Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, January 24th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2026-01-24 19:36:39 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! NBA Rivals Week rolls on. We’re looking at just 4 games on tonight’s NBA DFS slate, but there is one particularly juicy rivalry clash on tap. These two teams made a very notable trade recently, and you can bet there’s still some bad blood lingering in the hearts of some of the primary players involved in the deal.

I’m talking, of course, about the offseason deal that sent Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson from Miami to Utah. The Jazz and Heat are age-old rivals, and these franchises will play the latest iteration of their long-standing series tonight in SLC. What more could you want if you’re a hoops fan? Let’s remember some guys who have played for both Miami and Utah over the years, just for fun: Hassan Whiteside, Alec Burks, Joe Johnson, Patty Mills, Omer Yurtseven, Jae Crowder, John Crotty.

Good times. That Hassan Whiteside was quite the DFS commodity in his heyday. Anyway, I suppose we should get down to business and talk about the 4-gamer. I’ll be here all afternoon providing news updates and other analysis heading into lock.

Onward!

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NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, January 24th

Slate Overview

• 4-game main slate
  - 7:00 pm ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Orlando Magic
  - 8:00 pm ET – Boston Celtics at Chicago Bulls
  - 8:30 pm ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks
  - 9:30 pm ET – Miami Heat 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 those news updates as they come in.

Team Previews

Cleveland Cavaliers (at ORL)

The Cavs are in our lives again on the heels of last night’s surprisingly close 5-point win at home over the Kings. They’re in a tougher spot on the road tonight in Orlando, where they’re slight 1.5-point dogs to the Magic. Darius Garland, Sam Merrill, and Max Strus remain out. We’re calling Lonzo Ball questionable for rest, but he didn’t even play last night and hasn’t really been in the rotation for some time.

Taking Garland and Merrill out of the mix clears extra usage for Donovan Mitchell, who’s up to 33.3% usage with a terrific 1.31 DK FP/minute rate. Orlando is decent defensively, but they’ve struggled against lead guards, even with Jalen Suggs in the lineup. I’m still happy to get to Mitchell in any format on such a small slate, though he’s easier to play on FD, where he’s $100 cheaper than he is on DK and comes with PG/SG eligibility. Jaylon Tyson (1.03 FP/minute) is also playing 30+ minutes a night in a starting role amid the injuries. While $6,700 is a tough sell on DK, $6,000 on FD is still a bit light.

Evan Mobley (1.18 FP/minute) had a monster game last night against Sacramento. This is a more daunting matchup given the Magic’s defensive prowess around the rim, but he has seen a nice 1.2% usage boost without Garland/Merrill. He’s popping into a ton of optimals early in the day at $8,500 on FanDuel. Jarrett Allen (1.02 FP/minute) is typically more of a high-floor play than a high-ceiling one. I think he’s a decent leverage play assuming he comes in lower owned than Mobley again, but I certainly wouldn’t call him a priority. Dean Wade has topped 27 minutes in back-to-back games. He usually won’t do much while he’s out there (0.79 FP/minute), but he’s also just a few hundred bucks north of the minimum salary on both sites.

Orlando Magic (vs. CLE)

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