Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Sunday, April 26th

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2026-04-26 14:35:19 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 over. 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! Quite a day in the NBA yesterday. The Knicks managed to even their series with a blowout win over the Hawks. The Magic took a 2-1 lead with a fun win over a lackluster Pistons team, while the Thunder dutifully extended their series lead to 3-0 over the Suns. The nightcap was a wild one. Despite losing Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo to injuries, the Wolves still whooped the Nuggets en route to a 3-1 series lead. Ayo Dosunmu went off for 43 points in that one, while Nikola Jokic and Jaden McDaniels caused a benches-clearing kerfuffle in the game’s waning seconds.

We’ll see what Sunday’s 4 games have in store. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Sunday, April 26

Slate Overview

• 4-game main slate
  - 1:00 pm ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors
  - 3:30 pm ET – San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers
  - 7:00 pm ET – Boston Celtics at Philadelphia 76ers
  - 9:30 pm ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Houston Rockets
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

Here’s where I’ll provide news updates.

Team Previews

Cleveland Cavaliers (at TOR)

The Cavs dropped Friday’s Game 3 in Toronto, though they still lead the Raptors 2-1 heading into Game 4 in Canada this afternoon. Cleveland is a 3.5-point favorite on the road this afternoon with a 112 implied team total. The Cavs also have no injuries to report, which gives Kenny Atkinson a full deck with which to play today.

James Harden (1.11 FP/minute) has been productive since he arrived in Cleveland, though his presence has eaten slightly into the usage of Donovan Mitchell (-1.4% with Harden on the floor). While both guards generally have lower ceilings when the Cavs are at full strength, we’ve seen occasional upside from both already in this series. I like them both in GPPs as pay-up-to-be-different types, though neither is a priority.

Max Strus is playing a big role off the bench. He’s logged at least 23 minutes in each of the first 3 games of the series, and he’s still hovering in the $4,000 range on both sites. Strus is risky if he’s chalk considering he’s reliant on his shots falling to hit value, but the cheap price points win out. The rest of the secondary Cavs eat into each other enough to be large-field GPP dart throws at best. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen have both been held in check for most of the series thus far. Mobley does look underpriced at his sub-$8,000 salaries on both sites, so I don’t mind rolling the dice there, especially if the field won’t be on him. Allen is popping on both sites in the $6,000 range. He’s fine, but center is a pretty deep position today.

Toronto Raptors (vs. CLE)

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