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Amir Johnson has only played 19.8 minutes per contest in his two games since returning from an ankle injury, but both were sizeable blowouts against the Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers. Even with those two games, he's averaging a respectable 10.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and only 0.5 turnovers through four contests, while shooting 55.9% from the field. On FanDuel, that's good enough for 22.1 FPPG (fantasy points per game). Take out last game's 9.1 points and that average balloons to 26.5.
You have to imagine Amir's role is set to increase as well, as he went through a full practice on Monday. To make things look even better for Amir, here are the last three games he's played when matched up against Channing Frye, the starting power forward for the Orlando Magic:
| Date | Opp. | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | FP |
| 2014-11-01 | ORL | 14 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| 2014-03-16 | PHX | 20 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 25.4 |
| 2014-12-06 | PHX | 22 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 35.4 |
| Average | ORL/PHX | 18.7 | 4.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 26.9 |
Amir's decent points and rebounds are always nice, but it's the high blocks and low turnovers that make him a sneaky-good daily fantasy basketball play.
Blocks are worth two fantasy points on FanDuel and the Magic just happen to be the team getting blocked the most of any other in the Association, letting opponents swat 7.7 of their shot attempts per game.
As for turnovers, each one a player registers subtracts one from their total FanDuel fantasy points. Considering that Johnson has only turned the ball over twice through four games and the Magic force the seventh-least turnovers per game in the NBA at 12.9, there's a good chance that Amir doesn't cough the ball up much tonight, if at all.
Around the daily fantasy basketball industry, signs seem to point heavily toward this being a good Amir night as well. numberFire sees him as one of the best value plays for tonight, projected to be the fifth-highest scoring power forward with 26.34 FanDuel fantasy points, while having only the eighth-highest power forward price at $5,400. Meanwhile, RotoGrinders has the Orlando Magic measured as the second-worst team in the whole Association at giving up fantasy points to power forwards, allowing a combined 54.96 FPPG to the position. That not only bodes well for Amir, but should put Patrick Patterson firmly on your radar as well.
Of course, to put either in your lineup, you need to sign up for FanDuel. Once you get that done (or if you're already in), jump in the comment section and we'll discuss lineup options for tonight. Amir's definitely on my team. Who you got?
Even though this is a sponsored post with affiliate links, all of the opinions in this post are my own. And as an FYI, FanDuel gave me some cash to play its daily fantasy games.