 Hey, everyone, what's going on? I am Greg Sussman joined today by Tom Vecchio of Fandall, who's here to break down tonight's NBA Slate. What's happening, Tom? You know, it's looking to be a really solid six-game slate, you know, a lot of players we want to pay up for and we also need to find some value. Absolutely. So let's start, though, at the superstar level, the players that we're going to pay up for. And that brings us to Houston's Russell Westbrook. James Harding is still questionable for tonight, which means Westbrook goes old OKC style, where he does a little bit of everything. When Harding's not out there, Westbrook is a must-play. Yeah, like you said, Harding is still listed as questionable. He's missed the past two games. And, you know, also, like you just said, it's old OKC style for Westbrook. And I want to look at, like, two things, basically. One, when we have Harding off the court, we see Westbrook with a, you know, phenomenal 40.8% usage rate, posting 1.67 Fandall points per minute. Like, that is absolutely insane. He's filling up the stat sheet as of late, pushing towards these triple doubles, basically every single game. But when Harding is on the court, if we look at these past string of games, we have Westbrook taking 27, 25, 24, and 23 field goal attempts. So this recent stretch of games has been so, so strong for Westbrook with Harding on the court. And I know the, you know, beginning third or so of the season wasn't, you know, specifically super consistent for Westbrook. But we would be looking at him in this game with this recent stretch he's had in a game with a 237 point over under against the Portland Trailblazers. Kind of regardless if Harding is in or not. So the usage is going to be phenomenal if Harding is out. And this recent consistency and strong stretch of shooting he has would be pointing to his direction even if Harding is in. So he's kind of like a must play for me tonight, regardless of what happens with their lineup. Yeah, absolutely. There's a few different ways you can go with this. There's a few different outcomes we can expect. One that we can be confident in is Russell Westbrook is going to get you the points that you need in order to be successful. Westbrook, get him in there tonight. Oh, next, another star that's worth playing here. Well, it's the same game. It's Damian Lillard on the other side. There's no hotter player in the NBA right now than Damian Lillard. He scored 61, 47, and over 50 points in his last three games. Going up against Houston's defense, I kind of expect him to do it again. You know, like you said, he's super hot right now. I feel like every season at some point, like Lillard, at least in the past few seasons, Lillard goes on one of these stretches where it's just like five out of 10 games. He's scoring over 40 points. And I think we're, you know, in the midst of that stretch right now. And you don't want to be fading him. The first few games he did score, you know, those massive, massive numbers without CJ McCollum. And we know we have to pay attention to that because McCollum takes over 20 field goals per game. In their most recent one with CJ back, Lillard still took 23 field goal attempts and we see him making eight or more three pointers in three straight games. And that just gives him a massive, massive ceiling. As I just said with Westbrook, 237 point over under. We're looking at a fast-paced game. Houston, you know, pretty decent on defense, but the shot volume is there. Lillard is pushing towards a double-double in a lot of these games. And we only have a two-point spread, so high over under, high pace. Plenty of shots to go around for both sides. We want both point guards in this game. It's not just Lillard gets hot at one point every season, Tom. It's this Blazers squad that always you just look up. And there they are in the middle of the pack in the Western Conference. We've hit that stretch right now. Lillard deserves to be in your lineup tonight. One more starter we've got to make sure we mention it's the Dominator. DeMond is some bonus in Victor Oladipo's return to the lineup. It's a bonus underpriced, maybe, and still worth starting tonight. Yeah, a couple of things going on here. Like you said, underpriced, he's coming off a 60-point triple-double game. And is that price actually decreased? He was 8,709 game against the Golden State Warriors, actually 8,500 now. We also have Oladipo coming back in this game. But the reports are that Oladipo hasn't been practicing with their first unit and should be coming off the bench. We also have to take into account that Miles Turner is listed as questionable for the Pacers. And when he has been out at times this season, we've seen Sabonis get the start at center, which is fine, because one of my key, key things is always attacking Chicago via center, via power forward. Bulls are dead last in the league against centers, allowing 57.1 fatal points per game. If Sabonis starts at power forward because Turner is in, it's still basically the same spot for him. The Bulls are allowing 49.0 fatal points per game to power forwards, which is also dead last in the league. So we have Oladipo coming back. We have a 214-point over-under, which I want to say is pretty modest, giving the other games on this slate. But we can be trusting Sabonis at this 8,500-dollar price tag tonight. Absolutely, the price going the right way for us after Sabonis is dominating performance. Oladipo would certainly be on a minutes restriction tonight. That's okay. And really, in fact, it's, well, great if you're a Sabonis owner. You should be tonight. Get him in the lineup. In order to get these stars, you do need some value. Play as Tom, and that brings us to Jacob Pertle tonight. I considered picking him up in season long. He didn't do it, but I will start him tonight in DFS. Watch till everybody. Why? Yes, we know he got to start the other day against the Bulls with the Marcus Aldridge ruled out. Aldridge ruled out already for tonight's game. And, you know, I don't want to harp on this again, but, listen, Pertle got to start for Aldridge in a game against the Bulls, and he played 35 minutes posted, 40 fatal points. And again, we should see Sabonis in that same spot tonight. But back onto Pertle tonight. He's going to be in the starting lineup. We have him projected for 32 minutes and 35 fatal points over a number fire. And it's not the easiest defense going up against Utah, but you need some savings tonight. If you want to spend up for, you know, two-point guards tonight, spend up for a shooting guard. And I like the savings on Pertle tonight. In the starting lineup, 30 plus minutes can't really go wrong in a player that's going to be producing over one fatal point per minute. No, you can't. For a fatal point per minute, you have to get him in there. There's no downside to it. Pertle, who is expected to start, is in a really good spot for both you and for the San Antonio Spurs. Let's continue on, Tom. And let's get to Mitchell Robinson. He had a really good night last night off for the New York Knicks. Second night of it back to back, though. Do you think his minutes could be limited? I hope his minutes aren't limited. And, you know, I see a lot of people, you know, saying, you know, Robinson needs to get more touches. He needs to be out there more, in my opinion, like he needs to be playing over Taj Gibson. I think that's that's pretty clear. Like he's a good young, you know, center. They need to get him developed a bit more. To pay some spot for the Knicks tonight, both teams are actually on the second night of it back to back. The Knicks come in 21st. Memphis is sitting up at fifth right now. If you look at the Grizzlies' numbers, right now they are 16th in offensive rebounding rate, 15th in defensive rebounding rate. So kind of just in the middle of the pack, a team you don't need to be worried about, kind of either direction. And that should play right into Robinson's strong point, which is getting close to the rim, you know, getting those easy put backs. We also know he can fill in the stack category, specifically when it comes to blocks. He had five last night, really boosting that potential ceiling. And Memphis is allowing 54.2 fatal points for game dissenters this season, which is seventh worst in the league. So I like the price tag on Mitchell Robinson tonight. Again, he should be out there, hopefully more than Taj Gibson, who's, you know, kind of getting up there in age. Again, the Knicks on the second night of it back to back. And it's kind of all pointing in his direction tonight. Absolutely. Mitchell in a good spot here tonight. You saw the lob on Twitter, Instagram, wherever you check out your NBA highlights. He just has been destroying the ball as of late. Hopefully we get a few of those dunks tonight, a few of those rebounds. And the next thing you know, it's double, double for Mitchell Robinson. Certainly someone to consider putting in your lineups tonight. One final player to get to that's a value here, Tom, and that is TJ McConnell. He is not someone anyone's really going to want to start tonight. Knowing that Victor Oladipo is back, you're going back to him. Sneaky playing tournaments. Why do you like him? So, you know, Oladipo coming back is certainly going to impact their lineup going forward. But this has more to do with Malcolm Brogren still listed as questionable. He's missed their pass through games. He's in the concussion protocol. He got elbowed in the face against Phoenix last week. We saw McConnell come off the bench in that game post a double, double, and then see the next two starts. It's not the easiest matchup for him going up against Chicago. I've said it before on this show. Chicago is actually pretty solid against some of the guard positions. You know, we know Chris Dunn is actually a pretty solid defender, racking up plenty of steals. And they're terrible against big men. So I want to look to McConnell for the savings tonight. He's actually been very effective when Malcolm Brogren is off the court this year posting 1.01 fan who points per minute. So we can look to McConnell for some savings tonight. We can look to Sabonis for that upside against the weaker defense. And really, when we're getting a player who's playing 25-plus minutes producing over one fan who's playing just like Jaco Pertle, I want to lock these players in and just kind of move on. We'll take the savings where we can, take the consistency, and then spend up where we want to. Absolutely. Let's save a little money with all of these value players. TJ McConnell certainly being one of them. He's been good as of late. Let's see if we can continue that role tonight for Indiana. That's going to do it for us here on The Fan. Don't hurry up, Tom. I appreciate the time. Good luck tonight. Same to you. Alrighty, Jim Saenz will join me tomorrow as we take a look at some of the prop bets for Super Bowl Sunday. For Tom Becchio, I'm Greg Sosman. Have a great night. Enjoy all the games, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.