The 2025-26 NBA season has arrived, with Opening Night taking place on Tuesday, October 21. There’s a two-game slate that will see Rockets vs. Thunder at 7:30 p.m. ET, followed by Lakers vs. Warriors at 10 p.m. ET. The earlier tip has an over/under of 227.5, while the later is 226. Top NBA DFS picks such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler are ready to tip off the season, while an old face in a new place will make his Rockets debut in Kevin Durant. He’s been a fixture in NBA DFS lineups for years, but with the hefty price tag he’ll command on daily Fantasy basketball sites, are you better off seeing how he performs with his new squad before fitting him under your NBA DFS salary cap?
Rostering big-name players like the above means you’ll have to also find values in the NBA daily Fantasy player pool. With Houston’s Fred VanVleet (ACL) out for the year, the likes of Reed Sheppard or Aaron Holiday could form a productive NBA DFS stack alongside Durant. 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.
New users can also target the DraftKings promo code, which offers $300 in bonus bets if your initial $5 bet wins + 3 months of NBA League Pass:
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.
McClure has turned his attention to NBA action on Tuesday and locked in his top daily Fantasy basketball picks. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.
New users can also target the latest Underdog promo code, which may include a play $5, get $100 offer:
Top NBA DFS picks for Tuesday, October 21
For Tuesday, one of McClure’s top NBA DFS picks is Doncic, who is listed at $11,000 on DraftKings and $11,700 on FanDuel. Doncic will take part in his first NBA Opening Night in a Lakers uniform, and he’ll do so without LeBron James (sciatica) alongside him. If preseason was any indication of what Doncic could do without James available, then Doncic would justify his NBA DFS price tags as he led NBA Preseason in scoring. That came after a dominant run with the Slovenian National Team at EuroBasket this summer as he averaged the most points by any player at the event in over 35 years.
The five-time All-Star is just as productive in NBA games that matter, as his 28.2 points with the Lakers last season were slightly more than what he averaged in Dallas to begin the year. Doncic has to be thrilled that a matchup with the Warriors takes place on NBA Opening Night, considering his best game of the 2024-25 season came versus the Warriors. In a late December game, he had a 45-point triple-double, filling up the box score with 13 assists, 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
New users can see the latest FanDuel promo code to get $300 in bonus bets at FanDuel if your $5 bet wins:
Another part of McClure’s optimal NBA DFS strategy includes rostering Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein ($5,400 on DraftKings and $5,800 on FanDuel), who has a points + rebounds + assists combo line of 23.5. In his first year in OKC, Hartenstein posted career highs across the board. He averaged 11.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.1 blocks while knocking down 58.1% of his field goal attempts. He has some extra motivation to face Houston on Tuesday as the Rockets were his original team before unceremoniously cutting him after two seasons.
It certainly shows that revenge is a motivating factor for Hartenstein as he saved some of his best performances for the Rockets last year. His 16 ppg versus Houston were his most versus any team (min. two games), and the Rockets’ shooting woes allow opposing big men to pile up rebounds. Houston was bottom-10 in both field goal percentage and 3-point percentage a year ago, and while Durant will help solve some of that, there should still be plenty of defensive rebounds to grab for Hartenstein on Tuesday. See McClure’s other NBA DFS picks right here.
How to set your NBA DFS lineups for Tuesday, October 21
McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Tuesday 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 Tuesday? 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.