Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Monday, April 21st

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-04-21 18:17:01 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 Monday!

I hope everyone had a tremendous weekend. While we didn’t get many competitive games over the weekend, it was great to have playoff basketball back. The games and series should only get more intense moving forward. My brother-in-law was lucky enough to go to the Knicks game. He said it was unlike any other basketball game he’d ever been to. A playoff game in Madison Square Garden is high up on my bucket list.

After 4 games each of the last 2 days, we only have 2 games on the schedule this evening. With a smaller player pool, ownership will be condensed, and it’ll be a little more difficult to be contrarian. I am going to deep dive into the box scores and the rotations from each Game 1, so hopefully that can help us find some information that the masses will overlook. Let’s dive into the team previews.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Monday, April 21st

• 2-game main slate
  - 7:30 PM ET – Detroit Pistons at New York Knicks
  - 10:00 PM ET – Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

Editor’s Note: Looking for more places to play? Check out our Underdog Fantasy promo code and PrizePicks promo code, two of the best DFS apps available today.

News Updates

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

Team Previews

Detroit Pistons (at NYK)

The Pistons were in control of most of Game 1, but the Knicks put together a strong 4th quarter to take the first game at home. Detroit will look to even the series with a win in Game 2. This isn’t a great matchup on paper, although favorable matchups are few and far between in the playoffs. During the regular season, the Knicks were 26th in pace and 9th in points allowed per game. I will note that Game 1 of this series actually played at the 2nd-fastest pace of any Game 1. The Pistons have a team total that is 8 points lower than their season average. Jaden Ivey is out, while Isaiah Stewart is questionable.

Cade Cunningham is only $9,100 on DraftKings and has the highest RGValue of any player on the slate. The tricky part with DraftKings is a lack of value, so targeting the cheap superstars makes lineup building a bit difficult. Cunningham logged 39 minutes in Game 1 and has topped 50 fantasy points in 5 of his last 7 games. Tobias Harris feels a bit like fool’s gold after putting up 38 fantasy points in Game 1. I’m hesitant to target him at higher pOWN%, as he’s been held under 26 fantasy points in 5 of his last 10 games.

Jalen Duren is cheaper on DraftKings than he is on FanDuel, yet he’s projecting for higher ownership on the latter. He got into foul trouble in Game 1 and only logged 24 minutes. He has a path to 30+ minutes if he can avoid those early fouls. Malik Beasley, Ausar Thompson, and Dennis Schroder are all projected for 25+ minutes. This is a slate that lacks value, so all three deserve consideration. Beasley played the best of the three in Game 1 (38 fantasy points) and has consistently had a usage rate above 20% over the last few weeks. Given the lack of value, Isaiah Stewart or Paul Reed (depending on Stewart’s availability) will be viable as a punt on DraftKings.

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