Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, March 15th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2025-03-15 21:55:13 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! We’ve officially reached the NBA’s silly season, even though there’s still a month left on the calendar before the playoffs get underway. The Jazz – who got fined earlier in the week for resting an uninjured Lauri Markkanen so they could intentionally lose basketball games – started Markkanen in last night’s game before deciding to keep him out for the 2nd half. Cool sport!

Luckily, it looks like tonight’s slate is largely free of the blatant tankers like the Jazz, Raptors, and 76ers. I’ve slandered the Wizards quite a bit in this space this season, but at least they’re still running something that resembles a legitimate rotation free of shenanigans. They just happen to be absolutely ghastly at basketball.

Anyway, we’re looking at 7 games on the board Saturday night. I’ll be here throughout the day to break down the latest developments, while I’ll also make a Crunch Time appearance for final thoughts.

On to the slate.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, March 15th

• 7-game main slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Detroit Pistons
  - 8:00 PM ET – Chicago Bulls at Houston Rockets
  - 8:00 PM ET – Miami Heat at Memphis Grizzlies
  - 8:00 PM ET – Indiana Pacers at Milwaukee Bucks
  - 8:30 PM ET – New Orleans Pelicans at San Antonio Spurs
  - 8:30 PM ET – New York Knicks at Golden State Warriors
  - 9:00 PM ET – Washington Wizards at Denver Nuggets
• Front end of a back-to-back: Thunder, Bucks
• Back end of a back-to-back: Heat, Pacers, Rockets, Grizzlies, Spurs, Nuggets
• 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 news updates throughout the day.

Team Previews

Oklahoma City Thunder (at DET)

The first game of the night should be a good one. The Thunder will be down Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren tonight in Detroit, while Aaron Wiggins is questionable. OKC is only a 4.5-point favorite, which is a testament to the Pistons’ incredible turnaround this season. We’re projecting Wiggins to start in Chet’s place if he suits up. He rates out as a terrific value on FanDuel ($4,700), while he’s more neutral on DraftKings ($5,400). Let us not bury the lede, though, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is sporting a sky-high 39.4% usage rate alongside a sparkling 1.82 FP/minute average this season with Holmgren and J-Dub off the floor. Seems good. SGA is expensive – and this slate isn’t lacking star power – but he looks like a phenomenal play.

Isaiah Hartenstein is a decent mid-range center play, while Cason Wallace and Lu Dort are viable cheap darts. I don’t have a ton of interest in Wallace or Dort if they’re going to be somewhat popular, but they are cheap.

Detroit Pistons (vs. OKC)

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