NBA DFS Picks, Projections, Lineups, Injuries & More Today: Thursday Playbook

Published: Jan 01, 2026

Happy New Year! It's Thursday, January 1st, and we have a four-game NBA DFS main slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. Of course, we don't have the same four games on each slate, as the FanDuel slate starts at 6:00 pm ET with Rockets-Nets and omits the 10:30 Jazz-Clippers game. The DraftKings slate starts at 7:00 pm and does include the Jazz-Clippers game.

The first game of the night on FanDuel is full of injury questions, with big stars listed as questionable on both sides. The injury report is fairly clean outside of that, with the lone exception being the two Jazz stars who are listed as questionable. Let's break it all down!

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, January 1st

Be sure to like and subscribe to the Fantasy Alarm YouTube channel!

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

5:00 PM ET UPDATE

Steven Adams - OUT
Clint Capela - OUT
Tari Eason - AVAILABLE

4:00 PM ET UPDATE

Michael Porter - OUT
- Big news for the FD slate. Danny Wolf is a Core value play.

3:00 PM ET UPDATE

Tobias Harris - OUT
Simone Fontecchio - AVAILABLE
D'Angelo Russell - Questionable (downgrade)
Lauri Markkanen - OUT
Keyonte George - OUT

The Utah stars getting ruled out is a huge deal for the DK slate. Multiple value pieces will show up in Core Plays.

NBA Injuries, News & Updates Today, 1/1

HOU:
Alperen Sengun - Questionable
Tari Eason - Questionable
Steven Adams - Questionable
Clint Capela - Questionable
Fred VanVleet - Out
BKN:
Michael Porter - Questionable
Terance Mann - Questionable
Egor Demin - Out
Haywood Highsmith - Out
MIA:
Simone Fontecchio - Questionable
Pelle Larsson - Out
Tyler Herro - Out
DET:
Tobias Harris - Doubtful
Caris LeVert - Out
PHI:
Joel Embiid - Probable
Kelly Oubre - Out
Trendon Watford - Out
DAL:
Dereck Lively - Out
Kyrie Irving - Out
Dante Exum - Out
BOS:
Jayson Tatum - Out
SAC:
Zach LaVine - Out
Domantas Sabonis - Out
UTA:
Lauri Markkanen - Questionable
Keyonte George - Questionable
Jusuf Nurkic - Out
Ace Bailey - Out
Kevin Love - Out
Georges Niang - Out
Walker Kessler - Out
LAC:
Bogdan Bogdanovic - Out
Ivica Zubac - Out
Bradley Beal - Out

h/t @UnderdogNBA

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.

Don't Miss The NBA DFS Playbook Live Show At 5:00 PM ET

Stacks

{{stack.team.name}}	{{player.name}}
DraftKings	{{player.fantasy.price.value[8]}}-
Fanduel	{{player.fantasy.price.value[6]}}-