The NBA is back. Oh, louder for the people in the back? THE NBA IS BACK! That’s right, the 2024-2025 regular season is upon us as it returns with a two-game slate on Tuesday, October 22nd. 

The new-look New York Knicks travel to the Boston Celtics as the Celtics reveal their championship banner while the Minnesota Timberwolves are taking on the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

 

 

Two-game slates are always interesting for NBA DFS picks because everyone’s on the same players and it’s much harder to differentiate than a regular-sized slate. If you’re new to NBA DFS, you’re looking for a baseline of 5x return on a player's salary, but on smaller slates, you’re looking for raw points. 

How someone accrues raw fantasy points is by playing minutes, which is always a concern earlier in the year. We don’t have to worry too much about minutes with most of these teams after seeing them fully ramp up in the preseason and Tom Thibodeau, coach of the Knicks, exists in the world. 

We don’t have much injury news we’re looking at and waiting on as it’s mostly role players that have already been ruled out. Let's dive into our top NBA DFS Picks for opening night.

NBA DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, October 22nd

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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 (less possessions)
  • Usage rates: is a percentage of how many plays that player is being used in
  • NBA DFS Projections
  • Lineup Generator
  • NBA Ownership

 

 

 

NBA Pre-Lock Update 

After seeing some ownership reports come in, a lot of what I thought would happen did. The Knicks are popular, and so are the Celtics. I LOVE the Timberwolves today, who are in the biggest pace-up spot of the day.

My most exposed team today: Minnesota Timberwolves

My least exposed team today: Boston Celtics

NBA Injuries, News & Updates Today, 10/22

Precious Achiuwa, New York Knicks

Right before the season began, Precious Achiuwa hurt his hamstring and will be re-evaluated in 2-4 weeks. That opens the door for Jericho Sims to be the primary backup big.

Jarred Vanderbilt, Los Angeles Lakers

Despite initial reports that Jarred Vanderbilt will be back for Opening night, that is not the case. We won’t know anything on the Vanderbilt front for another two weeks. We should see Rui Hachimura extended, and the likes of Dalton Knecht and Max Christie extended off the bench as well.

*Don't forget to check out our NBA DFS lineup tools, as well as our friends at Underdog for the latest breaking news on tonight’s starting lineups.

 

 

 

NBA DFS Slate & Game Overviews

The color-coded numbers next to each team represent where they ranked in pace last year. The higher the number, the slower they played.

New York Knicks (30th) vs. Boston Celtics (19th)

  • Total: 223.5
  • Spread: BOS -5.5

Minnesota Timberwolves (23rd) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (4th)

  • Total: 219 O/U
  • Spread: MIN -1.5

 

 

 

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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