The 2025 NBA Play-In Tournament continues on Wednesday with a pair of elimination games as the Chicago Bulls host the Miami Heat at 7:30 p.m. ET, followed by the Sacramento Kings hosting the Dallas Mavericks at 10 p.m. ET. All four of these teams have significantly different player pools for daily Fantasy basketball players to create NBA DFS lineups from than they did at the beginning of the 2024-25 NBA season with each squad involved in blockbuster trades this year. That led to these teams having enough success to make the 2025 NBA Play-In Tournament, but in a challenging position to need to win two games to make the 2025 NBA playoffs. What’s the best way to form an NBA DFS strategy with all four teams facing a win-or-go-home scenario on Wednesday?

The NBA DFS Optimizer uses info from the SportsLine Advanced-Data Projection Model to identify top DFS picks for any slate on places like DraftKings and FanDuel. It simulates every game 10,000 times to help DFS players optimize, export, and enter lineups confidently with injury updates, floor and ceiling player projections, and Vegas lines and picks all with one winning tool for sports betting apps. The SportsLine model has returned well over $10,000 for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past six-plus seasons.

Top NBA DFS picks for Wednesday, April 16

Domantas Sabonis ($10,500 on DraftKings, $10,000 on FanDuel)

The Kings power forward was third on Sacramento in scoring at 19.1 points per game while leading in rebounds (13.9 per game) and assists (6.0 per game). Sabonis led the NBA in rebounding for the third straight season and he’s had at least 11 rebounds in 11 of his last 12 games. Sabonis had 10 double-doubles and one triple-double during that span. Even after making acquisitions like Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan since the end of last season, Sabonis remains vital to everything Sacramento does offensively.

Kel’el Ware ($6,200 on DraftKings, $6,100 on FanDuel)

The No. 15 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft averaged 9.3 points and 7.4 rebounds over his rookie season and took on both a larger role and became more productive later in the year. The Miami center averaged 11.6 points and 9.3 rebounds over seven April games with three double-doubles over that span.

Keon Ellis ($5,000 on DraftKings, $5,300 on FanDuel)

The Sacramento guard won’t often be a leading contributor to cashing NBA DFS lineups, but his significant allotment of minutes provides massive opportunities to return value on his price. Ellis averaged 30.7 minutes over seven games in April after averaging 28.2 minutes per game in March as his role has increased since De’Aaron Fox was traded to the Spurs.