
Draftkings NBA Showdown Picks: Thunder vs. Trail Blazers 1/26/25
Draftkings picks for this evening's Thunder vs. Trail Blazers matchup.
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Portland Trail Blazers
January 26, 2025 6:00 pm EDT
This Sunday night, the NBA presents Draftkings basketball fans with a regular season matchup featuring the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let’s take a look at this game from a DFS perspective.
Before we dive into the Portland Trail Blazers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder 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 tonight’s Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Portland Trail Blazers matchup.
Draftkings NBA Showdown Picks
Captain-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Point Guard, Oklahoma City Thunder $12,400
In my opinion, Oklahoma City point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been the driving force behind the Thunder’s exceptional performance this season. With that said, how has the talented point guard performed from a statistical perspective? To answer this question, let’s examine Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s game data from the 2024 NBA regular season.
In the 43 games that point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2024 NBA regular season, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 32.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.1 blocks a game.
Four days ago, in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 123-114 victory over the Utah Jazz, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander certainly played at a high level. Let me be more specific. Gilgeous-Alexander amassed 54 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s win over the Utah Jazz.
Looking at the data just presented more closely, in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s impressive victory over the Utah Jazz just mentioned, Gilgeous-Alexander compiled a massive 81.5 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, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the most likely player to post the most Draftkings points in this evening’s NBA regular season game. Having stated that, I am backing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the captain position for this one game Draftkings NBA Showdown contest.
Flex Plays
Anfernee Simons, Guard, Portland Trail Blazers $7,000
In the 36 games that shooting guard Anfernee Simons has played for the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2024 NBA regular season, Simons has averaged 18.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 0.9 steals a game.
More recently, in the Portland Trail Blazers 102-97 win over the Charlotte Hornets two days ago, Anfernee Simons accumulated 27 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and one block in the Trail Blazers victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Additional flex plays I like to play well in this evening’s NBA game (Draftkings price noted): Jalen Williams, Power Forward (Oklahoma City Thunder) $10,000: Jerami Grant, Power Forward (Portland Trail Blazers) $6,000: Cason Wallace, Guard (Oklahoma City Thunder) $4,800.