Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, February 8th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2025-02-08 23:14:21 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 Saturday, folks. I went to the dentist yesterday for a regular cleaning. After the hygienist was done doing all of the actual work, she told me she’d go to get the dentist so he could take his final look. She came back a few seconds later and said, “It’ll be just a minute; he just got out of the restroom.”

…why would you tell me this!? There is such a thing as having Too Much Information, and I don’t think I needed to know that the guy who’s about to be rooting around in my mouth just got out of the bathroom. Please, just lie to me instead. Tell me he’s busy looking at pictures of teeth online or something. I assume dentists do that in their downtime, so it’s believable.

Anyway, we’re looking at a couple of sizable NBA slates on this fine Saturday morning. DraftKings is rolling with a 7-game docket tipping at 7 PM ET, while FanDuel has a 9-gamer including the late-night NOP-SAC and UTA-LAC clashes.

I’ll also be on Crunch Time with T.J. and Tim in the hour leading up to the first games locking, so tune in and hit us up if you have any last-minute questions. Or even if you don’t.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, February 8th

• 7-game DK main slate, 9-game FD main slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – San Antonio Spurs at Orlando Magic
  - 7:00 PM ET – Atlanta Hawks at Washington Wizards
  - 8:00 PM ET – Portland Trail Blazers at Minnesota Timberwolves
  - 8:00 PM ET – Golden State Warriors at Chicago Bulls
  - 8:00 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies
  - 8:30 PM ET – Boston Celtics at New York Knicks
  - 9:00 PM ET – Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns
  - 10:00 PM ET – New Orleans Pelicans at Sacramento Kings
  - 10:30 PM ET – Utah Jazz at Los Angeles Clippers
• Front end of a back-to-back: None
• Back end of a back-to-back: Spurs, Wizards, Hawks, Thunder, Jazz, Suns
• 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 Underdog Fantasy promo code and PrizePicks promo code, two of the best DFS apps available today.

News Updates

Here’s where I’ll provide those sweet, sweet news updates.

Team Previews

San Antonio Spurs (at ORL)

The Spurs lost a heartbreaker in Charlotte last night, and tonight they’re listed as 3-point underdogs in Orlando, where they’ll duel with the Magic. De’Aaron Fox is boasting healthy 25% usage and 37% assist rates through his first 2 games in San Antone. The usage for Victor Wembanyama is down a bit to around 26% in 2 games with Fox, but that’s obviously the tiniest of samples. We saw Stephon Castle post a big scoring game off the bench yesterday, but it’s safe to assume the usage will flow through the 2 All-Stars for the most part. Wemby and Fox are good enough to stay in a GPP player pool, but I’m not all that enthused about getting to either of them at a high clip tonight in a difficult matchup on the road. Nobody from the Spurs projects as a positive RGValue on DraftKings or FanDuel as of now.

Orlando Magic (vs. SAS)

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