Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics 1/28/19 NBA Pick, Prediction
The Nets have been a team that has really started to bounce back on the season, but now the Nets are facing an issue in this game as the Nets are going to potentially be without the services of Spencer Dinwiddie who could be having thumb surgery. What else is going to prove to be difficult for the Nets in this game is the fact the Celtics are coming into the game after losing a close battle to the hottest team in the NBA right now, the Warriors. Now the Celtics need to prove the loss was just a hiccup and not something that will lead to the Celtics having another losing skid like the Celtics have been known to do in the past, which could make it even harder
Brooklyn Nets Preview
The Nets as mentioned are going to have to do the job here without Dinwiddie in the game. Now, this may not seem like that a simple injury would have that much of an impact, but it definitely does have a major impact for the Nets here as Dinwiddie was coming off the bench and was consistently putting in 17.2 PPG, but the other thing that he impacted was he had an average of 5 APG and an injury like this will leave the Nets scrambling for at least 3 to 6 weeks.
Prior to the Dinwiddie injury, the Nets have been able to score 111.8 PPG with 23.4 APG. The good news is Dinwiddie did not lead the team in points or assists, but was close. The leader of the team is actually D’Angelo Russell who has 19.2 PPG and 6.4 APG. The Nets as a team have only been able to get 46.2 RPG and that is led by Jarrett Allen who has pulled in 8.8 RPG. The Nets defense could have some issues filling the void as well as they are giving up 111.4 PPG.
Boston Celtics Preview
The Boston Celtics are heading into the game here with a loss to the Warriors, but the Celtics took the Warriors to the limit and almost beat them. Now, the Celtics are a team that could have a great chance to avoid getting a losing streak again on the year after a close loss. The good news is the Celtics are not battling as many injury problems as what the Nets are battling and that is definitely going to help the Celtics out quite a bit in this game and not to mention it will mean the Celtics do not have to make up any difference in the point production.
So far this season the Celtics are coming into the game with 112.2 PPG being scored and 25.9 APG. Both of those are more of the middle of the pack numbers, but the Celtics are led in the scoring and assist department by Kyrie Irving. Irving on the season has been able to get 23.7 PPG and 6.9 APG. Rebounding for the Celtics has been done well enough to pull down 45 RPG, but the leader is Al Horford and he has only managed to get 6.5 RPG, which means plenty of other players are getting rebounds. The defense of the Celtics is giving up only 105.9 PPG.
Nets at Celtics Line: Boston Celtics -10 O/U 220.5
My Free NBA Pick: Boston Celtics -10
The Nets are going to struggle in this game with the loss of Dinwiddie and the number of points he contributed in himself, but what else will not help the Nets out is the fact that with 5 assists per game that means that Dinwiddie would also be responsible directly for a minimum of 10 more points. So the Nets have to come up with a solution for a loss of roughly 27 points a game. For a team like the Warriors, they would have the depth to overcome that rather easily, but the Nets do not have that type of depth and it will cost the Nets for quite a while. The Celtics do not have any injuries and took the Warriors to the limits before finally dropping the game, which the Nets are no Warriors team. For me, I think the injury to Dinwiddie is still too early for the Nets to have made the proper adjustments to cover his loss of points and that will cost the Nets in this game as the Boston Celtics are able to come into this game and win rather easily while covering the spread 114-103.
