Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, March 30th
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 guide you through those NBA 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.
MLB started up this week, but we’ve still got a few weeks of NBA action to go before the playoffs get underway. If you’re a true grinder, you’re getting action in both sports during the brief overlap period. With MLB being a more relaxed “set it and forget it” type of build, you can use the last few minutes before lock to sweat NBA news instead.
After a busy Friday, however, we’ve got a wee 3 games on the NBA schedule for Saturday. We get an early start here with the first game tipping off at 5 ET. The other 2 start at 7 and 7:30, respectively. There won’t be too much news to follow heading into lock, but you never know what can pop up on the mid-afternoon injury reports. Let’s take a look at this 3-gamer, shall we?
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, March 30th
Slate Overview
- 3-game slate
- 5:00 PM ET – Boston Celtics at New Orleans Pelicans
- 7:00 PM ET – Memphis Grizzlies at Orlando Magic
- 7:30 PM ET – Milwaukee Bucks at Atlanta Hawks
- Teams on the front end of a back-to-back: None
- Teams on the back end of a back-to-back: Magic
- 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
Boston Celtics (at NOP): The Celtics’ huge lead in the Eastern Conference is well-documented, but they’ve looked a little mortal over the past week or so. Boston doesn’t have any notable injuries to report ahead of tonight’s game in New Orleans. As a result, they’re healthy 6-point road favorites with a 114.5 implied team total. This isn’t a good on-paper matchup given the Pels’ defensive prowess, but you can always make a case for paying up for Jayson Tatum ($9,800 DK, $10,600 FD) even though he’ll be draped by Herb Jones in this one. Another issue with Tatum is the depth at the forward positions tonight, even on such a short slate. Because Boston is at full strength, they’re likely to be relatively contrarian with nobody truly popping in projections. Kristaps Porzingis, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday are all playable as tournament differentiators.
New Orleans Pelicans (vs. BOS): The Pelicans are one of a gaggle of teams battling for Western Conference playoff seeding, but they get a tough draw with the mighty Celtics coming to town tonight. Brandon Ingram and Jose Alvarado remain out tonight, so we do have some value here. CJ McCollum (+2.6%) and Zion Williamson (+3.8%) get nice usage boosts without Ingram, while Alvarado’s absence makes CJ’s minutes a bit more secure. You can make the case that neither player is priced up enough. Trey Murphy (0.96 FP/minute) and Herb Jones (0.89) will play big-minute roles here, while Naji Marshall topped 20 minutes off the bench with Alvarado out the other night. The center rotation remains a mess, though Jonas Valanciunas and Larry Nance are both cheap enough to consider. Boston is a big frontcourt, so perhaps we could get a few extra JoVal minutes in this one.
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