Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Monday, April 29th
A daily fantasy sports OG, Notorious has been roaming the DFS streets ever since they were invented. He has racked up multiple live final seats and several six-figure tournament wins in his DFS career, and Noto will mix it up in all different types of contests. So, who better to walk you through the madness of an NBA DFS slate? Core Plays LIVE will zoom out on the slate as a whole, zoom in on the best NBA DFS picks, and constantly update as news breaks. Whether you are diving into the slate 5 hours before it starts or 5 minutes before it starts, you’ve come to the right place.
Happy Tuesday!
You have to feel for Suns fans. Phoenix has had so much talent on their roster over the years, but they haven’t been able to win a championship. They sold their future to win this year, and unfortunately, they were swept in the first round. They are the first team to get eliminated from this year’s playoffs. The Clippers are in a similar situation in that they need to win now, but they picked up a huge win on the road against the Mavericks. They now return home with the series at 2-2 and get an extra day of rest.
Attempt #3 in learning how to ride a bike went a lot better than the first two. I talked him into trying it without his knee and elbow pads (I’m pretty sure his mom bought him some meant for adults) and promised I would catch him if he fell. It turns out, actually being able to move your legs helps when it comes to riding a bike. He went a full 10 seconds without me holding any part of the bike, and you should have seen his face. He was beaming with pride and hasn’t stopped talking about it since. It’s a moment I will remember forever. He still has a long way to go, but he’s making progress, and we are making memories along the way.
We now turn our attention to tonight’s 3-game NBA slate. The Celtics are looking to take a commanding 3-1 lead over the Heat, the Pelicans are looking to stave off elimination, and the Lakers are looking to do the impossible — win 4 games in a row after being down 0-3 to start the series. With a win the other night, they are only 3 wins away from making history. Let’s dive into the team breakdowns.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Monday, April 29th
Slate Overview
- 3-game slate
- 7:30 PM ET – Boston Celtics at Miami Heat
- 8:30 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Pelicans
- 10:00 PM ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
This section will be updated as injury news is released throughout the day.
Team Previews
Boston Celtics (at MIA): We start with the Celtics, who bounced back in a big way after losing Game 2 at home. They jumped out to a 24-point lead in the 1st half of Game 3 and never looked back. They enter tonight’s game as 10.5-point favorites in Miami. While I like their chances of winning this game, this is still a brutal matchup for fantasy production. The Celtics have a team total of only 107 points, which is 13.6 points below their season average.
Let’s quickly take a look at how the starting five has fared in this series compared to the regular season:
- Jrue Holiday: 7 fewer fantasy points per game, 3% less usage
- Derrick White: 5.1 fewer fantasy points per game, 1% less usage
- Jaylen Brown: 3.1 more fantasy points per game, 1% higher usage
- Jayson Tatum: 2.1 more fantasy points per game, 1% lower usage
- Kristaps Porzingis: 5.3 fewer fantasy points per game, 5% lower usage
The three starters that have struggled in this series are Holiday, White, and Porzingis. All three have seen downticks in both usage and fantasy points per game. It’s even worse when you consider the fact that all five starters are averaging more minutes in the playoffs than they did in the regular season. Now, the one positive here is that the salaries on all three players have come down quite a bit, especially on DraftKings.
Jaylen Brown has scored 35, 49, and 42 fantasy points, respectively, in the first 3 games of this series. He’s out to prove that he’s worth that massive contract he signed in the offseason. I’m not sure if it’s mostly due to the matchup or what, but he’s the only starter on Boston who’s actually seen an uptick in usage this series. He’s not really on my radar tonight, but it doesn’t seem like anyone else wants to play him either. He’s checking in with a sub-5% ownership projection.
Jayson Tatum has been very consistent in this series and should push for 40 minutes if the game stays reasonably competitive. He’s the easiest click on the Celtics tonight. Al Horford and Payton Pritchard are both projected for 20+ minutes off the bench and can be used as lineup fillers on this short slate.
Here is an example of the DFS tables that are provided to our Premium Subscribers
Want to read more? Sign up for Premium!
