Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Tuesday, April 15th

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-04-15 17:13:18 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 Tuesday!

More importantly, happy meaningful basketball game day! It has been a grind over the last couple of months with teams resting players and doing everything in their power to lose games. Even as a Jazz fan, I’m happy not to have to write about them until October. If you aren’t familiar with the NBA Play-In Tournament, here’s how it works:

• The 7th and 8th seeds from each conference face each other, as do the 9th and 10th seeds
• The winner of the 7/8 game claims the 7th seed in the playoffs
• The loser of the 7/8 game hosts the winner of the 9/10 game
• The winner of that game claims the 8th seed in the playoffs

Essentially, the 7th and 8th seeds have two chances to make the playoffs, while the 9th and 10th seeds must win 2 games to make the playoffs.

Before we get into the team previews, how about that Masters on Sunday? It was the most memorable Masters in my lifetime, and this is coming from a huge Tiger Woods fan who has watched the final round of the 2019 Masters more times than I’d care to admit. It was a good week of betting and of DFS. As always, we’d love to have you be part of the RG golf community if you aren’t already, whether that’s as a premium member or just chatting it up with everyone in the RG Discord.

Let’s get to some Tuesday night hoops!

NBA DFS Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Tuesday, April 15th

• 2-game main slate
  - 7:30 PM ET – Atlanta Hawks at Orlando Magic
  - 10:00 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State Warriors
• Front end of a back-to-back: N/A
• Back end of a back-to-back: N/A
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• 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

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

Team Previews

Atlanta Hawks (at ORL)

We kick off the slate with the Hawks, who won their final 3 games of the regular season to hold onto the 8th seed in the East. They have a tough matchup on the road against the Magic, who are 30th in pace, 1st in 3-point attempts allowed, and 1st in points allowed this season. While the betting market expects Atlanta to be competitive (5-point underdog), they come into the game with a team total that is 12.5 points lower than their season average. Clint Capela, Jalen Johnson, Larry Nance, and Keaton Wallace are all out.

It’s early in the day, but I don’t expect the Hawks to be very popular in DFS. Despite the low total, they are still appealing in tournaments. Trae Young is the one player from Atlanta that I feel comfortable using in all formats. He’s a tad underpriced on DraftKings ($9,100) and has topped 55 fantasy points in 4 of his last 8 games. He averaged 45 fantasy points against the Magic during the regular season and could push for 40 minutes. Dyson Daniels doesn’t project as well on a per-dollar basis, but he’s quietly having a career season. He has topped 38 fantasy points in 5 of his last 9 games.

Zaccharie Risacher and Mouhamed Gueye have been starting at the 3 and 4 recently, but neither is guaranteed to see 30 minutes here. Caris LeVert and Georges Niang will both have solid roles off the bench. My favorite of the bunch is LeVert, as he has playoff experience and has a good chance of being on the floor to close out the game. Onyeka Okongwu has been very hit or miss this season, but he offers 50+ fantasy point upside at relatively low ownership. It sounds strange, but Young is my preferred cash game target, and Okongwu is my preferred tournament target.

Here is an example of the DFS tables that are provided to our Premium Subscribers

Want to read more? Sign up for Premium!