NBA DFS, 2025: FanDuel, DraftKings tournament picks, advice for Monday, May 5 from a daily Fantasy pro

The 2025 NBA Playoffs continue on Monday with a pair of conference semifinal series beginning. The Monday action begins with the Knicks vs. Celtics at 7 p.m. ET followed by the Nuggets vs. Thunder at 9:30 p.m. ET. Despite a smaller NBA DFS player pool, there are several high-quality secondary options like Jaylen Brown, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Williams. That is in addition to stars such as Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for daily Fantasy basketball players to consider for NBA DFS picks. Big-name players like that also come with big-time price tags which forces you to pair them with more affordable options. Boston boasts the likes of Jrue Holiday, Payton Pritchard and Al Horford, so should they factor into NBA DFS lineups? 

Before setting your NBA DFS strategy on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel for Monday, May 5, you need to see what Mike McClure has to say.

McClure is a DFS professional with over $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 and create optimal lineups that he shares only at SportsLine. They're a must-see for any NBA DFS player. 

On Thursday (when McClure last made NBA DFS picks), McClure identified Clippers guard James Harden as one of his top NBA DFS picks on both sites. The result: Harden had 28 points, six rebounds and eight assists, returning 53 points on DraftKings and 52.2 points on FanDuel. Anybody who included him in their lineups could have been well on the way to a profitable day!

For Monday, one of McClure's top NBA DFS picks is Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is listed at $9,500 on DraftKings and $10,400 on FanDuel. Another part of McClure's optimal NBA DFS strategy includes Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. ($5,100 on DraftKings and $5,300 on FanDuel). Porter had 15 points and six rebounds in Denver's Game 7 victory on Saturday and he's scored at least 14 points in three of his last four games. Porter was heavily involved in the Game 7 game plan with 11 field-goal attempts, tied for his most over the series, and given it helped Denver pull out a 19-point victory, Monday could feature another strong dosage of Porter. 

McClure is also targeting a player who could go off for massive numbers on Monday! This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You absolutely need to see who it is before locking in any lineups.

What are the top NBA DFS picks for Monday? And which player is a must-roster? ... Join SportsLine now to see DFS pro Mike McClure's top picks, stacks, and player pools for FanDuel and DraftKings, and cash in BIG on NBA DFS!