NBA DFS: Devin Booker and top DraftKings, FanDuel daily Fantasy basketball picks for Jan. 2, 2022

With only one late game on Sunday’s NBA schedule, time is of the essence when building your NBA DFS lineups on sites like DraftKings or FanDuel. Leading your selections with a star like Miami’s Jimmy Butler could be an easy choice after his monster 37-point performance against Houston on Friday. Houston has the NBA‘s second-worst defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 114. Miami takes on Sacramento on Sunday, which has a defensive rating of 112.8 this season; fifth-worst in the league.

Butler is one of the top names available in Sunday’s NBA DFS player pool, but is he worth devoting a significant amount of your salary cap to? In two games against Sacramento last season, Butler averaged 21.5 points and 10.5 assists — his highest assist per game average against any single opponent in 2020-21. Before finalizing your NBA DFS picks for Sunday, be sure check out the NBA DFS advice, player rankings, stacks and top daily Fantasy basketball picks from SportsLine’s Mike McClure. 

McClure is a DFS professional with nearly $2 million in career winnings. He’s also a predictive data engineer at SportsLine who uses a powerful prediction model that simulates every minute of every game 10,000 times, taking factors like matchups, statistical trends and injuries into account. 

This allows him to find the best NBA DFS values and create optimal lineups that he shares only over at SportsLine. They’re a must-see for any NBA DFS player.

On Saturday, McClure included Pistons swingman Hamidou Diallo as one of his top NBA DFS picks on both DraftKings and FanDuel. The result: Diallo scored a season-high 34 points to go with 14 rebounds, five steals and two blocks, finishing as the top-scoring shooting guard on both DraftKings and FanDuel. Anybody that included him in their lineups was well on the way to a profitable day.

Now, McClure has turned his attention to the Sunday, January 2 NBA DFS slate and locked in his top daily Fantasy basketball picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.

Top NBA DFS picks for Sunday, January 2

One of McClure’s top Sunday NBA DFS picks is Suns star Devin Booker at $8,500 on DraftKings and $8,000 FanDuel. Booker has scored at least 30 points in three of his last five games, and during that stretch, he averaged 26.6 points and hit nearly 43 percent of his 3-point attempts. Against Boston on Friday, Booker scored 22 points to go with six rebounds and two steals.

The Suns play Charlotte on Sunday, which has notoriously been one of the worst defensive teams in the league this season. The Hornets have the third-worst defensive rating in the NBA, even though they have been better over their last three games. Phoenix is in a bit of a funk after losing three of its last four, and the Suns are sure to want to get things back on track before they lose too much ground to Golden State in the Western Conference standings.

Another part of McClure’s optimal NBA DFS strategy includes rostering Pacers PF/C Domantas Sabonis ($9,800 on DraftKings and $8,500 on FanDuel). Sabonis has comfortably averaged a double-double this season, but had one of his more efficient performances of the year in his last start. Against Chicago, he scored 24 points on 57 percent shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds with a pair of blocks.

The Pacers take on a beat-up Cavaliers team that has lost four of its last five games. Cleveland has been below average defending the paint over the last three games and has given up 47.3 points in the area during that stretch. More than half of Sabonis’ total shots have come at the rim this season, and he should be able to continue rebounding at a high rate to keep him among the top Fantasy big men on Sunday.

How to set NBA DFS lineups for Sunday, January 2

McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Sunday because of a dream matchup. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You can only see who it is here.

So who is DFS pro Mike McClure putting in his optimal NBA DFS lineups for Sunday? Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NBA DFS picks, rankings, advice, and stacks, all from a professional DFS player who has almost $2 million in career winnings, and find out.