Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Thursday, May 9th
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, and Noto will mix it up in all different types of contests. 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 NBA DFS picks, 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!
We decided not to roll out the Core Plays article since there was only 1 game on Wednesday, but we are back at it for tonight’s 2-game slate. The Knicks picked up a huge win in Madison Square Garden last night but didn’t come out of the game unscathed. Jalen Brunson is dealing with a foot injury (was able to return), and OG Anunoby is dealing with a hamstring injury (was unable to return). The Pacers have to feel like they let the first 2 games slip through their fingers, but they now get to face the Knicks at home over the next 2 games. We’ve been good NBA fans this season — we deserve a Game 7 between these two teams.
It will be interesting to see if the Cavaliers and Mavericks can put up a better fight in their respective Game 2s, as they both lost by 20+ points on Tuesday night. Let’s dive into the team previews.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Thursday, May 9th
Slate Overview
- 2-game slate
- 7:00 PM ET – Cleveland Cavaliers at Boston Celtics
- 9:30 PM ET – Dallas Mavericks at Oklahoma City Thunder
- NBA DFS Injury Report: The Situation Room
- 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 BOS): We start tonight’s slate with the Cavaliers, who lost by 25 points in the series opener. The scary part is that they held the Celtics to 48% from the field and only committed 5 turnovers. You would think that would be a recipe for success, but that wasn’t the case the other night. They are certainly outmatched in this series but are hoping to have Jarrett Allen back soon (he’s questionable once again). The Cavaliers come into Game 2 as 13.5-point underdogs with a team total of only 99.5 points. If they are going to have any chance of stealing this game on the road, they will need to be much more efficient on the offensive end of the floor.
Donovan Mitchell continues to have insane shot volume. In the last 3 games, he has taken 36, 27, and 25 shots, respectively. During that stretch, he has averaged 58 fantasy points. While the potential blowout is a concern, he certainly has the upside that we are looking for in tournaments. It’s worth noting that he only logged 37 minutes in Game 1 because it was well out of reach in the 4th quarter. Darius Garland has seen a 4% decrease in his usage rate in the playoffs and has been held under 31 fantasy points in 6 of the last 8 games. The only positive is that his price has come down on all sites. Isaac Okoro will draw another spot start if Allen is ruled out and is an easy fade if Allen is active.
Max Strus is always a difficult player to trust in DFS because he relies on 3-pointers for a large portion of his fantasy production. He struggled mightily in Game 1 and has now been held under 10 fantasy points in 2 of his last 6 games. Given the low floor, he’s best suited as a tournament play. Evan Mobley had a solid double-double (17 points, 13 rebounds) in Game 1 but is priced up on both sites. If paying a premium for someone on Cleveland, I would rather take a chance on Mitchell. We’ll have to wait and see if Allen can suit up. It sounds like he hasn’t been able to do much in practice or sleep well due to his rib injury.
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