Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Sunday, April 21st
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 over. 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.
All 4 home teams held serve in Saturday’s playoff action, so we’ll see if any of the road teams have a little more juice when the remaining 4 series tip off on Sunday. The games will start one after the other again today, which makes for an optimal viewing experience with no overlap, of course. The action will get underway bright and early at 1 PM ET.
This should be another fun day, so let’s dive in.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Sunday, April 21st
Slate Overview
- 4-game slate
- 1:00 PM ET – Miami Heat at Boston Celtics
- 3:30 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at LA Clippers
- 7:00 PM ET – Indiana Pacers at Milwaukee Bucks
- 9:30 PM ET – New Orleans Pelicans at Oklahoma City Thunder
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays
News Updates
News updates will be posted here.
Team Previews
Miami Heat (at BOS): The Heat obliterated the poor, poor Bulls on Friday night, which means we’ll get a Miami-Boston playoff series for the 3rd year in a row. Miami will be a major underdog this time around, as Jimmy Butler is likely to miss the entire series with an MCL injury. Duncan Robinson is questionable for Game 1, while Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson remain out. This is a brutal spot for an undermanned team, but Bam Adebayo (+1.6%) and Tyler Herro (+1.1%) will see elevated usage, while Butler’s absence opens up more minutes for Jaime Jaquez. Jaquez looks like one of the better mid-range values on the board, though Adebayo and Herro are priced efficiently around the industry. I’m not all that enthralled by guys like Haywood Highsmith and Nikola Jovic despite elevated minutes, but Caleb Martin could be viable. Kevin Love may not play more than 12 minutes, but he’s cheap and still producing at an elite clip (1.29 FP/minute with Butler and Rozier off).
Boston Celtics (vs. MIA): The Celtics really have no excuses not to escape the Eastern Conference this season, but we’ll see how they manage to wilt this time around. They’ll be massive favorites in this series over the Heat, and Luke Kornet is the only player missing from Boston’s lineup for Game 1. When everybody’s in, it’s hard to feel great about the fantasy prospects of anyone beyond Jayson Tatum, really. Tatum should have an easier path to success here with Butler missing from the Heat’s lineup, and you can argue he’s a little cheap for a guy who contributed 1.35 FP/minute during the regular season. I’m not in love with this spot for Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, or Jrue Holiday, but all 4 are certainly in play as random GPP differentiators if you’re entering multiple lineups.
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