Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Thursday, January 22nd

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2026-01-22 23:20:52 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 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 Thursday!

When you have kids, you realize that they are the most important and greatest thing in your life. Little-known fact about having kids: parent stress is so much greater than any other kind of stress in life. As we were getting ready for bed last night, my 10-year-old son was drinking a can of Sprite. He always plays with the soda tab (this is what Google called it), and we always tell him not to because he keeps cutting his fingers on it. Anyway, we were all talking, and all of a sudden, he started to panic and was convinced he swallowed it. We searched everywhere for it and couldn’t find it. We weren’t too worried about it, but apparently, the sharp part of it can do all sorts of damage if swallowed.

We wound up in the emergency room at 10:00 PM on a Wednesday. It took us forever to get called back, but they finally took us to get some X-rays. Turns out, he didn’t swallow the soda tab after all. As I was looking at the X-rays, I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to see. I obviously didn’t want anything to be in there, but I also didn’t want to spend a ton of time and money on something that never even happened. I suppose the way I should look at it is that if we didn’t take him in, we would have been waiting and waiting for this thing to pass. We would have never found it. The stress would have built, and we probably would have eventually gone in for X-rays anyway. Stressful night, but he’s perfectly fine. That’s all that matters.

We are a little tired today, but we will never be a late scratch for the NBA Core Plays. We have 8 games on the schedule tonight, but the sites are rolling out main slates of 5 games (FanDuel) and 6 games (DraftKings). Let’s dive into the breakdowns.

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

Slate Overview

• Main slate size – FanDuel: 5 games, DraftKings: 6 games
  - 7:00 pm ET – Denver Nuggets at Washington Wizards
  - 7:00 pm ET – Charlotte Hornets at Orlando Magic
  - 7:00 pm ET – Houston Rockets at Philadelphia 76ers
  - 7:30 pm ET – Golden State Warriors at Dallas Mavericks
  - 8:00 pm ET – Chicago Bulls at Minnesota Timberwolves
  - 9:00 pm ET – San Antonio Spurs at Utah Jazz
  - 10:00 pm ET – Miami Heat at Portland Trail Blazers (not on main slate)
  - 10:00 pm ET – Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers (not on main slate)
• NBA DFS Optimizer
• NBA Starting Lineups
• NBA Injury Report
• Scroll to FanDuel and DraftKings Rankings & Core Plays

News Updates

1:00 PM ET

We have some early injury updates. Jalen Suggs is out for the Magic. I’m still fine fading Orlando in all formats.

Josh Giddey is now probable for the Bulls. This makes Chicago a lot less appealing as a whole.

Bilal Coulibaly is out for the Wizards. Julian Champagnie could see an uptick in minutes.

Daniel Gafford is doubtful for the Mavericks. I’m still not too interested in Dallas.

Team Previews

Denver Nuggets (at WAS)

We start the slate with the Nuggets, who draw a dream matchup against the Wizards. On the season, Washington is 7th in pace and 29th in points allowed per game. They are also one of the worst rebounding teams. Denver’s team total is 2 points lower than their season average. Christian Braun, Cameron Johnson, and Nikola Jokic are out, while Jonas Valanciunas is questionable.

Jamal Murray has scored at least 50 fantasy points in 4 of his last 8 games and has topped 60 fantasy points in 4 of those outings. His current usage rate is nearly unmatched, and now he draws one of the best possible matchups for fantasy production. Aaron Gordon continues to project well with Jokic out, but he hasn’t shown a high ceiling since returning from injury. I’m tempted to be underweight after seeing his usage rate below 20% in each of the last 2 games. For tournaments, I prefer Peyton Watson, who has shown plenty of upside over the last few weeks. If you are MME’ing the slate, you can certainly include the likes of Tim Hardaway and Bruce Brown in your player pool.

Washington Wizards (vs. DEN)

The Wizards have an above-average matchup against the Nuggets, who are 28th in defensive rating over the last 10 games. Washington’s team total is higher than their season average, and they are only 5.5-point underdogs at home. Trae Young, Cam Whitmore, and Tristan Vukcevic are out, while Marvin Bagley, Khris Middleton, and Bilal Coulibaly are all questionable.

Tre Johnson has a positive RGValue and has been excellent with CJ McCollum (traded) off the floor this season. He’s only $4,500 on DraftKings and projected for 30 minutes at home. Kyshawn George hasn’t been as productive as he was earlier this season, but he’s a nice way to differentiate game stacks. Alex Sarr sees a matchup boost with Jokic out and is coming off a game where he played 30 minutes and scored 45 fantasy points. If Middleton and/or Coulibaly end up being out, even more options will open up for Washington.

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