Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Friday, January 31st

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-01-31 22:52:48 Premium Content Part of the product NBA DFS

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 has long been one of the top NBA DFS minds in the industry. On weekends, Taylor Smith takes the reins. Their Core Plays LIVE article 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, Core Plays LIVE has everything you need for your DraftKings and FanDuel lineups.

Happy Friday!

After finishing up this article, picking up my little man, and going to parent/teacher conferences, I am off to a small little town in Utah called Richfield. Both sets of grandparents live there, so it’s always been a second home to us. My cousin is a senior who plays for the high school basketball team, and his twin sister is the head cheerleader, so we are driving down to see their game tonight. Disney Channel should think about making a movie based on these two.

I’ll be in a car for a few hours leading right up to lock. I’ll keep everyone updated on the injury news and my core play tags, but I will have a hard time updating the rankings tables. As far as tonight goes, there are only 6 games on the main slates on DraftKings and FanDuel. We don’t have any teams playing on the second half of a back-to-back, but 4 teams are playing on the front half of a back-to-back (Hornets, Nuggets, Spurs, Suns).

Let’s dive into the slate.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Friday, January 31st

• 6-game main slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Los Angeles Clippers at Charlotte Hornets
  - 7:00 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at Detroit Pistons
  - 7:30 PM ET – Denver Nuggets at Philadelphia 76ers
  - 7:30 PM ET – Chicago Bulls at Toronto Raptors
  - 8:00 PM ET – Milwaukee Bucks at San Antonio Spurs
  - 8:00 PM ET – Boston Celtics at New Orleans Pelicans
• Front end of a back-to-back: Hornets, Nuggets, Spurs, Suns
• Back end of a back-to-back: None
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

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News Updates

This section will be updated as injury news is released throughout the day.

Team Previews

Los Angeles Clippers (at CHA)

We kick the slate off with the Clippers, who are one of my least favorite teams to see on the slate. They play at a slow pace, have an elite defense, and have a lot of mouths to feed now that Kawhi Leonard is back from injury. Kris Dunn has been ruled out, but everyone else is expected to play. They have a mediocre matchup against the Hornets and come into the game with a team total that is 4 points higher than their season average.

You can look to James Harden, Kawhi, and Ivica Zubac in large-field tournaments, but the Clippers aren’t going to make my main lineup.

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