Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Friday, March 7th

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-03-07 23:18:17 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!

We are back at it for tonight’s 8-game slate. This week has been perfect on the scheduling front, as we’ve had between 6 and 9 games every day. I’ll be back in the Crunch Time rotation this evening and will be joined by Kevin Roth and Chris Prince (aka Beermakersfan), who are two of my absolute favorites. It should be a great time. If you can, hop into the chat as we break down the slate and answer any questions. I’ll post a link to the show in the news updates section below.

We have a lot to cover, so let’s dive right into the slate. I will note that both FanDuel and DraftKings have all 8 games included on their main slate. Now we just need them to agree to bring no late-swap back, but we’ll save that for another day.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Friday, March 7th

• 8-game main slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Charlotte Hornets
  - 7:30 PM ET – Utah Jazz at Toronto Raptors
  - 7:30 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Dallas Mavericks
  - 8:00 PM ET – Minnesota Timberwolves at Miami Heat
  - 8:00 PM ET – Portland Trail Blazers at Oklahoma City Thunder
  - 10:00 PM ET – San Antonio Spurs at Sacramento Kings
  - 10:00 PM ET – Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets
  - 10:30 PM ET – New York Knicks at Los Angeles Clippers
• Front end of a back-to-back: Hornets, Raptors, Heat
• Back end of a back-to-back: Knicks
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• 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

Cleveland Cavaliers (at CHA)

We kick the slate off with a potential blowout, as the Cavaliers are 17-point favorites on the road against the Hornets. This is a favorable matchup, and Cleveland comes into the game with a team total that is 3 points higher than their season average. They should have everyone available.

The problem here is three-fold – the Cavaliers are massive favorites, they are healthy, and this is an 8-game slate. To feel good about the Cavaliers, we have to feel good about the Hornets keeping this game competitive. I don’t mind looking to Cleveland’s starters in large-field tournaments, but there are better options for cash games and small-field contests.

Charlotte Hornets (vs. CLE)

The Hornets are still without Brandon Miller, Josh Okogie, KJ Simpson, Mark Williams, and Grant Williams. While a matchup against the Cavaliers could be worse, we do have to worry about this game turning into a blowout. The Hornets are 17-point underdogs and have a team total of only 109 points.

While I would love to fade the Hornets as a whole, it would be a disservice if I didn’t bring up the fact that Jusuf Nurkic is only $3,700 on DraftKings. He has averaged 1.15 DK / 1.14 FD points per minute this season and is projected to start and play minutes in the 20s with Williams out. He’s one of the few players on this slate capable of 10x’ing his salary.

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