Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, February 28th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2026-02-28 20:02:49 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.

Happy Saturday! Good morning to everyone except Lu Dort. Here we are on the last day of February. Feels like only yesterday it was February 27th. Time really flies as you get older; it’s true what they say.

The NBA is taking it easy on this fine Saturday. We’ve got just 5 games total on the schedule for today, 3 of which will appear on the main slates on DraftKings and FanDuel. It should be a pretty quiet one on the news front, but we shall see. I’ll also be on Crunch Time with Chief in the hour leading up to lock, so tune in!

Off we go.

NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, February 28th

Slate Overview

• 3-game main slate
  - 7:00 pm ET – Toronto Raptors at Washington Wizards
  - 8:30 pm ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors
  - 9:30 pm ET – New Orleans Pelicans at Utah Jazz
• 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

Toronto Raptors (at WAS)

The Raptors are the biggest favorites on the slate thanks to a terrific matchup on the road against the lowly, tanking, no-good Washington Wizards. Toronto’s 120.5 implied team total is the 2nd-highest on the board. Washington is 28th in defensive rating and 30th in team rebound rate, and they enter this one with the NBA’s 4th-worst record. The Raptors have Collin Murray-Boyles listed as doubtful for this one, but they’re otherwise healthy.

I normally set rules on how to handle the Raptors’ primary usage pieces – RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, and Brandon Ingram. Each of them is sporting a usage rate between 21% and 27%, and they’re all producing at clips north of 1.00 FP/minute. While none of them are really leaping out as amazing point-per-dollar plays in the projections, it seems fairly likely at least one of them can deliver a GPP-winning score on such a small slate. Per our handy Defense vs. Archetypes tool, the micro matchup is elite for both Barnes and Quickley, while Ingram and Barrett get more neutral draws. Barrett has the most useful positional eligibility on both sites, so I expect him to draw the most ownership of the group.

It’s been a while since I’ve fired up Jakob Poeltl, but he did get up to 28 minutes in the last game. He’s also just $4,300 on DK, and I’ve already mentioned how the Wizards get beaten up on the boards. Poeltl is a terrific play on DK, and he’s still playable at $5,400 on FanDuel. Jamal Shead and Sandro Mamukelashvili are large-field GPP dart throws I’d keep in a player pool.

Washington Wizards (vs. TOR)

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