Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Saturday, May 11th
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 takes the reins. 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.
The 2nd round of the NBA playoffs rolls on with another 2-game slate on Saturday. We had some drama on Friday night, as the Pacers and Nuggets each pulled to within a game of the Knicks and T-Wolves in their respective series. Those wins for Indiana and Denver will set the stage for what should be some fascinating games tomorrow. But first, we’ve got a couple of games on tap for Saturday.
The Mavs dealt the Thunder their first defeat of these playoffs with a terrific showing in Thursday’s Game 2. The scene will now shift to North Texas, where Dallas is listed as a slight 2.5-point favorite at home. Out East, the Cavs will return home to host the Celtics after their stunningly easy win in Boston back in Game 2. The Celtics faced similar adversity after dropping Game 2 of their first-round series against Miami before ultimately winning the series in 5 games. We’ll see if this matchup follows a similar thread or whether the Cavs can give the Celts more of a sweat.
Regardless, this has the look of a fun little slate. Let’s dive right in.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Saturday, May 11th
Slate Overview
- 2-game slate
- 3:30 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks
- 8:30 PM ET – Boston Celtics at Cleveland Cavaliers
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
This section will be updated as injury news is released throughout the day.
Team Previews
Oklahoma City Thunder (at DAL): The Thunder’s 9-point loss in Thursday’s Game 2 was their first of the postseason. It was also the first time OKC yielded more than 100 points to an opponent since the playoffs got underway. It’ll be interesting to see how the NBA’s youngest team deals with adversity for the first time in a while. The Thunder are healthy, but don’t be surprised if Mark Daigneault makes a tweak to the starting unit. Josh Giddey has been exposed by Dallas in the first 2 games, and he logged just 11 minutes before getting replaced by Aaron Wiggins at halftime the other night. Only about 3 of those minutes came in the 2nd half. We’re currently projecting Giddey to start and play 18 minutes today, but I think there’s a real chance it’ll be Wiggins. Wiggins is far from an elite per-minute producer (0.86 DK FP/min. during the regular season), but he’s also just $3,900 on both DraftKings and FanDuel. I’d stay far away from Giddey today aside from large-field tournaments even if he starts.
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