Christmas Day is one of the most exciting days of the NBA season. With five games on the 2024 NBA Christmas Day slate and some of the top biggest names in the NBA DFS player pool such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Kevin Durant available, there are plenty of different routes to take when forming a Christmas NBA DFS strategy. Some basketball fans consider Christmas the unofficial start to the NBA season with each game having a little more emphasis gearing up toward the postseason. The top stars view playing on Christmas Day as an honor and often have some of their best performances, so is the best way to form NBA DFS lineups by including multiple superstars along with some economical NBA DFS picks?
The Suns vs. Nuggets will be the final game of the Christmas slate as they meet for the second time in the last three days. Nuggets reserve guard Jalen Pickett had 11 points and eight assists over 23 minutes on Monday, so is he that cheaper value you'd want to include to fill NBA DFS lineups? Before making any NBA DFS picks, be sure to check out the NBA DFS advice, player rankings, stacks, and top daily Fantasy basketball picks from SportsLine's Mike McClure.
McClure is a DFS professional with more than $2 million in career winnings. He's also a predictive data engineer at SportsLine who uses a powerful prediction model that simulates every minute of every game 10,000 times, taking factors like matchups, statistical trends and injuries into account. This allows him to find the best NBA DFS values on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel and create optimal lineups that he shares only over at SportsLine. They're a must-see for any NBA DFS player.
On Thursday (when McClure last made NBA DFS picks), McClure highlighted Pistons guard Malik Beasley as an under-the-radar play and one of his top NBA DFS picks from the NBA DFS player pool on both sites. The result: Beasley had 26 points, two rebounds and four assists, returning 40 points on DraftKings and 37.4 points on FanDuel. Anybody who included him in their lineups was well on the way to a profitable day.
McClure has turned his attention to NBA action on Christmas Day and locked in his top daily Fantasy basketball picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.
Top NBA DFS picks for Christmas Day
For Christmas, one of McClure's top NBA DFS picks is Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, who is listed at $8,900 on DraftKings and $8,500 on FanDuel. Curry has been a Christmas Day staple over the majority of his career, and the 10-time All-Star had 18 points against the Nuggets last year on the holiday. The 36-year-old is coming off one of his worst shooting performances of the season, going 2 of 13 (15.4%) from the field and finishing with 10 points on Monday. But in the only other game Curry shot less than 20% from the field in this season, he responded with 31 points and 10 assists in the ensuing contest.
The Warriors play the Lakers on Christmas for the first time this season in another Stephen Curry vs. LeBron James battle between two of the faces of the NBA. Curry averaged 33 points, 4.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists over four games against the Lakers last season. Given his success against Los Angeles and how rarely he puts together back-to-back poor contests, McClure expects a strong bounceback performance for Curry for Christmas NBA DFS lineups.
Another part of McClure's optimal NBA DFS strategy includes rostering Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson ($8,000 on DraftKings and $8,300 on FanDuel). Brunson is averaging 24.6 points and 7.6 assists per game. He struggled on Monday with just 12 points on 4 of 13 shooting, but the game before, the 28-year-old had 39 points and six assists.
Brunson is coming off a career year where he finished fifth in the NBA MVP voting after averaging 28.7 points and 6.7 assists, which were both career highs. The Knicks play the Spurs, who are coming off a 111-106 loss to the 76ers on Monday, and Brunson had a monster performance for 61 points against San Antonio last season. Brunson has at least 25 points in all three matchups against the Spurs while playing for New York. See McClure's other NBA DFS picks right here.
How to set your NBA DFS lineups for Christmas Day
McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Christmas because of a dream matchup. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You can only see who it is here.
Who is DFS pro Mike McClure putting in his optimal NBA DFS lineups for Christmas? Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NBA DFS picks, rankings, advice, and stacks, all from a professional DFS player who has over $2 million in career winnings, and find out.
