Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, April 19th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2025-04-19 13:56:20 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 weekend, hoopsters! These next 2 days are always among the best on the NBA calendar. The playoffs officially get underway, and we’ve got 4 games on Saturday with 4 more on Sunday scattered throughout the day.

These slates are a little bit like the Christmas Day slates with staggered tip-off times. Things are also generally less chaotic than your run-of-the-mill regular season docket, as most teams aren’t dealing with major injury question marks. Condensed rotations also make things more interesting. The 4 games on today’s slate also happen to be bangers, so this should be a fun one.

Without further ado, let’s dive right into Saturday’s 4-gamer.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, April 19th

• 4-game main slate
  - 1:00 PM ET – Milwaukee Bucks at Indiana Pacers
  - 3:30 PM ET – LA Clippers at Denver Nuggets
  - 6:00 PM ET – Detroit Pistons at New York Knicks
  - 8:30 PM ET – Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers
• Front end of a back-to-back: N/A
• Back end of a back-to-back: N/A
• 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

Milwaukee Bucks (at IND)

The Bucks and Pacers have developed a fun little rivalry over the last couple of years, and they’ll tangle again in the first round of this year’s postseason. Milwaukee is hoping to get Damian Lillard back from his DVT diagnosis earlier than expected, but he won’t be ready to suit up in time for today’s Game 1 in Indy.

Dame’s absence should mean another start at the point for Ryan Rollins (0.94 FP/minute), but Doc Rivers won’t hesitate to pull the rug out from under Rollins from a minutes standpoint if he doesn’t play well. Kevin Porter Jr. (1.25 FP/minute) is lurking off the bench, and KPJ has flashed the more consistent ceiling since Lillard went down. I generally play the ownership game with this situation. If Rollins is projected to be more popular, I’d rather play Porter. If the opposite is true, roll the dice on Rollins. On FanDuel, Rollins is $1,600 cheaper than Porter, so the former is the more useful play.

Giannis Antetokounmpo (1.74 FP/minute) wasn’t healthy for the Bucks’ playoff run a season ago, but he’s good to go now. He’s absolutely feasted over the past couple of years against a Pacers team that struggles to protect the rim. Indy allowed the 3rd-most paint points per game during the regular season, which is music to Giannis’ ears. This slate has no shortage of superstars, but I think Antetokounmpo’s matchup is the best of them all.

The Bucks’ forward rotation is similar to the point guard rotation. Kyle Kuzma is the starter, but his minutes are at risk with Bobby Portis back from his suspension. I prefer the cheaper Portis in tournaments at $5,000 on DraftKings. Brook Lopez generally takes a back seat offensively with Giannis and Portis leading the way, and he only averaged 25 DK points per game across 4 meetings with Indiana during the regular season. Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green, and Taurean Prince will be involved in some capacity, but I’d simply max-1 that situation and move right along.

Indiana Pacers (vs. MIL)

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