Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Thursday, December 25th

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-12-25 06:30:51 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. 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.

Happy Thursday and Merry Christmas!

Whether you are reading this on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning, I hope you are enjoying the holidays. I also hope you are ready to crush this 5-game NBA slate. This is one of my favorite slates of the year, as none of the games start at the same time. This allows us to really take advantage of late swap, assuming we can break away from the Christmas festivities for a few minutes before each game.

I make sure to write about this every Thanksgiving and every Christmas. If your lineups get off to a poor start, you should pivot away from the chalk in the later games, even in cash games. You might think your lineups are dead, but all it takes is a chalky player or two to bust, and you are right back in the thick of things.

One of my favorite strategies on these slates is to target a contrarian player or two from the first game. It’s a huge advantage because you’ll know exactly where you are compared to the field heading into the rest of the games. If those contrarian plays hit, you are in tremendous shape the rest of the way and can afford to eat more chalk.

We also have a rare NFL slate on Thursday. In my Christmas Slate Key Personnel, I went through each position and broke down my favorite plays.

Happy Holidays to you and your families. Let’s dive into this 5-game NBA slate.

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NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Thursday, December 25th

Slate Overview

• 5-game main slate
  - 12:00 pm ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks
  - 2:30 pm ET – San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City Thunder
  - 5:00 pm ET – Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors
  - 8:00 pm ET – Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers
  - 10:30 pm ET – Minnesota Timberwolves at Denver Nuggets
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

This section will be updated as injury news is released throughout the day.

Team Previews

Cleveland Cavaliers (at NYK)

We kick off the Christmas slate with the Cavaliers, who have one of the worst matchups on the board. The Knicks are 26th in pace and 7th in points allowed per game. The Cavaliers have a team total that is 4 points lower than their season average. We don’t have their official injury report yet, but we expect them to be without Evan Mobley, Max Strus, and Larry Nance.

Darius Garland is coming off a poor outing against the Hornets, but he has scored at least 45 fantasy points in 3 of his last 5 games. Ownership should be criminally low against the Knicks, which makes him an interesting large-field tournament target. Donovan Mitchell is more matchup-proof than most of his teammates. The game environment is far from ideal, but it shouldn’t surprise us if he puts up a big game in Madison Square Garden. Sam Merrill has played at least 25 minutes in 5 straight games and had 44 fantasy points on Tuesday night. At his price point, he’s a decent lineup filler for tournaments.

Jaylon Tyson has played well this season, but I’m not sure he’ll be efficient on the road in a difficult matchup. I feel similarly about De’Andre Hunter and Lonzo Ball. While not an exciting play, Jarrett Allen has averaged 34 fantasy points with Mobley out of the lineup over the last 2 seasons. He could see a few extra minutes given his matchup against Karl-Anthony Towns.

New York Knicks (vs. CLE)

The Knicks have a nice matchup against the Cavaliers, who are 6th in pace and below the league average in rebounding rate, points allowed per game, and defensive rating. The Knicks are 6-point favorites and have a team total that is 2 points higher than their season average. We have a lot of injuries to monitor here, as Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, and Guerschon Yabusele all missed Tuesday’s game.

It sounds like Brunson was given Tuesday off to rest, so we can expect him back in the lineup on Christmas. I like the matchup against the Knicks and will point out that he has scored at least 42 fantasy points in 9 straight games. If Anunoby is out again, we can give small boosts to Tyler Kolek, Jordan Clarkson, and Mikal Bridges. We’ve seen a couple of ceiling games from Kolek recently, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on the availability of Anunoby and McBride.

Josh Hart has been a steady producer this season and should benefit from a pace-up matchup at home against the Knicks. At low ownership, he makes for a strong tournament play. Karl-Anthony Towns is coming off one of his best games of the season, but it was without Brunson. If he’s going to be popular, I am fine being underweight, given how volatile he has been all season. Mitchell Robinson stands out as a sneaky value play for tournaments. He has scored at least 27 fantasy points in 3 of the last 4 games.

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