Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Tuesday, October 21st
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.
And just like that, the NBA is back! No matter how many years I’ve been doing this, I’m always surprised by the start time of the NBA season. It seems to happen earlier and earlier. This is one of the best times of the year for sports fans and DFS players. We have the NFL, NBA, MLB, PGA TOUR, College Football, and NHL all going on at the same time.
Life looks a lot different for yours truly these days. Much like the rookies set to lace it up for the first time, our daughter made her family debut in May. Time has absolutely flown by since, as she’s nearing the 5-month-old mark. I’m biased, but she’s the cutest and sweetest baby in existence. Thank god she looks like her mom. Having a child is a crazy experience because once they are here, you can’t remember life without them. There are fewer nights out and much earlier bedtimes, but life is great.
I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to share about Murphy (shout-out to Interstellar) over the course of the season. My goal with this article is to be informative but to keep it light at the same time. I don’t want you to spend time reading this article only for half of that information to be irrelevant by the time lineup lock rolls around. So much of NBA DFS revolves around being able to react and adjust to injury news. I’ll start with team previews and the player rankings tables during the first part of the day, and then I’ll update the “News Updates” section throughout the day as needed.
First Core Plays article of the season…let’s get to it!
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NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Tuesday, October 21st
Slate Overview
- 2-game main slate
- 5:30 PM ET – Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder
- 8:00 PM ET – Golden State Warriors at Los Angeles Lakers - 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.
Team Previews
Houston Rockets (at OKC)
The Rockets finished last season with the 2nd-best record in the Western Conference (52-30). Unfortunately, they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Warriors. After adding Kevin Durant and Clint Capela in the offseason, expectations are even higher in Houston this season. Their win total is set at 53.5, which is one of the highest marks in the league. They open their season as 7.5-point underdogs against the defending champs.
With Fred VanVleet out, the Rockets are going with their big starting lineup in the opener. This hurts the appeal of Reed Sheppard and veteran Aaron Holiday. Amen Thompson is coming off of a career season and had spectacular per-minute numbers in the preseason (1.24 DK / 1.27 FD). He’ll start at point guard and projects as the best RGValue on the Rockets. Kevin Durant is still dominating opponents on the court and trolls on Twitter. He’ll likely lead the team in usage. Despite being 37 years old, playing time shouldn’t be an issue. He averaged 36.5 minutes per game with the Suns last season.
Jabari Smith tends to be volatile in DFS because he relies so heavily on the 3-point line. This volatility typically leads to lower ownership, and it also gives him a high ceiling at his price point. Tari Eason will likely come off the bench to start the season, but he’s a tremendous per-minute producer with a decent minute projection (28) on opening night. He didn’t see any action in the preseason, but it doesn’t sound like it was injury-related. Alperen Sengun filled up the stat sheet last season and averaged a ridiculous 1.88 DK / 1.94 FD points per minute in the preseason. Steven Adams will start alongside Sengun and makes for a nice value play in all formats.
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About the Author

Derek Farnsworth (aka Notorious) is a lead RotoGrinders Expert and one of the most recognizable names and faces in all of DFS. Before joining the RotoGrinders team, Derek received a Master’s Degree from the University of Utah. When he’s not busy providing content, he’s dominating the DFS industry as evidenced by his consistent top rankings in several sports and multiple Live Final appearances. Noto provides expert NBA, NFL, MLB, and PGA analysis for RotoGrinders Premium members on a daily basis and has also been nominated for five different Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association (FSWA) awards. Follow Noto on X – @RG_Notorious