Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, April 5th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2025-04-06 17:00:20 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.

We’ve officially made it to the weekend, and what greets us is a relatively modest 4-game NBA slate. Perhaps the league is taking it light tonight to give the Final Four the main stage. Adam Silver seems like a decent chap like that, I guess. We’ve got a pretty full slate on tap for tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I’ll be here all afternoon to break down tonight’s docket. This one locks at the standard 7 PM ET, and I’ll be on Crunch Time in the hour leading up to tip-off for final thoughts. Let’s get into it.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, April 5th

• 4-game main slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Detroit Pistons
  - 7:00 PM ET – Minnesota Timberwolves at Philadelphia 76ers
  - 8:00 PM ET – Milwaukee Bucks at Miami Heat
  - 10:30 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Clippers
• Front end of a back-to-back: Bucks, Hawks (not on today’s main slate), Knicks (not on today’s main slate)
• Back end of a back-to-back: Mavericks, Clippers, Pistons
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

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News Updates

Here’s where I’ll provide any and all news updates.

Team Previews

Memphis Grizzlies (at DET)

The Grizzlies have been free falling of late despite their deep and talented roster, and if the season ended today, they’d be the No. 8 seed and part of the Play-In Tournament. Memphis is a 2-point favorite in Detroit against a Pistons team playing the second night of a back-to-back. Vince Williams and Brandon Clarke are still out. This game has the loftiest total on the slate by a wide margin (240), and Memphis’ implied team total is the highest (121).

Ja Morant (1.37 FP/minute) has played well of late, while Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. have both struggled since Ja returned to the lineup. Morant is my favorite of the big 3 on this slate (especially on FanDuel at only $8,600), though JJJ and Bane are still worthy dart throws in GPPs on a small slate. The secondary Memphis pieces grading out well here are Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells, and Santi Aldama. Aldama (1.12 FP/minute) has been very productive in a high-usage role off the bench, and I always like hunting his ceiling in tournaments. Edey will likely generate the most ownership of anybody here at his cheap salaries, and he’s played at least 26 minutes in 3 of the last 4 games. Playing Wells is a bit of a grind given his middling per-minute numbers (0.74), but $3,100 on DraftKings for a player likely to push for 30 minutes is more than reasonable.

Detroit Pistons (vs. MEM)

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