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Justin Carter's top daily fantasy WNBA lineup picks for 8/4/20. Expert WNBA DFS advice, sleepers & player recommendations for DraftKings and FanDuel.
One of the interesting things about this season is that in order to give teams a day off between games, each week basically has two sets of six teams who alternate the days they play. So, Tuesdays are going to be really fun, because they allow us to get a much different looking player pool than the ones we'd been drawing from the previous week.
In this article, I'll be providing you with some daily fantasy WNBA lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel on 8/4/20. These lineups picks will range from elite players to mid-priced options and value plays.
Want to talk more about the WNBA? I'm always available on Twitter and always down to discuss women's basketball: @juscarts
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WNBA - DFS Guards
DeWanna Bonner (G, Connecticut Sun) – vs Seattle Storm (DK: $11,700, FD: $8,000)
I've started to get to a point where I'm worried about DeWanna Bonner's price getting too high, but she's by far the safest of the high-priced guards on this slate, even against a good Storm defense.
So far in 2020, Bonner's been dominant, even as her team has failed to win a game. Take, for instance, her box scores this year:
She's the league's most dominant player through four games, and if her team had even managed to get one win, she'd have been the Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
It's also worth noting that she's performed well against good teams. Minnesota, Washington, Los Angeles...you can make a pretty good argument that those are three of the six best teams in the league, and Bonner's been an efficient scorer against them, draining threes at a high clip while also doing work on the boards.
This game against Seattle will be Bonner's biggest test. I'm less confident in her than I've been all year. But it's still impossible to ignore how much better she's been than all the other guard-eligible players on this slate.
Bria Hartley (G, Phoenix Mercury) – vs Atlanta Dream (DK: $8,900, FD: $5,900)
Even though I recommended Hartley on Sunday, I hedged a little when I did it, writing about how I was a fan of the whole Mercury backcourt because of the matchup with New York.
But we've played four games. We're almost 20 percent of the way through the 2020 season. I'm ready to say that Bria Hartley is good, and that her role in Phoenix is perfect for her to keep putting up strong numbers.
First, let's talk about that role. Hartley is the only real reliable bench scoring on a top-heavy Phoenix team, which has gotten her on the floor a ton and keeps giving her opportunities. It's why a player whose best points per game in a year before 2020 was 9.8 is now averaging 19.8; this team as presently constructed doesn't have enough scoring, so Hartley's been asked to step into that role.
And on Tuesday, she faces Atlanta. The Dream have the worst defensive rating in the WNBA. Teams are shooting 39.5 percent from three against them. Phoenix has a chance to pour on the points in this one, with Hartley being a key part of that.
Jewell Loyd (G, Seattle Storm) – vs Connecticut Sun (DK: $7,800, FD: $5,000)
Loyd's got more value on FanDuel than DraftKings because of her pricing, but she's a solid play on both platforms for the same reason she was a solid play in her last game: no Sue Bird.
With Bird resting on Saturday, Loyd scored a season-high 17 points in a season-high 32 minutes, making a season-high four threes, grabbing a season-high three rebounds, and dishing out four assists, which was not her season high.
Seattle's a very good team and has a lot of frontcourt depth, but without Bird, the backcourt isn't quite as strong, putting pressure on Loyd and point guard Jordin Canada. Now that Bird's dealing with a knee issue and her availability moving forward is in question, expect Seattle to go back to doing something they did a lot more of before 2019: relying on Jewell Loyd to be productive.
WNBA - DFS Forwards
Satou Sabally (F, Dallas Wings) – vs Chicago Sky (DK: $9,800 FD: $6,600)
I'm not going to tell you why you should play Breanna Stewart, but if you decide not to play DeWanna Bonner and want to use that big money elsewhere, Stewie is virtually always a good call.
But anyway, let's talk about Satou Sabally, who has emerged as a really strong player despite being a rookie.
Sabally gets a good matchup with the Chicago Sky, and her lowest fantasy production through four games has been in the mid-20s, so she has a fairly solid floor, with the upside to go off like she did against Indiana, when she had 23 points and 17 rebounds.
Dallas has some inconsistent shooters, which gives Sabally chances to hit the offensive glass. And we also haven't seen her shooting hit its peak yet; she was a great three-point shooter at Oregon who is only shooting 6.3% from three this year. No, that was not a mistype. That number is going to go up, and Sabally's going to put up some big stat lines this season.
Azurá Stevens (F, Chicago Sky) – vs Dallas Wings (DK: $9,300, FD: $5,700)
I have this theory called "always play a player in a potential revenge game," and since Stevens was traded by the Wings this offseason, I'm playing Stevens.
Sure, that's not the only reason I like her. Dallas has some questionable front court defense, allowing the sixth-most points in the paint and second-most second chance points, and Stevens has been playing great ball this year, averaging 14 points per game on 56.1 percent shooting, plus making 2.3 threes per game and grabbing 5.8 rebounds.
I also love her usage. 16 shot attempts in the paint. 19 from three. And then just six mid-range shots. That kind of shot chart is a recipe for success against this Wings defense.
Alanna Smith (F, Phoenix Mercury) – vs Atlanta Dream (DK: $5,000, FD: $3,500)
Risky play here because of worries about her consistency, but Smith's coming off a strong performance against New York -- 11 points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes of play.
I think the fact that she could play just five minutes or so makes me only want to use her if her pricing gives me a way of building a lineup around multiple top-tier players on this slate, but I do like her upside, for many of the reasons I like Bria Hartley's upside: Atlanta has a bad defense.
Smith also got some extended run with some of Phoenix's starters last game, so I don't think she's as fringe of a play as someone on the team like Nia Coffey or Shatori Walker-Kimbrough.
