Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, December 7th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2024-12-07 23:17:10 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.

Friday’s NBA slate was a wild one with no shortage of weird injury news and starting lineup shakeups. Let’s hope Saturday’s is a little tamer, but we know to expect the unexpected with this silly league. Tonight’s slate features just 6 games and, unfortunately, the Washington Wizards.

The Wizards haven’t gotten as much national attention as last year’s Pistons team- which lost 28 consecutive games around this same time- but they probably should be. Washington is 2-18. Both of their wins came over Atlanta, which is weird because the Hawks are kind of good? The Wiz come into tonight’s game at home against Denver riding a 15-game losing streak. Just 1 of their 18 losses has come by single digits, and it was a 9-point setback. Last year’s Pistons had a -179 point differential through 20 games. Your 2024-25 Wizards are sitting at -337.

In related news, the Wizards are 14-point home underdogs tonight. Fun! Anyway, on to the games. The Celtics are the only team on tonight’s slate playing the latter half of a back-to-back, so that’s a potential rest situation to monitor. Several more teams are on the front end of a B2B, which should make tomorrow’s slate a real doozy. Let’s dive in.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, December 7th

• 6-game slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Denver Nuggets at Washington Wizards
  - 7:00 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Pelicans
  - 7:30 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at Toronto Raptors
  - 7:30 PM ET – Detroit Pistons at New York Knicks
  - 8:00 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Boston Celtics
  - 8:00 PM ET – Phoenix Suns at Miami Heat
• Front end of a back-to-back: Grizzlies, Heat, Suns, Pelicans, Nuggets, Wizards
• Back end of a back-to-back: Celtics
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

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News Updates

Here’s where I’ll provide news updates.

Team Previews

Denver Nuggets (at WAS)

As mentioned, the Nuggets are favored by a couple of touchdowns tonight in DC. QB Nikola Jokic could be without one of his favorite targets – WR Jamal Murray – who’s questionable with a hamstring injury. Jokic gets a 4% usage boost in the minutes he’s played without Murray, while we’d also likely see Russell Westbrook enter the starting lineup if Jamal sits. Russ would be a chalky yet elite mid-range value if that happens. Jokic is probably the best overall play on the slate regardless of the Murray news, as the reigning MVP is averaging a ridiculous 1.85 FP/minute going into a matchup here against the NBA’s most nonexistent defense. Murray sitting wouldn’t necessarily make Michael Porter Jr., Christian Braun, or Aaron Gordon look like significantly better plays, but I have my eye on Gordon regardless at only $5,800 on DK and $6,000 on FD.

Washington Wizards (vs. DEN)

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