Basketball is the most consistent sport for daily fantasy purposes.

A top slugger in baseball will have his fair share of 0-for-4 days, and an elite fantasy football player is at risk of having games where his team's offense as a whole is shut down. A high-salaried NBA stud is generally going to get his, though. With so many possessions in a game providing opportunities to produce, top fantasy basketball options will be posting high scores just about every night.

While this consistency puts us in a good position to identify top plays, it also means you can't afford to miss when you're paying up for someone. Even with strong value plays in your lineup, paying up and getting a dud is likely going to leave your lineup drawing pretty close to dead.

Which top players should be the focal points of your lineups today?

Jayson Tatum, SF/PF, Boston Celtics ($9,800)

With Stephen Curry likely to sit for Golden State, there's one star who we've seen 60-FanDuel-point upside from -- Jayson Tatum.

Now, Tatum hasn't exactly been in great form recently, so he's more of a tournament play than a cash-game plug. He's only eclipsed 50 FanDuel points once in his last 11 games; it was a 60-burger against Milwaukee. Still, in his return from COVID-19 protocols on Wednesday, Tatum logged 37 minutes for Boston, so with his role back to normal, it's inside his range of outcomes to be can't-miss.

In December, Tatum was still 10th in overall usage (31.2%), so his role is still there. The problem recently is that he's shot under 40.0% from the field in five straight contests. If more balls find the back of the net, Tatum can drop 40 in New York tonight.

The Knicks' perimeter defense is suspect; they allow 37.6 three-point attempts per game (sixth-most in the NBA). Tatum should get some clean looks from the outside, and he'll likely be less popular than his upside warrants due to the recent cold spell.

Julius Randle, PF/C, New York Knicks ($9,000)

For years, there was an inside joke in the NBA about Rajon Rondo on national television. It might be time to hand that joke over to Julius Randle.

Randle's splits on and off national television are just bizarre, so it at least can't hurt that he's in a primetime spot here hosting the aforementioned Celtics. Randle, like Tatum, is just one appearance clear of a short stint in COVID-19 protocols himself, and he returned to a full workload, as well.

Randle posted a 31.9% usage rate in 35 minutes on Tuesday against the Magic. He turned that into 55.2 FanDuel points, and the frustrating thing about Randle is that his season-long usage is right in line (28.0%) with Wednesday's, but his results infrequently are.

Boston gives up the 10th-most rebounds per game to opponents (45.7), so there are far worse places to target a monstrous double-double on this slate. He's the only big man above $8,000 in salary, so hopefully, "Primetime Randle" comes out with a big performance for the masses once again.