Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Thursday, December 5th

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2024-12-05 23:38:12 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 Thursday!

We are inching closer and closer to Christmas, so this is a reminder to all of the procrastinating individuals like myself to start ordering your presents now. It will be a major stress relief, and you won’t have to pay extra for expedited shipping on December 22nd. In my experience, the meaningfulness of the gifts goes out the window when you are scrambling to find something for everyone in your family the week of Christmas. This is as much of a reminder to myself as it is to you.

I hope everyone had a good slate on Wednesday night. Once again, nobody wanted to play Clint Capela. Once again, he had a solid outing. While I could have used a little more from Giannis Antetokounmpo, I ended up having another solid slate. We now turn our attention to Thursday’s slate. We typically only have a few games on the schedule on Thursdays, but we have 8 games to look forward to tonight. With a single late game, DraftKings decided to leave it off their main slate. We don’t have any teams playing on the second half of a back-to-back, so hopefully that will help on the injury news front.

Let’s hop, skip, and jump right into tonight’s slate.

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Thursday, December 5th

• 8-game slate
  - 7:00 PM ET – Denver Nuggets at Cleveland Cavaliers
  - 7:00 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at Washington Wizards
  - 7:30 PM ET – Charlotte Hornets at New York Knicks
  - 7:30 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Toronto Raptors
  - 8:00 PM ET – Chicago Bulls at San Antonio Spurs
  - 8:00 PM ET – Sacramento Kings at Memphis Grizzlies
  - 8:00 PM ET – Phoenix Suns at New Orleans Pelicans
  - 10:00 PM ET – Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors
• Front end of a back-to-back: Bulls, Kings, Spurs, Warriors
• 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

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News Updates

This section will be updated as injury news is released throughout the day.

Team Previews

Denver Nuggets (at CLE)

We kick the slate off with the Nuggets, who should have all of their key players available. A matchup against the Cavaliers is a lot better than it was last season, as Cleveland is 8th in pace and 11th in points allowed per game. This still isn’t a spot where I want to load up on the Nuggets, but Nikola Jokic is currently checking in at sub-15% pOWN%. He has the highest ceiling of any player on the slate and has topped 68 fantasy points in 8 of his last 10 games.

Cleveland Cavaliers (vs. DEN)

The Cavaliers are still without Max Strus and have listed Ty Jerome as questionable. They are playing at a much faster pace this season and draw a nice matchup against the Nuggets, who are 6th in pace and 24th in defensive rating this season. The Nuggets have been tough on opposing frontcourts, so if getting any exposure to the Cavaliers, I will take my chances on Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell has quietly averaged 46 fantasy points over his last 3 games.

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