollar of salary) above $8,000 for good reason.
Mikal Bridges, SG/SF, Nets ($8,100)
With a few injury questions at guard, let's shift focus to another top wing in a dreamy matchup.
The Rockets are in Brooklyn, and there's not actually any injury news at all in this one. The Nets just have plenty of fair salaries on their top contributors, including Spencer Dinwiddie, Nicolas Claxton, and Mikal Bridges. Bridges, though, has shown monstrous upside for this salary in a Brooklyn uniform.
All in all, Bridges has been a scoring machine. He's posted over 30 points in 7 of the Nets' last 13 games, which is a monstrous scoring total for $8,100. You're at that point a couple of steals from requisite FanDuel value.
This matchup couldn't get much better, either. Houston has allowed the second-most FanDuel points to small forwards this season, and their 121.5 defensive rating in March is showing no improvement or progress on that end. Hey, where have I heard that before?
Bridges, Dinwiddie, and Claxton are all viable plugs on this slate, which could be devoid of plenty of the other top stars in the game.