Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Friday, May 3rd
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 Friday!
We have officially made it to the weekend. While I’m sad the PHI/NYK series is over, it was an absolute joy to watch. More importantly, a matchup between the Knicks and Pacers in the second round means one of them will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. I would venture to guess most unbiased observers would relate to these teams more than most. They are underdog teams that weren’t given much of a chance when the playoffs started. The downside is that the Celtics will likely be awaiting the winner of that series, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
We have 2 more elimination games on the schedule tonight. The Magic are hoping to continue the trend of home teams winning in this series, as they have a chance to force a Game 7 back in Cleveland. The Clippers picked up a big road win in Game 4 and then put up a dud at home in Game 5. The road team has now won 3 of the 5 games in the series. The Clippers are hoping for one more road win in order to force a Game 7 at home.
It’s Friday, we have meaningful basketball, and we have DFS. What more could we want?
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Friday, May 3rd
Slate Overview
- 2-game slate
- 7:00 PM ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Orlando Magic
- 9:30 PM ET – Los Angeles Clippers at Dallas Mavericks
- 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
Cleveland Cavaliers (at ORL): The Cavaliers were lucky to escape Game 5 with a win and now have a chance to close out the series. For them to do that, they will need a much better effort than the ones they gave in the first 2 games in Orlando, where they lost by over 70 points combined. The betting market is certainly giving them a good chance tonight, as they are only listed as 4-point underdogs. This is a brutal game environment for fantasy production, which is why Cleveland’s team total is 15.1 points below their season average.
Jarrett Allen went through shootaround this morning and is officially listed as questionable. He missed Game 5 with a rib injury. With this being the first game on the slate, we’ll know his status well before lineups lock. For our purposes, let’s assume he is going to play and then circle back if he is ruled out. He averaged just over 40 fantasy points in the first 4 games of the series and will likely get overlooked given his injury. He makes for an intriguing tournament play. Evan Mobley has averaged 32 minutes and 34 fantasy points in this series. While it doesn’t seem like much, he’s cheap enough that he’s still meeting salary-based expectations (at least on DraftKings). However, the sites have proactively priced him up for tonight’s game in case Allen is forced to miss another game.
Donovan Mitchell has had some excellent quarters in this series, but he has yet to score more than 43 fantasy points in a game. Essentially, he hasn’t reached salary-based expectations once in this series. There are only 2 games on the schedule, but he’s best suited as a tournament play. On a per-dollar basis, I much prefer Darius Garland. His playing time was limited early in the series due to foul trouble and blowouts, but he logged 39 minutes in Game 5. He’s still priced under $7,000 on both FanDuel and DraftKings.
Max Strus is coming off his best game of the series, but Allen sat out that game. In the 2 games in Orlando, Strus could only muster up 7 and 15 fantasy points, respectively. Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro are easy fades in most contests (assuming Allen is active).
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