FanDuel Best NBA DFS Picks: Cavaliers vs. Mavericks 1/3/25

Later today, the NBA presents FanDuel basketball fans with a regular season matchup featuring the Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Let’s take a look at this game from a FanDuel perspective.

Before we dive into the Dallas Mavericks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game let’s review the rules for the FanDuel single game showdown contest.

FanDuel Single Game Contest Rules

Here are the single game contest rules. You have $60,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team MVP. The MVP accumulates 2x times the standard FanDuel fantasy points value.

The remaining four players in your lineup will be the star, pro, and flex plays. The star player will receive 1.5x the standard fantasy points value. The pro player will accumulate 1.2x the standard fantasy points value.

The final two flex positions will receive the standard points value. Having stated that, it is important for you to identify the correct player for your MVP position if you hope to win a FanDuel single game contest.

If you have additional questions regarding the rules for the single game contest, I highly recommend that you check out the FanDuel 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 FanDuel picks for this evening’s Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Dallas Mavericks matchup.

FanDuel NBA DFS Picks

MVP-Kyrie Irving, Guard, Dallas Mavericks $14,000

Guard Kyrie Irving has proven to be the pivotal backcourt leader for the Dallas Mavericks this season. To evaluate his performance statistically, we will review Irving’s latest game statistics from the 2024 NBA regular season.

In the 30 games that guard Kyrie Irving has played for the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA regular season, Irving has averaged a rather impressive 24.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks a game.

Upon closer analysis of the recently presented data, Kyrie Irving has averaged a substantial 43.4 FanDuel points per game in the 30 games he has played for the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA regular season.

Earlier today, the Dallas Mavericks announced that point guard Luka Doncic will miss tonight’s game due to injury. In my view, the absence of Doncic in the Dallas Mavericks lineup should result in Kyrie Irving being more involved in the team’s offense in tonight’s NBA regular season game.

As I noted in the rules section above, selecting the correct player at the captain position for a FanDuel NBA showdown lineup is absolutely vital if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) DFS contest.

In conclusion, I believe that Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is the player most likely to score the highest number of FanDuel points in tonight’s NBA regular season game. Consequently, I am selecting Kyrie Irving at the captain for this single game FanDuel NBA Showdown contest.

Star-Donovan Mitchell, Guard, Cleveland Cavaliers $15,500

In the 32 games that Donovan Mitchell played for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2024 NBA regular season, Mitchell has averaged a whopping 39.7 FanDuel points a game.

Four days ago, 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 33.8 FanDuel points.

Additional flex plays I like to play well in this evening’s NBA game (FanDuel price noted): Evan Mobley, Power Forward (Cleveland Cavaliers) $14,500: Dereck Lively, Center (Dallas Mavericks) $11,000.