Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Sunday, April 12th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2026-04-12 17:03:44 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 Sunday! If you’ve been reading Core Plays LIVE all season, thanks for following along. If you haven’t, uh, thanks for reading this one? We have reached the final day of the 2025-2026 NBA regular season, and what a ride it’s been. All 30 teams are in action again today, There is still a lot on the line for several teams tonight, and the vast majority of games are intra-conference clashes. The lone exception? A Bulls/Mavs clash in Dallas that means absolutely zilch to either team.

The first set of games tips off at 6:00 PM ET. These are all Eastern Conference affairs. The second set gets underway at 8:30 PM ET. Those are the Western Conference games (with the aforementioned CHI/DAL exception). Fortunately, DraftKings and FanDuel decided to just make the first set of games their main slates for tonight, so that’s what we’ll be breaking down today.

Without further delay, let’s dive in.

NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Sunday, April 12th

Slate Overview

• 7-game main slate
  - 6:00 pm ET – Washington Wizards at Cleveland Cavaliers
  - 6:00 pm ET – Atlanta Hawks at Miami Heat
  - 6:00 pm ET – Charlotte Hornets at New York Knicks
  - 6:00 pm ET – Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics
  - 6:00 pm ET – Milwaukee Bucks at Philadelphia 76ers
  - 6:00 pm ET – Brooklyn Nets at Toronto Raptors
  - 6:00 pm ET – Detroit Pistons at Indiana Pacers
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

Here is where I’ll provide news updates.

Team Previews

Washington Wizards (at CLE)

For better or worse – probably worse – we’ll start with the Wizards. Washington has already assured itself one of the NBA’s 3 worst records, which matters for lottery purposes. This game is also meaningless to the Cavs, who will finish 4th in the East. Washington is still a 10.5-point underdog on the road today. All of Anthony Davis, Trae Young, Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George, Tre Johnson, Tristan Vukcevic, and Cam Whitmore are out. Anthony Gill is Q.

If Gill plays, the Wiz will have 9 active bodies for this one. Since March 1st, the most productive Wizards on a fantasy-points-per-minute basis are Justin Champagnie (1.08 DK), Sharife Cooper (1.05), and Julian Reese (1.00). Reese has been in particularly impressive form recently, and he’s logged at least 36 minutes in 4 straight and 5 of the last 6. He’s expensive enough ($6,500 DK, $7,000 FD) to rate out neutrally in projections, but I still like his chances of exceeding salary-based value, especially if Gill winds up missing this one. I’m not super interested in Champagnie, who’s been held to 20 minutes or fewer in 3 of the last 4 games.

Cooper and Carlton Carrington will handle the point guard duties. Cooper is the better value on DK where he’s $1,500 cheaper than Bub, but they’re only separated by $400 on FD. Will Riley, Leaky Black, and Jamir Watkins are playable options on the wing. I think Riley is a strong play on FanDuel at $6,300, while I’m okay with Watkins at $5,300 on DK. I wouldn’t consider any Washington players to be musts, though they’ll project better overall if Gill is out. That would leave the Wiz with the minimum of 8 available bodies.

Cleveland Cavaliers (vs. WAS)

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