Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, February 21st

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2026-02-21 18:45:21 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. On weekends, Taylor Smith takes the reins. 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.

Hello! The All-Star break has finally come and gone, so it’s time for the home stretch of the NBA regular season. It sure seems like the NBA is in the midst of a rather tumultuous period, what with the shameless tanking, gambling scandals, endless injuries, and the existence of a cursed franchise called the “Oklahoma City Thunder.” We’ll see how Adam Silver shakes his way out of this mess, I suppose.

Anyway, there’s still money to be won in the NBA DFS streets, even if many teams themselves do not care about winning at the moment. We’re looking at a nice little 5-game slate on both DraftKings and FanDuel on this fine Saturday night. As always, I’ll be here to break it all down with analysis and updates all the way until 7 PM ET. I’ll also be on Crunch Time with TJ and Tim in the hour leading up to lock to answer any questions you may have.

Off we go!

NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, February 21st

Slate Overview

• 5-game main slate
  - 7:00 pm ET – Philadelphia 76ers at New Orleans Pelicans
  - 8:00 pm ET – Sacramento Kings at San Antonio Spurs
  - 8:00 pm ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Miami Heat
  - 8:00 pm ET – Detroit Pistons at Chicago Bulls
  - 8:30 pm ET – Houston Rockets at New York Knicks
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

Here’s where I’ll provide news updates.

Team Previews

Philadelphia 76ers (at NOP)

The Sixers are no strangers to the injury bug, though they’re largely healthy these days. Paul George is still sidelined by his suspension, however, while they’ll also be down Joel Embiid this evening when they take on the Pelicans in NOLA. Despite missing a couple of their best players, Philadelphia is still favored by 4 points on the road with a nice 118.5 implied team total.

With PG and Embiid away, Tyrese Maxey will take on a huge role offensively (32.4% usage, 1.36 DK FP/minute). The Pelicans will presumably sic their best defender – Herb Jones – on Maxey, and he’ll come with significant ownership. Still, Maxey is also routinely logging upwards of 40 minutes in competitive games, so he’s a terrific play, ownership aside. The absences of George and Embiid also mean usage boosts for V.J. Edgecombe (+3.6%) and Quentin Grimes (+3%). Edgecombe, like Maxey, is also usually good for significant minutes every night in Nick Nurse’s famously tight rotations. The Pels are yielding the 2nd-most 3-point attempts per game this season, which bodes well for Grimes’ potential volume. He’s also still very cheap in the mid-$4,000s on both sites.

Kelly Oubre Jr. has a higher minutes ceiling than Grimes, though that’s baked into the salary discrepancy. I still think he’s a solid play, especially as leverage on the potentially higher-owned Edgecombe and Grimes. I’d consider a max-2 rule for Oubre/Edgecombe/Grimes in GPPs. We haven’t often seen a huge ceiling from Andre Drummond this season when given the chance to start, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better matchup than this one against the Pelicans’ woeful interior defense. Drummond looks amazing at $4,500 on DK, and he’s still playable at $5,600 on FD. Dominick Barlow and Trendon Watford are larger-field GPP considerations at best.

New Orleans Pelicans (vs. PHI)

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