Fantasy Basketball Week 14: Who’s hot and who’s not from Thursday’s slate, plus Friday’s NBA DFS target

Stephen Curry was the top fantasy stud in Thursday’s three-game slate and dropped 39 points with five rebounds and eight assists in the Warriors’ loss to the Pacers. While Golden State’s superstar popped, other players are running hotter ahead of the weekend. Indiana’s underwhelming lineup was especially productive and pulled without their three best scorers available and returned a ton of value.

Let’s go over some of Thursday’s best and worst performances and take a look at a priority DFS target for Friday’s 11-game slate.

Who’s hot

Duarte capitalized on Domantas Sabonis, Caris LeVert, and Malcolm Brogdon missing Thursday’s matchup against the Warriors. The rookie was the Pacers’ top scoring option and racked up a team-high 27 points with seven rebounds and three assists. He’s averaging 20.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in Week 14.

Booker’s hot scoring didn’t drop much in the Suns’ Thursday victory over the Mavericks. He tallied 28 points, five rebounds, and six assists in the contest. Booker’s eclipsed his season scoring average in four consecutive contests. While his Week 14 averages of 38 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists will be hard to maintain, his current trajectory could make him an elite play against the Pacers on Saturday.

Vaanciunas has been one of this year’s most consistent bigs and has kicked off Week 14 with two straight double-doubles. The Pelicans big man powered his team past the Knicks on Thursday with 18 points, 10 rebounds, a pair of assists, a steal, and two blocks. Valanciunas is averaging 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game in Week 14.

Who’s not

Kemba Walker is healthy again, and that’s caused Burks’ value to plummet. The Knicks wing is averaging 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds on 25 percent shooting through three games in Week 14. His brief period as New York’s starting point guard appears to have come to a close. Fantasy managers should probably drop him at this point in favor of several other waiver-wire targets who are trending up.

DFS Target

It didn’t take long for Adebayo to get back into the flow of things after a month-and-a-half layoff. The Heat big man was one of Wednesday’s top performers and racked up 20 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, five steals, and three blocks against the Trail Blazers. His DFS price on DraftKings and FanDuel is lower than it should be ahead of Miami’s Friday matchup against Atlanta. Clint Capela (ankle) is questionable, and the Hawks have given up a double-double to the opposition’s starting center in five straight games.