Draftkings NBA Showdown Picks: Thunder vs. Cavaliers 1/8/25
Draftkings picks and predictions for this evening's Thunder vs. Cavaliers matchup.
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
January 8, 2025 7:00 pm EDT
Later today, the NBA presents Draftkings basketball fans with a regular season matchup featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Let’s take a look at this game from a DFS perspective.
Before we dive into the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game let’s review the rules for Draftkings single game showdown contest.
Draftkings Single Game Showdown Contest Rules
You have $50,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team captain. The captain accumulates 1.5 times the standard fantasy points. Additionally, the captain is 1.5 times the standard cost of the flex position.
The remaining four players in your lineup will receive the standard fantasy points. Having stated that, it is highly important for you to identify the correct player for your captain position if you hope to win a large field DFS GPP (guaranteed prize pool) showdown contest.
If you have additional questions regarding the rules for the single game showdown contest, I recommend that you check out the Draftkings website for more details.
*I recommend that all readers review the starting lineups for both teams prior to setting your DFS lineup for this one game slate.
Here are my Draftkings picks for this evening’s Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers matchup.
Draftkings NBA Showdown Picks
Captain-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Point Guard, Oklahoma City Thunder $12,800
Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has certainly been the driving force behind the Oklahoma City Thunder’s success on the offensive side of the basketball this season. With that statement in mind, what do the statistics say about Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance in 2024? To answer this question, let’s examine Gilgeous-Alexander game data from the 2024 NBA regular season.
In the 35 games that point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2024 NBA regular season, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 31.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.1 blocks a game.
More recently, in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s impressive 105-92 win over the Boston Celtics three days ago, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander certainly played at a high level. Let me be more specific. Gilgeous-Alexander compiled 33 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals, and two blocks in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s victory over the Boston Celtics.
Looking at the data just presented more closely, in the Thunder’s win over the Boston Celtics, Gilgeous-Alexander accumulated a whopping 67.3 Draftkings points.
As I noted in the rules section above, selecting the correct player at the captain position for a Draftkings NBA showdown lineup is absolutely vital if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) DFS contest. Keep that in mind as you construct your lineups for this one game DFS slate.
In my view, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the most likely player to post the most Draftkings points in this NBA regular season game. Having stated that, I am rolling with Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the captain position for this one game Draftkings NBA Showdown contest.
Flex Plays
Donovan Mitchell, Guard, Cleveland Cavaliers $10,800
In the 34 games that Donovan Mitchell played for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2024 NBA regular season, Mitchell has averaged a whopping 40.1 Draftkings points a game.
Last week, in the Cleveland Cavaliers impressive 122-110 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, Donovan Mitchell certainly played at a high level. Let me be more specific. In the Cavaliers win over the Lakers just mentioned, Mitchell compiled 26 points, four rebounds, four assists and one steal.
Looking closer at the data just presented, in the Cavaliers win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Mitchell tallied 33.5 Draftkings points.
Additional flex plays I like to play well in this evening’s NBA game (Draftkings price noted): Evan Mobley, Power Forward (Cleveland Cavaliers) $9,800: Luguentz Dort, Guard (Oklahoma City Thunder) $4,600.
