Indiana Pacers at Brooklyn Nets: Betting Preview
The 1-4 Indiana Pacers head to Brooklyn to face the Nets on Friday night. This season hasn’t started off well for either team, but the Pacers have lost two in a row.
Although their offense has performed well, they’ve been allowing tons of points. If they want to get a strike in the win column against the Nets, they’ll need to tighten up on defense.
The Brooklyn Nets were expected to have a fast start to their season. With a superstar lineup featuring Kevin Durant and James Harden, they should’ve been.
Instead, they’re off to a 2-3 start and have lost to the Wizards and Hornets. It’s safe to say that the Nets aren’t currently living up to their NBA expectations. Can they bounce back at home on Friday night?
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The Pacers have been a nightmare when playing on the road
Although their 1-4 record is bad enough, the 0-3 on the road is even worse. If you were searching for a reason not to take the Pacers at the sportsbook, this is it.
Malcolm Brogdon is doing his best to keep the team afloat, but it isn’t enough. The two-game skid the Pacers are on has left fans in doubt of their potential.
Obviously, playing the Nets is going to be a big challenge. Even if Brooklyn hasn’t performed well this season, they still have two of the best players in the NBA.
If the Pacers want to win this one on the road, an elite defensive performance will be necessary. Unfortunately, defense isn’t something they’ve been great at, allowing an average of 117.20 points per game.
The Nets look to even out their record to 3-3.
Although the start hasn’t been great for the Brooklyn Nets, they can bounce back. They’ve got a team full of winners, and they can’t stay down for long. James Harden needs to have a bigger role in the offense, though.
Currently, he’s averaging just 16.6 points per game, which isn’t normal for Harden. As a former scoring leader in the NBA, Harden needs to get to work.
This could be a matter of Durant and Harden working out the kinks of playing together. For so long, they played against each other, but now they have to build team chemistry. Although they were together for a portion of the year, both players spent time on the injury list.
This season, they’ll have to build up their cohesion and all without the floor general Kyrie Irving.
Let’s take a look at the spread
When we head over to BetUS, we can see that the Nets are favored here by 8.5-points. Plenty of analysts believe that the Nets will win, but the Pacers will cover the spread.
After taking a look at both of the Nets’ wins, 8.5 points might be too much for them to cover. They were, however, able to beat the Washington Wizards by 14.
The good news about this one is you’ll find the same spread at BetUS and at Bovada. Both sportsbooks are offering the same odds, which makes it easier for you.
The question still remains, though, and you’ll have to pick the best team to cover. Both teams have horrible records against the spread, making this one an even tougher pick.
Our NBA pick for Pacers vs. Nets: Brooklyn Nets -8.5
Sure, the Nets haven’t done well against the spread this year, but the Pacers are awful. Going 1-4 ATS has turned them into an untrustworthy team at the sportsbook. Two of their four losses were by over ten points, and they’re only +8.5 here.
We’d love for the spread to be smaller, but with the talent of the Nets, you have to take them. Had the spread been -10.5, we might lean towards the Pacers.
The 8.5-point spread gives us just a bit of extra room for this game to be closer. Take the home team to get it together in this one and cover the spread, Brooklyn Nets -8.5
