NBA DFS Core Plays LIVE: Saturday, December 23rd
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 Noto will mix it up in all different types of contests. On weekends, Taylor Smith takes the reins. So, who better to walk you through the madness of an NBA DFS slate? Core Plays LIVE 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, you’ve come to the right place.
Happy Saturday to everyone except most of the Dallas Mavericks. Let’s just forget last night’s slate ever happened, sound good? The NBA is taking Christmas Eve off ahead of their big 5-game extravaganza on Monday, which is why they’ve crammed a whopping 13 games onto today’s schedule. We’ve got a couple of matinee affairs, while DraftKings and FanDuel have actually decided to include the same 10 games on their main slates starting at 7 PM ET. The late-night MIN/SAC clash that starts 90 minutes after every other game isn’t on the slate.
We’ve still got 20 teams to sort through, so let’s not waste more time. Here’s how things are shaping up as of Saturday afternoon.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, December 23rd
Slate Overview
- 10-game slate
- 7:00 PM ET – Orlando Magic at Indiana Pacers
- 7:00 PM ET – Denver Nuggets at Charlotte Hornets
- 7:00 PM ET – Houston Rockets at New Orleans Pelicans
- 7:30 PM ET – Detroit Pistons at Brooklyn Nets
- 7:30 PM ET – Utah Jazz at Toronto Raptors
- 7:30 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Atlanta Hawks
- 8:00 PM ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls
- 8:00 PM ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder
- 8:30 PM ET – San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks
- 8:30 PM ET – Portland Trail Blazers at Golden State Warriors
- Teams on the front end of a back-to-back: None
- Teams on the back end of a back-to-back: Raptors, Nuggets, Nets, Hawks, Mavericks, Rockets, Warriors, Kings
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
Welcome to the news update section!
Team Previews
Orlando Magic (at IND): We’ve got several high-total games but none higher than this one. The Magic are 1-point ‘dogs in Indiana tonight in a game with a 243.5 over/under. Orlando is a slower-paced, defensive-minded outfit, but the Pacers have been an exploitable matchup all year long. The Magic will be down Jalen Suggs, Joe Ingles, and Markelle Fultz again tonight, which will mean another spot start for Gary Harris and a path to more minutes and usage for Cole Anthony. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner won’t come cheap, but both still project pretty well in the midrange thanks to the elite matchup. Wendell Carter remains cheap on DraftKings, but his minutes have been limited since his return from a hand injury earlier in the week.
Indiana Pacers (vs. ORL): The Pacers have been driving the struggle bus since losing the In-Season Tournament Final a couple of weeks ago, and tonight they’ve got Tyrese Haliburton listed as questionable with an ankle injury. That’s obviously massive news, but luckily this is one of the first games on the slate. Hali sitting would make T.J. McConnell and Andrew Nembhard pop as terrific value plays. McConnell (1.4 FP/min.) has been particularly outstanding with Hali off the floor this season. Bruce Brown (+4.6% usage), Aaron Nesmith (+3.1%), and Bennedict Mathurin (+2.8%) all get useful usage bumps as well. If Haliburton suits up, there isn’t much that stands out on Indy’s side of things.
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