Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Sunday, December 21st

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2025-12-21 21:41:14 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, international pop icon 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 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.

Yesterday was quite the sports day between the NBA, NHL, College Football Playoff, and the 2-game NFL slate. I was initially wondering why the NFL decided to step on CFB’s toes a little on the first playoff slate of the year, but in the end, I’m glad they did. The college games were a total waste of time, while that Packers-Bears nightcap was fantastic… at the end, at least.

Today, we’re looking at a pretty light day in the NBA streets. There are 6 games in total on the board, though just 4 of them will appear on the DK and FD main slates. They’re both ignoring the early CHI/ATL clash as well as the late-night HOU/SAC showdown. It doesn’t look like we’ll have a ton of news through which to sort, though you never really know what will happen with NBA injury reports.

Onward!

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NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Sunday, December 21st

Slate Overview

• Slate size – 4 games
  - 6:00 pm ET – Toronto Raptors at Brooklyn Nets
  - 6:00 pm ET – Miami Heat at New York Knicks
  - 7:00 pm ET – Milwaukee Bucks at Minnesota Timberwolves
  - 7:00 pm ET – San Antonio Spurs at Washington Wizards
• 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

Toronto Raptors (at BKN)

The Raptors went out and got whacked at home last night by the Celtics despite Boston playing the 2nd half of a back-to-back without Jaylen Brown. Not great! Tonight, they’ll head down to Brooklyn for a tricky matchup against a Nets team playing better basketball of late. Toronto is still a favorite, albeit a small one at -3.5 with a middling 109.5 implied team total. The Raps are still down RJ Barrett, and we’ll see whether Jakob Poeltl suits up after missing 2 straight with a nagging back issue.

Brooklyn plays an aggressive defensive scheme against pick-and-roll ball handlers. They’ll often send doubles, so it’s not the greatest spot on paper for Immanuel Quickley. Quickley has also been in rough form – he shot 1-for-12 yesterday – though his salaries are dipping as a result. I’d probably ignore IQ on a larger slate, but he’s playable in tournaments today. I think the matchup bodes better for Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram, who’ve both gotten nice usage bumps with Barrett out of the lineup. Brooklyn doesn’t really have big-bodied defenders to throw at either of them. Barnes is the best option if you can afford him, though Ingram is coming with lower projected ownership as of this writing.

Centers against the Nets have been productive in recent years, but it’s just hard to get too excited about playing Poeltl if he’s dealing with a sore back. He is cheap at $5,200 on DK and $4,900 on FD, though, so he’d crack my player pool. If he’s out, we’ll once again fire up as much Sandro Mamukelashvili as possible. I think Sandro is still very playable in GPPs even if Poeltl returns, as Poeltl could have some sort of minutes restriction.

Brooklyn Nets (vs. TOR)

The Nets have won 4 of their last 7 games, which is major progress for a team that started the season 1-11. They’re only slight home ‘dogs here against Toronto, though their 106 implied team total is the lowest on the slate. Cam Thomas, Haywood Highsmith, and Drake Powell will all miss this one.

I liked the trade more for Denver over the summer, but the Nets are the clear winners of the Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Jr. swap as of today. MPJ has really taken off since Thomas went down, with his usage spiking to 31.2% alongside a stellar 1.25 DK FP/minute rate. The Raps’ defense has really fallen off, and Porter looks downright underpriced at $8,600 on both sites for his monster role. Nic Claxton is rarely an exciting click at center, but he’s really producing at a high level (1.16 FP/minute) in a legitimate play-making role this season. His matchup improves a bit if Poeltl remains out.

I’d ordinarily ignore the secondary Nets on a larger slate, but we don’t have such luxuries tonight. Noah Clowney (0.86 FP/minute) is generally reliant on his 3-pointers falling. The floor isn’t great, but he currently rates out as a pretty good salary saver at $5,300 on DK and FD. Egor Demin (0.86) and Terance Mann (0.75) have flashed a wide range of outcomes. Mann is easier to justify as a $3,900 SG on DK, while I’d side with Demin at their more comparable salaries on FD. I’m a fan of Danny Wolf (0.97 FP/minute), and I don’t mind embracing the volatility in his role off the bench at his cheap price points on such a small slate. You can even consider punting with Day’Ron Sharpe in non-Claxton lineups in larger-field GPPs.

Miami Heat (at NYK)

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