NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today: Celtic Pride! (April 25)

Friday brings a fourth consecutive day with a trio of playoff tilts. Everything tips off at 7:00 p.m. ET lock time on FanDuel and DraftKings. Let’s get into the top NBA DFS picks and building blocks: Jaylen Brown. Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Kristaps Porzingis may be the Celtic core four if Jrue Holiday (hamstring) joins Jayson Tatum on the sidelines. The dynamic duo for the Lakers is going to be prominent once more, while Anthony Edwards needs to kick it up a notch and get help from more than just one of his teammates. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the foundational play in all formats, with plenty of options from the Bucks and Pacers, varying by site.

These picks are based on the latest available data. For real-time lineup updates, check out our NBA DFS Starting Lineups Page.

NBA DFS Picks Today – Building Blocks: Friday, April 25

NBA DFS Picks Today: Building Blocks

Austin Reaves actually led the team with 43 minutes, while LeBron James played one for every year he has walked the earth. Los Angeles is only going to go as far as Doncic and James can carry them, with occasional contributions from Reaves. He defers to his elders, though he has the green light to help open up the floor from long range. On Tuesday, Reaves missed all six of his 3-pointers, but expect him to be back at it tonight.

Rui Hachimura logged a hefty 34 minutes, doing battle with the Minnesota frontcourt. Being on the floor is half the battle in the playoffs, and Hachimura is expendable against Rudy Gobert, focusing on rebounds and interior defense. Starting center Jaxon Hayes had four short rotations, one in each quarter, starting the first, third and fourth before giving way each time to Dorian Finney-Smith. This led to Finney-Smith getting nearly 39 minutes off the bench, though his main calling card is defense and a corner 3 every now and then.

Gabe Vincent is the last player worth a mention, getting nearly 20 minutes off the bench as the team tried different looks on Anthony Edwards.

Edwards had 25 points and six rebounds but no assists, steals or blocks and two turnovers. Julius Randle put in 27 points against the team that drafted him, though no other Timberwolves reached double digits in the scoring column.

Naz Reid had 9 points off the bench, but the rest of the reserves had only 10 combined points in 53 minutes. Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Reid are all viable as tournament differentiation plays, and everyone knows the role players tend to do better at home. There are actually numbers to back this up, though it is not as impressive as the announcers tend to make it out to be with the constant references of “sleeping in their own bed” over and over again.

Gobert is pretty much an afterthought at around 10% to 12% on FanDuel and half of that tournament representation on DraftKings. Jaden McDaniels is the opposite, with the former University of Washington stalwart cresting over 30% on FanDuel ($5,600) and 22% on DraftKings ($5,300).

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Payton Pritchard, fresh of winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award, will likely move into the starting lineup if Holiday is out. He played 33 minutes in the last game, so it is hard to go up from there, but still possible. This is a situation where you need to understand the salaries, positional requirements and scoring systems for your preferred DFS site of choice. On DraftKings ($5,600, 6.1%), Pritchard is not particularly appealing, barely becoming a neutral play if he starts. On FanDuel ($4,800, 43.4%) it is wildly different, where Pritchard is a terrific choice, even though he only has point guard eligibility.

Derrick White is a strong play again, regardless of what Holiday’s status is, but if Holiday is out, The Masses will be pushing the popularity of this duo to the moon. White gets more offensive opportunities when Tatum is out, and he already has seen a bump from his regular season role with the rotation tightening up.

Jaylen Brown is dealing with knee soreness, but he did perform well in Game 2 without Tatum. In 42 minutes, the four-time All-Star crushed it with 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and a steal. He will continue to be the primary scoring threat, though White, Pritchard and Kristaps Porzingis are pretty solid as well. Porzingis rallied from a knock on his noggin that required stitches for him to return to the game, closing out with a 20-10 stat line, accompanied by four “stocks” (combined steals and blocks).

If Holiday is out, the head coach Joe Mazzulla could elect to keep Pritchard in his role and give a nominal start to Sam Hauser, or Torrey Craig could potentially be dusted off, with White being the lead facilitator while Pritchard is off the court. This wrinkle isn’t dreadful for Pritchard, who, as mentioned above, projects to play 32 to 35 minutes already. Tune into the Stokastic NBA Live Before Lock Show at 6:00 p.m. ET on YouTube for all of the up-to-date analysis and DFS strategies.

Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are basically the only two trustworthy Orlando options. Wendell Carter Jr. is center only on FanDuel, which comes with the opportunity cost of not being able to roster Myles Turner, Rudy Gobert and Brook Lopez. That is not the end of the world, particularly since Nikola Jokic and Ivica Zubac are not in the player pool.

For those crafting 50-plus lineups, it is fine to have a sprinkling of guards Corey Joseph, Cole Anthony and Anthony Black as differentiation plays, but it is important to note that veteran Gary Harris saw 14 and 13 minutes of action in the first two games of the series, with Caleb Houston getting a tick less. It was fun in the Play-In Tournament game against Atlanta when Anthony and Black popped off for terrific DFS performances, but they are not playing the Hawks tonight.

In the early run of the Stokastic Boom/Bust Tool, Damian Lillard is the most positively leveraged play on the main DFS sites. This means he is underrepresented in tournaments when compared to his realistically attainable upside. The main difference between the model and the eye test is that the diminutive scorer clearly looked winded in the second half of the last game. This makes sense, as he was out for a month with a blood clot issue that also impacted his exercise regimen. He is a world-class athlete, but is 72 hours’ time for much improvement? That is the question each will need to answer for themselves, at least prior to tip off.

Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to be amazing, and he is likely to be on half of all tournament rosters on the major DFS sites, despite carrying a mid-$11,000 cap hit. Bobby Portis Jr. is off the radar on the blue site ($6,500, 17.6%), where his lack of defensive states lowers his scoring potential. DraftKings ($5,100, 68.7%) is an entirely different story, as he is $1,400 cheaper and the 3-point bonus plus a potential double-double bonus add to his appeal.

Gary Trent Jr. and Kyle Kuzma are tertiary targets, with Brook Lopez and Kevin Porter Jr. being differentiation plays for those crafting upwards of 50 lineups.

Aaron Nesmith has the most cross-site appeal for Indiana, with Tyrese Haliburton the next most popular Pacer. Pascal Siakam gets the nod on DraftKings, along with Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell for players worthy of a sprinkle. On FanDuel that crew evolves to Obi Toppin and Bennedict Mathurin, who are salary savers, with Turner being one of many centers who has a decent fantasy point-per-dollar ratio.

Today’s Top Sports Betting Picks

If you’re serious about winning in NBA DFS, you know the edge comes from having the right tools. The same principle applies to sports betting — and that’s where Portfolio EV steps in.

Take Anthony Edwards over 4.5 assists tonight for example. It’s a +EV bet, meaning it has positive expected value when compared to the best odds available across the market. But the real strength of Portfolio EV isn’t about finding just one good bet — it’s about consistently finding dozens. With the Mass Entry tool, you can scale up, place a high volume of +EV bets, and let the math do the heavy lifting.

Just like you wouldn’t count on one DFS lineup to ship a GPP, you don’t count on one bet to carry your night.

Portfolio EV is built for long-term profitability. It helps you spot market inefficiencies, compare lines across books and generate a steady stream of +EV bets. It doesn’t chase heaters, but rather trusts the numbers, follows a process and builds sustainable profit over time.

The main concern is that Edwards does not have a lot consistent help from his teammates, leading him to carry the offensive load, while Mike Conley is the lead facilitator. Additionally, the deliberate offensive pace for each team, as well as good defense being play, limits the overall assist opportunities. In Game 1 Edwards handed out nine helpers; in the second game he had no assists. That is an outlier since it was the first time in three seasons, including playoffs, where he did hot dish a dime. The truth is somewhere in the middle, hence the 4.5 target in the wagering markets.

Final Thoughts on NBA DFS Picks & Building Blocks Today

Tune into the Stokastic NBA Live Before Lock Show at 6:00 p.m. ET on YouTube for expert analysis, key insights and winning strategies to dominate tonight’s NBA DFS slate!