Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Monday, March 16th

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2026-03-16 19:06:51 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. So, who better to walk you through the madness of NBA DFS slates on DraftKings and FanDuel? Core Plays LIVE will zoom out on the slate as a whole, zoom in on the best plays, and constantly update as news breaks. Whether you are diving into the slate 5 hours before it starts or 5 minutes before it starts, you’ve come to the right place.

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. It’s about to get real warm in my neck of the woods, which is certainly acceptable. I love a daily run outside (I can’t do treadmills), I love a golf outing with the crew every couple of weeks, and I love going on walks with the family. We’ll stop at the park and play catch or tag every couple of nights. As they say, I can’t wait to get out there and touch some grass after being cooped up in the house over the last few months.

We still have about a month left in the regular season, so we have to embrace the chaos with teams resting players and trying to lose games. It’s not ideal, but we can only play the cards that we are dealt. We kick off the week with 8 NBA games. DraftKings and FanDuel have agreed a lot recently, but they are rolling out different main slates tonight. DraftKings only has the first 6 games on their main slate, while FanDuel has all 8 games on their main slate.

I’m excited for the start of March Madness this week. I’ll have plenty of bets up on ScoresAndOdds here in the next day or two. Also, I can’t wait to watch Hail Mary at some point this weekend. The book was one of my favorites ever, and it sounds like the movie is going to slap (I need to ask my boys if kids still say this).

As always, thanks for joining me. Let’s dive into the slate.

NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Monday, March 16th

Slate Overview

• Main slate size: FanDuel: 8 Games, DraftKings: 6 Games
  - 7:00 pm ET – Golden State Warriors at Washington Wizards
  - 7:00 pm ET – Orlando Magic at Atlanta Hawks
  - 7:30 pm ET – Portland Trail Blazers at Brooklyn Nets
  - 7:30 pm ET – Phoenix Suns at Boston Celtics
  - 8:00 pm ET – Dallas Mavericks at New Orleans Pelicans
  - 8:00 pm ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Chicago Bulls
  - 9:30 pm ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Houston Rockets (not on DK slate)
  - 10:00 pm ET – San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Clippers (not on DK slate)
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

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

Team Previews

Golden State Warriors (at WAS)

We kick off this slate with the Warriors, who have a dream matchup on the road against the Wizards. Washington is ranked 6th in pace and 29th in points allowed per game. This is also an elite rebounding matchup, as the Wizards are 30th in rebounding percentage. The Warriors’ team total is 120 points, which is 5 points higher than their season average. We don’t have their injury report yet since this is a back-to-back, but we expect them to be without Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Al Horford, and Moses Moody.

The Warriors don’t project all that well, but they are trying to win games, they are shorthanded, and they have the best matchup on the slate. I love looking at them in tournaments tonight, even if they don’t rule anyone else out throughout the day. Brandin Podziemski is expensive, but he has topped 40 fantasy points in 3 of the last 6 games. De’Anthony Melton has shown similar upside (39+ fantasy points in 3 of the last 6 games) and is cheaper than Podz. Gary Payton II projects the best on a per-dollar basis, but he logged 27 minutes last night, which makes me a tad nervous. I’d rather target Will Richard, who is projecting for lower ownership.

With Kristaps Porzingis back, I don’t love anyone in the frontcourt (unless someone gets ruled out and it opens up some minutes).

Washington Wizards (vs. GSW)

The Wizards are at home against the Warriors, who are 16th in pace and 12th in points allowed per game. Washington’s team total is 112 points, which is 1 point lower than their season average. We know the Wizards aren’t exactly trying to win games, but this is a decent spot on paper. Anthony Davis, Leaky Black, Kyshawn George, D’Angelo Russell, Alex Sarr, and Cam Whitmore have all been ruled out.

We’ve seen a few of Washington’s value plays be difference-makers in tournaments, but it never seems to be the ones we expect. When Will Riley projects well, Bilal Coulibaly plays well. When Tre Johnson projects well, Bub Carrington or Justin Champagnie have nice outings. With such an inconsistent rotation (of players who are volatile to begin with), it’s really difficult to trust the Wizards. I’m fine mixing-and-matching a few players in your MME player pool, but I will be avoiding them for cash games and small-field tournaments.

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