Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Sunday, March 22nd

by Taylor Smith (tcsmith031) Last Updated 2026-03-22 19:17:46 Premium Content Part of the product NBA DFS

A daily fantasy sports OG, Notorious has been rotaming 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.

Hello! We’ve got another hoop-heavy day on tap. The round-of-32 of the NCAA Tournament rolls on, and we’ve also got a handful of NBA games on the docket. Sadly, my little TCU Horned Frogs failed to shock the world yesterday. Amazingly, Duke went an entire game without committing a single foul! Though, admittedly, I have to question the Frogs’ plan to miss all of their field goal attempts after halftime.

The sites decided to do things differently today. FanDuel’s main slate is a 4-gamer tipping off at 6 PM ET, while DK’s main slate only includes the 3 games starting at 7:30 PM ET or later. The one extra FD game happens to be a tank-off between the Nets and Kings, who are only separated by a half-game near the bottom of the standings. Should be a wondrous display of professional basketball in California’s capital this evening.

Off we go!

NBA DFS Top Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel: Core Plays LIVE for Sunday, March 22nd

Slate Overview

• Slate size: FanDuel – 4 games; DraftKings – 3 games
  - 6:00 pm ET – Brooklyn Nets at Sacramento Kings
  - 7:30 pm ET – Washington Wizards at New York Knicks
  - 8:00 pm ET – Minnesota Timberwolves at Boston Celtics
  - 9:00 pm ET – Toronto Raptors at Phoenix Suns
• 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

Brooklyn Nets (at SAC)

As mentioned, both of these teams have an incentive to lose this one. The Nets are a half-game “ahead” of the Kings in the race for the NBA’s worst record. Brooklyn has lost 6 straight, while Sacramento has dropped back-to-back games. The Nets are 6.5-point road underdogs today as they play without Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton, Noah Clowney, Day’Ron Sharpe, and Egor Demin.

Most of Brooklyn’s NBA-caliber players are out, so this will get ugly. Even without them, Jordi Fernandez has 13 players at his disposal, so this isn’t a Grizzlies-esque 8-man situation at all. Still, nobody is more expensive than the $5,700 Danny Wolf, and everybody else is under $5,000. Another issue is nobody is all that likely to top 24 minutes. Wolf is averaging a stellar 1.27 FP/minute without MPJ, Claxton, Clowney, Sharpe, Demin, and Cam Thomas off the floor, so he’s a solid mid-range play against this lackluster Kings frontcourt.

Otherwise, we’re shopping in the bargain aisle. Josh Minott, Nolan Traore, and Chaney Johnson (???) have all shown occasional upside lately. The best point-per-dollar value in our projections is the $3,700 Ochai Agbaji. He’s far from an efficient per-minute player, but a $3,700 SG on a small slate is viable. While several Nets are viable individually, I’d likely cap my exposure to this team at a maximum of 2 in GPPs.

Sacramento Kings (vs. BKN)

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