Core Plays LIVE: NBA DFS Picks for Monday, May 13th
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 Monday!
I hope everyone had a great weekend and spent some quality time with the mothers in their lives. And if you are a mother, I hope you enjoyed a well-deserved day off from parenting and all responsibilities.
We’ve seen a lot of crazy things in sports over the years, but I can’t remember another series as surprising as the Wolves and Nuggets. Minnesota did seemingly the impossible by stealing the first 2 games on the road against the defending champs. My Twitter timeline was full of people victory-lapping their Wolves series bets. After everyone counted them out, the Nuggets went on the road and stole the next 2 games in Minnesota. It’s not surprising that the series is tied, but we certainly took a unique path to get here. The Knicks and Pacers series has been more conventional, as the home team has won each of the first 4 games.
Before we get into tonight’s slate, I must rant a bit. My son goes to a charter school, so none of his close friends live in our neighborhood. However, there are two brothers who live somewhere by us who have recently been lurking in the shadows, waiting for us to get home. They have no concept of boundaries. If I answer the door, they will immediately walk into our house and start going through our stuff. Even when my son isn’t home, they walk right past me, putting their grubby little fingers on everything in sight. My brain does not comprehend these little hellions. Yesterday they walked in, opened my fridge, grabbed drinks (Capri Suns for the win, btw), and then went to the pantry for snacks. Keep in mind, these are not friends of his. We don’t even know their names. It often takes a different perspective to realize how good you have it. My son is an absolute angel compared to these gremlins.
On that note, let’s dive into tonight’s 2-game slate.
NBA DFS Top Picks: Core Plays LIVE for Monday, May 13th
Slate Overview
- 2-game slate
- 7:00 PM ET – Boston Celtics at Cleveland Cavaliers
- 9:30 PM ET – Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks
- 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
Boston Celtics (at CLE): The Celtics have been dominant in every non-Game 2 so far in the playoffs. We’ll have to keep that in mind if they advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. After losing Game 2 at home, they immediately stole back home-court advantage with a win on the road in Game 3. Say what you want about their opponents so far, but the Celtics have the highest net rating of any team in the playoffs, and it’s not even close. They’ll look to take a commanding 3-1 lead with a win tonight in Cleveland. The Celtics are listed as 8-point favorites and have the 2nd-highest team total on the slate. On the injury front, Kristaps Porzingis is still out.
There’s always context to keep in mind with these statistics, but here’s how the five starters have fared so far in this series:
- Jrue Holiday: 36 minutes, 27 fantasy points, 14% usage
- Derrick White: 33 minutes, 29 fantasy points, 20% usage
- Jaylen Brown: 35 minutes, 39 fantasy points, 27% usage
- Jayson Tatum: 38 minutes, 51 fantasy points, 32% usage
- Al Horford: 32 minutes, 19 fantasy points, 12% usage
Holiday is one of those players who I’ll never force into lineups, but I’m fine using him as the last piece of the puzzle. White is more intriguing to me, as he’s seen a usage boost in this series and has flashed more upside than Holiday all season. We saw White reach upwards of 40 minutes in the first round, so I’m surprised his minutes have been down a bit in this series. Brown continues to play well and continues to get overlooked in DFS. I’m part of the problem, as I like him in the early stages of the day but never seem to end up with him in my lineups.
Tatum has had a massive usage rate in the first 3 games of the series and is right there with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic as the top spends on the slate. I was high on Horford heading into the series, but he hasn’t cracked 30 fantasy points in a month and a half. Payton Pritchard is the only bench player on Boston having a good series so far. He’s a reasonable value play, as he should push for 20+ minutes.
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