NBA DFS Core Plays LIVE: Saturday, January 20th
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. 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.
It’s Saturday, and what a Saturday we’ve got on tap. Not only do we have a solid little 7-game NBA slate to dive into, but we’ve also got the first 2 games of the NFL Divisional Round. In case that wasn’t enough, there’s also some NHL and MMA on the schedule.
We’re here to talk about hoops, of course. A few teams that were popular on last night’s slate are on the docket again tonight, while we once again have a few noteworthy injury situations to monitor. I’ll be here throughout the day updating this piece to account for the latest news. Tune into Crunch Time before lock for my final thoughts as well.
Without further ado, let’s jump in.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, January 20th
Slate Overview
- 7-game slate
- 7:00 PM ET – Philadelphia 76ers at Charlotte Hornets
- 7:00 PM ET – San Antonio Spurs at Washington Wizards
- 7:30 PM ET – Toronto Raptors at New York Knicks
- 7:30 PM ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks
- 8:00 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Chicago Bulls
- 8:00 PM ET – Utah Jazz at Houston Rockets
- 8:00 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Minnesota Timberwolves
- Teams on the front end of a back-to-back: Wizards, Rockets
- Teams on the back end of a back-to-back: Spurs, Hornets, Sixers, Hawks
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
Here’s the news updates section, of course.
Team Previews
Philadelphia 76ers (at CHA): The Sixers went down to Orlando and neutralized the Magic last night, and tonight they’ll draw a significantly better matchup against the lowly Hornets. Charlotte has been gashed by opposing centers for most of the year with Mark Williams sidelined, and tonight Nick Richards is in question after missing last night’s game. Regardless, this is about as good a spot as you’ll find for Joel Embiid, assuming he’s good to go in the back-to-back. There’s blowout risk with Philly favored by 11 points in this one, but we’ve seen Embiid put up slate-winning scores in 3 quarters on countless occasions already this season. If Embiid sits – which is purely speculative at this point – guys like Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris, and Paul Reed will become very popular targets in an exploitable matchup.
Charlotte Hornets (vs. PHI): The Hornets picked up a rare win over the Spurs last night, and tonight they’ll welcome the Sixers to town. Charlotte only has a 109 implied team total here, and we’ll have to await the status of Nick Richards. PJ Washington drew the start at center and played 28 minutes last night, though he’d certainly have his hands full as a small-ball C against Embiid tonight. Perhaps the Hornets could opt for more size by starting rookie Nathan Mensah, but that’s foul trouble waiting to happen. The Hornets will be quite a bit less chalky than they were last night, though it’s still worth noting that LaMelo Ball ($8,900), Terry Rozier ($7,600), and Miles Bridges ($7,400) are all arguably underpriced on DraftKings.
San Antonio Spurs (at WAS): The Spurs will welcome Victor Wembanyama back into the lineup tonight in Washington, while Zach Collins will sit on the second leg of the B2B. San Antonio is going to keep Wemby in the 24-27 minute range, but it’s still hard to overlook him here against a Wizards team with one of the worst team rebound rates in the history of the NBA. Washington is also allowing the second-most points in the paint per game on the year. $10,200 on FanDuel is difficult to justify because of the minutes, but I have tons of interest at $8,700 on DK. We’re also seeing attractive price tags on Tre Jones ($5,800) and Jeremy Sochan ($5,400) on DK, as both should benefit from what should be a fast-paced, high-scoring environment.
Washington Wizards (vs. SAS): Washington is actually favored by 2.5 points here over the visiting Spurs playing their second game in as many nights. Daniel Gafford is questionable in the concussion protocol after missing the last game. If he sits again, we’ll see another start and plenty of minutes for Marvin Bagley, who crushed in a whopping 39 minutes in his team debut on Thursday. The Spurs are tougher inside with Wemby in the lineup, but they’re still just 25th in defensive rating on the season. Even 24 projected minutes with Gafford in is enough to make Bagley still look playable at $5,000 on DK, but he’ll again become a core play if Gafford is a no-go. Tyus Jones (brother vs. brother!) has seen his minutes tick upward of late, while Deni Avdija and Jordan Poole are viable mid-range targets thanks to the elite matchup. I also think Kyle Kuzma is an interesting way to get different as an upper mid-range spend ($8,400 DK, $8,300 FD) in tournaments.
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