Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season and for those who celebrate Christmas, I hope you get everything you want and win some DFS tournaments. We have a 5-game NBA DFS main slate on DraftKings and FanDuel on Christmas Day!

The Christmas Day slate is the most watched day of the year for the NBA, so it's a star-studded event. Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Victor Wembanyama are all slated to take the floor. We do have a pretty long list of injuries that we're going to have to sift through before fully confirming our lineups.

Before actually diving into the meat and potatoes, welcome to the NBA DFS season. If this is your first time reading our column on NBA DFS picks, I just want to welcome you and give you a few tips and tricks on what you should be looking for each night.

  • News outlets: reliable sources that give us injury news & starting lineups
  • Pace of play: who's playing fast vs. who's playing slow. Which teams get a pace-up spot (more possessions) vs. pace-down (fewer possessions)
  • Usage rates: is a percentage of how many plays that player is being used in
  • NBA DFS Projections
  • Lineup Generator
  • NBA Ownership

NBA DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, December 25th

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Pre/Post-Lock Update Section

This section will be used for anything that changes from the morning until right up to roster lock. 

Injury updates, players we’re higher on than we were in the morning and so much more.

All status updates after contest roster lock will be made in the Fantasy Alarm Discord: https://discord.gg/2yATJxXe8G

News updates that came out throughout the day:

Nuggets:

  • Cameron Johnson is OUT
  • Both Tim Hardaway & Bruce Brown closed against the Mavericks after Johnson sustained his knee injury.
  • I suspect one of them start, but both approach and possibly surpass 30 minutes. Both are great (and likely chalky) value options.
  • Spencer Jones is a pivot. He has an incredibly low floor, but is starting and if he makes shots he be extended here.
  • It's possible, like they did against Dallas, we see some overlap between Nikola Jokic & Jonas Valanciunas. JoVal is in play in large-field GPPs.
  • Peyton Watson gets a decent bump too. Was in foul trouble last game and that limited his playing time.

Lakers:

  • Luka Doncic is officially listed QUEST but is expected to play
  • Rui Hachimura is PROB & Jaxson Hayes is QUEST
  • It's really difficult to want to play anything Lakers, but you can play them all in tournaments

Rockets:

Warriors:

Timberwolves:

  • Jaden McDaniels is QUEST
  • Started Mike Conley last game & he played 30 mins (and closed), but only in play if McDaniels sits
  • Bones Hyland also played 25 minutes off the bench. GPP option if McDaniels sits.

Cavaliers:

  • Evan Mobley was upgraded to QUEST
  • Throws a wrench in most things CLE. Expect Mobley to be heavily limited, but he cuts into everyone.
  • With a fully healthy team (mostly), it would be hard for me to play anything but the main guys (Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Sam Merrill)

Mavericks:

NBA Injuries, News & Updates Today, 12/25

 

 

NBA DFS Slate & Game Overviews

In the section below, I’m listing the most notable things we need to look at in Las Vegas, including notable O/U and spreads. Not every game is listed, but every game listed has the pace and defensive numbers listed.

 

 

NBA DFS Core Player Pool & Lineup Picks

Here are the core players I’m looking at for my NBA DFS picks tonight. You can see the full analysis of tonight’s NBA DFS projections and player pool below or skip ahead to building the best lineups possible by locking these into the aforementioned lineup generator now.

High

Mid

Value

Stacks

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