Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, December 14th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2024-12-14 20:24:56 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.

Folks, the NBA Cup is coming down to the wire. The semifinals will go down today live from lovely Las Vegas, Nevada. You can do almost everything in Nevada, but playing DFS is not one of those things. What a bunch of squares.

Anyway, the rest of us are dealing with a wee 2-game slate for the 3rd time this week. This one is a little different, though, as the first game tips early at 4:30 PM ET. The second game gets underway at 8:30 ET. Both games feature a starter carrying a questionable tag, which means we may have to do some late swapping if the news doesn’t come in early.

A spot in the NBA Cup final is on the line, so I’d expect all 4 teams to run something resembling playoff rotations today. Let’s dive right in.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, December 14th

• 2-game slate
  - 4:30 PM ET – Atlanta Hawks vs. Milwaukee Bucks
  - 8:30 PM ET – Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
• Front end of a back-to-back: None
• 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

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

News Updates

Not expecting this to be a very busy section today, but I’ll provide updates as they come in.

Team Previews

Atlanta Hawks (at MIL)

The Hawks went into MSG and upset the Knicks to punch their ticket to Vegas earlier this week. Atlanta is a very good team, yet they’re 4.5-point underdogs this afternoon against the Bucks. We have some rather important injury news to monitor, as Jalen Johnson is listed as questionable with a sore ankle. Johnson is an All-Star-caliber player, so his absence would be massive. If he sits, more usage will flow through Trae Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and De’Andre Hunter. I’d expect Hunter or Vit Krejci to start in that situation. Young (1.33 FP/minute) and Johnson (1.27) are both terrific plays in any scenario considering both are capable of playing 40 minutes in this matchup. Young was under-owned the other night against New York, but I don’t expect that to necessarily be the case again today.

As for the secondary pieces, the player in which I have the most interest is, as usual, Hunter. His usage is up to nearly 24% this season with Dejounte Murray gone, and he’s still playing a sizable role even off the bench. He won’t typically supply much by way of ancillary stats, but he’s still affordable around the industry. The Hawks typically like to give Clint Capela a few extra minutes against bigger frontcourt teams – Milwaukee certainly qualifies – but Brook Lopez isn’t your typical center who’s rooted to the paint. Capela and Onyeka Okongwu essentially split the minutes when they faced Milwaukee earlier this month. Bogdan Bogdanovic is a decent sub-$5,000 value, but I have only secondary interest in Dyson Daniels or Zaccharie Risacher.

Milwaukee Bucks (vs. ATL)

Here is an example of the DFS tables that are provided to our Premium Subscribers

Want to read more? Sign up for Premium!