This article is part of our FanDuel NBA series.
The first round continues to wind down Friday night with a one-game ledger, as the Rockets will look to remain alive in Game 6 against the Warriors. The Chase Center showdown will be played at full strength, as there are no short-term injuries to be concerned with.
With only one matchup, we're dealing with FanDuel's single-game contest rosters comprised as follows:
MVP (Garners points at 1.5x the normal rate)
Five Utility spots (Garner points at normal rate)
With salaries also being different than in conventional FanDuel contests on multi-game slates and top players inevitably headed for heavy rostering, there are definitely strategic elements particular to single-game lineups. Finding key value plays for some of utility spots is undoubtedly key, as it enables you to roster a superstar in the MVP slot, where salaries for each player are 1.5x higher than if you were rostering them in a Utility spot.
Slate Overview
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Listed spreads/totals are from FanDuel Sportsbook and current as of Friday, 5/2 @ 11:30 a.m. EDT:
Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors (-5.5) (O/U: 206.5)
The Warriors are unsurprisingly solid home favorites after notching 11- and three-point wins in the previous two home games in the series, in addition to stealing Game 1 in Houston. The modest projected total is also expected, as lower-scoring games have been the rule of thumb for the majority of the series with the exception of the Rockets' 131-116 Game 5 win.
Injury Situations to Monitor
For all the latest updates, visit RotoWire's NBA Injury News page and our comprehensive NBA Injury Report.
No short-term injuries to report
Elite Players
The three players with the highest MVP salaries on Friday's slate are Stephen Curry ($20,700), Jimmy Butler ($20,100) and Alperen Sengun ($19,200).
Curry has scored 24.1 standard FD points apiece in the last two games, a significant downturn during which he's shot only 40.0 percent overall, including 29.4 percent from three-point range, while averaging a modest 12.5 shot attempts. Nevertheless, the legendary sharpshooter can naturally get hot at any time and produce the top score on a one-game slate, and it's worth noting he supplied 64.9 FD points back in Game 3.
Butler impressively scored 45 standard FD points in Game 4 after missing Game 3 due to his pelvic injury, but he also saw a decline to 23.0 FD points in Game 5. However, like Curry, his upside is certainly worthy of the MVP spot, as he demonstrated by scoring 56.4 FD points back in Game 1.
Sengun has back-to-back games of over 50 standard FD points and has taken double-digit shot attempts in all but one game while exceeding 40 FD points on four occasions overall.
Expected Chalk
With only one matchup, the likes of Amen Thompson ($10,000) and Jalen Green ($9,000) should also be very popular.
Thompson went off for 57.7 FD points in Game 5 and has two other games over 30 FD points in the series, giving him a reasonably safe floor.
Green had a tally of 58.8 FD points back in Game 2 and was over 23 FD points in two of the previous three contests as well.
Key Values
The following players make for strong candidates for the Utility spots:
Fred VanVleet, HOU at GSW ($8,400)
VanVleet is one of the bigger wild cards among the starters on either team in terms of production, but he's been encouragingly steady so far this series. The veteran guard is averaging 29.0 FD points over the first five games, and although he's still shooting just 40.0 percent overall in that span, he's heated up in the last pair of contests with a 61.5 percent success rate from the field, including a blistering 66.7 percent from behind the arc. As anyone familiar with VanVleet's overall body of work will attest, that hot hand could disappear on any given night, but his salary is such that he's worth the risk in tournaments for a second straight potential elimination game.
Brandin Podziemski, GSW vs. HOU ($8,200)
Podziemski has had a rollercoaster series, as he went without any stats over 14 minutes in Game 3 and mustered only 14.4 FD points in Game 5 but also has contributions of 36.1 and 46.5 FD points (Game 1 and 4, respectively). Podziemski also supplied a solid 20.8 FD points in Game 3, and even though he's shot an abysmal 38.5 percent overall, he's drained 38.7 percent of his attempts from behind the arc. While he's best suited for tournaments due to the volatility, he should enjoy a solid role again in what projects as a likely wire-to-wire battle.
Dillon Brooks, HOU at GSW ($5,600)
Brooks comes at a deep discount and has been steady throughout the series, scoring over 20 FD points in each game and averaging 23.2 per contest overall. The veteran wing is shooting an impressive 49.0 percent, including 43.5 percent from beyond the arc, helping lead to five consecutive double-digit point totals. Given what he's demonstrated so far and his very appealing salary, he should be a very popular utility option.
