Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, October 26th
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 slate was a bit of a mess, as several of the day’s better values didn’t quite pan out. One of the fun things about NBA DFS is that it’s a grind, and we can get right back on the horse today with a fresh slate.
One big thing to note today is that DraftKings is doing that silly thing it did last year by leaving off late games. So we’ve got a 7-game slate over there tonight starting at 7pm ET, while FanDuel is rolling with a 9-gamer and including the late DAL-PHO and SAC-LAL contests. We’ve also got an early LAC-DEN game starting 2 hours before any other that you can play as a Showdown slate. That’ll likely make the builds quite different on both sites, and I’ll adjust any analysis accordingly, of course. Be sure to keep an eye on our NBA starting lineups page.
With that, let’s hop right into the first Saturday slate of the new campaign.
NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, October 26th
Slate Overview
- 10-game slate
- 5:00 PM ET – Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets
- 7:00 PM ET – Miami Heat at Charlotte Hornets
- 7:00 PM ET – Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons
- 7:00 PM ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Washington Wizards
- 8:00 PM ET – Toronto Raptors at Minnesota Timberwolves
- 8:00 PM ET – Orlando Magic at Memphis Grizzlies
- 8:00 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Chicago Bulls
- 8:30 PM ET – Houston Rockets at San Antonio Spurs
- 10:00 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns
- 10:30 PM ET – Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Lakers - Playing on the first half of a back-to-back: Clippers
- Playing on the second half of a back-to-back: Hornets, Pistons, Cavaliers, Raptors, Magic, Grizzlies, Bulls, Rockets, Suns, Lakers
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
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News Updates
I’ll update this section throughout the day to account for news.
Team Previews
Los Angeles Clippers (at DEN)
The Clippers fell in overtime to the Suns in their first game of the year, and they’ll now head to Denver for a date with the Nuggets. Kawhi Leonard and Mo Bamba are still out, while PJ Tucker is likely away from the team forever. Ty Lue ran a full 10-man rotation on opening night, with James Harden posting massive usage (42%) and assist (38%) rates in 39 minutes (including OT). Frankly, the rest of the Clips are going to be very difficult to trust from a fantasy standpoint all year. Ivica Zubac (33 minutes) will play a prominent role but faces a tough matchup against Nikola Jokic, while Norman Powell (24% usage) is likely to be a secondary source of usage in a starting role with Leonard sidelined. Kai Jones is a potential value as the backup center behind Zubac, but there really isn’t a whole lot to like about this bunch.
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