NBA DFS Core Plays LIVE: Saturday, March 16th
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 will take the reins and guide you through the NBA DFS streets. 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 March 16th, which means the NBA regular season comes to a close in about a month. The entire season has been wonky to some degree because that’s the nature of the league these days, but the injury report ahead of tonight’s 6-game slate is a little comical. We’ve got 16 (!) players carrying questionable tags as of this morning, and there’s always the chance somebody new will get a midday downgrade. Just about every one of these Q tags is actually meaningful for the slate, with Stephen Curry, Rudy Gobert, Tobias Harris, and Draymond Green among the headliners. LeBron James is officially questionable too, but there’s no way he’s missing tonight’s clash with the Warriors.
Obviously, the fake injury situations are only going to get worse as more and more teams fall out of the playoff hunt and start to embrace full #TankMode. Regardless, we’ll try our best to navigate the mayhem and get you geared up for a fun Saturday slate.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, March 16th
Slate Overview
- 6-game slate
- 7:00 PM ET – Brooklyn Nets at Indiana Pacers
- 7:00 PM ET – Charlotte Hornets at Philadelphia 76ers
- 7:00 PM ET – Portland Trail Blazers at New Orleans Pelicans
- 8:00 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies
- 8:00 PM ET – Washington Wizards at Chicago Bulls
- 8:30 PM ET – Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers
- Teams on the front end of a back-to-back: Hornets, Nets, Wizards
- Teams on the back end of a back-to-back: Suns, Hornets, Pelicans
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
Here’s where I’ll provide news updates.
Team Previews
Brooklyn Nets (at IND): Of the 6 games on this slate, just 1 of them features what you’d call a tight spread. Nets-Pacers isn’t it, as Brooklyn is a 9-point road dog here with a 109.5 implied team total. This is a favorable matchup for the Nets, but there isn’t a single player popping in projections with a positive RGValue with the team largely healthy. Nic Claxton is a fine dice roll against a Pacers team yielding tons of points in the paint on a nightly basis, while Mikal Bridges and Cam Thomas offer high ceilings thanks to their high usage. Barring some unexpected injury news, however, I won’t be prioritizing anyone from Brooklyn on this slate.
Indiana Pacers (vs. BKN): The Pacers’ 118.5 implied team total is the highest of the 12 teams on the main slate tonight. This team is also at full strength with the exception of Bennedict Mathurin and Doug McDermott. Myles Turner is enjoying a nice run of form thanks to a higher usage rate so far this month (26.7%), while T.J. McConnell continues to produce (1.36 FP/minute) despite limited burn off the bench. Tyrese Haliburton has been more of a high-floor play than a high-ceiling play for quite some time now, so I’ll still have a hard time justifying paying over $9,000 for him. Pascal Siakam and Aaron Nesmith are viable options in their respective price tiers thanks to their locked-in roles.
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