When putting your FanDuel lineups together, beware of blowouts.

Case in point – last night’s Warriors-Cavaliers game.

Generally, I shy away from using LeBron James. For my money, his price tag is too high for the points he delivers. But last night was going to be different – or so I thought.

• LeBron and the Cavs were hosting the Warriors in Cleveland.
• Las Vegas inserted the Cavs as 2-point favorites.
• The game was being televised nationally on TNT.
• FantasyCruncher predicted that LeBron would score 45.1 ponts.
• My methodology predicted slightly higher at 47.3 points.

Put that all together and – to me – it spelled that LeBron would put together a “statement” game. He’d want to show the world that he was better than Steph Curry. So I locked LeBron and built my lineup around him – a lineup I believed would score 307.1 fantasy points and make me a solid contender.

(The FC column is FantasyCrunchers’ predictions and the TG (TuffGuy) column is my predictions.)

Wow. Vegas, FantasyCruncher, and I were all way off.

The Warriors put together a 132-98 laugher last night.

In fact, the game was so one-sided that both Steph Curry – 28 minutes – and LeBron James – 33 minutes – spent a good deal of time sitting on the bench instead of playing. And if your player is on the bench – needless to say – he can’t score for you. And last night, LeBron dramatically under-performed with 30.5 fantasy points – nearly 17 points below my prediction.

The self-proclaimed King James out-preformed just one player on my team – Robert Covington (21.5).

SHOULDA SCORED 400

When the Cavs game ended, there was one game left on my slate – Rockets-Clippers. I was in eighth place. No one behind me could catch me and the seven people ahead of me were out of players. So they couldn’t add to their totals. But I had one player left – J.J. Redick – and he needed 37 fantasy points for me to win.

Redick was averaging 21 fantasy points per game. So this was going to be a reach.

If LeBron would’ve played his average game of 44.5 fantasy points, I shoulda won easy. If that happened, Redick would’ve only needed 23 fantasy points for me to win and that was well within the realm of possibilities. Please bear in mind, I was going to finish in the money – no matter what – but I wanted to finish first.

And if Jahlil Okafor wasn’t benched for the entire fourth quarter and both overtimes, I shoulda scored 400 points.

18 SECONDS LEFT & 6 POINTS SHORT

On his way to a “career” game – 40 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound, only 1 turnover, and a record-setting 9 three-pointers – Redick played a great game throughout. But with just 18 seconds left in the game, he was six points short of what I needed.

So I was sweating it out. Six points in 18 seconds is pretty much impossible.

But here’s the way the game played out from there:

• 0:18 – Trevor Ariza scored for the Rockets to cut the Clippers lead to 116-114.
• 0:16 – Shortly after the inbound-pass, James Harden fouled Redick intentionally. Redick stepped to the line and hit both free throws to up the lead to 118-114. Now I was just four points short – but still sweating and thinking a win was out-of-reach.
• 0:14 – Marcus Thornton hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 118-117.
• 0:13 – Jason Terry fouled Redick intentionally on the inbound pass. Redick stepped to the line and hit both free throws to up the lead to 120-117. Now I was just two points short – but only 13 seconds were left. I was so close, but could it really happen?
• 0:11 – Trevor Ariza was fouled in the act of shooting. He hit both free throws to make it 120-119.
• 0:10 – Marcus Thornton fouled Redick intentionally on the inbound pass. Redick needed both free throws to make me a winner – and he hit them both. The Clippers were ahead 122-119 and I was the winner of my pool.

Fantastic ballgame by J.J. Redick.

OVERTIME

Marcus Thornton hit a 3-pointer with 0:07 remaining to send the game into overtime.

In the overtime, J.J. Redick hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws – after getting poked in the eye. But – for me- that was so much icing on the cake because I’d already won.

OPPOSITE OF BLOWOUT

This game was the antithesis of a blowout. It went down to the wire – and into overtime – and the key players were still in the game and still scoring. Check out Kemba Walker’s 75.8 points. What a great pick – as I pat myself on the back.

I started out by saying “Beware of Blowouts” and this next piece of advice is an addendum to that message – look for games that will be highly competitive. The key players will stay in the game, battle to the end, and keep racking up points.

By the way, please note that my 377.40 fantasy points was 70.3 points higher than my prediction.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for

BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Birth of the Birds
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
• Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
• Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow