The Boston Celtics will go head-to-head with the Brooklyn Nets in the Barclays Center this Thursday as both teams make their return from the All-Star break. Check out all the information for this Celtics vs Nets game at Point Spreads.
Boston has been on a complete tear since December, transforming itself from a young team with potential that had never actually realized it to a legitimate championship contender; on the other side, Brooklyn has too many problems to list, the most important of which, as it pertains to this game, is availability. Kevin Durant is out injured, Kyrie Irving is a part-time employee, Ben Simmons still does not trust himself to shoot a two-foot layup over a 5-foot-11 defender, and newly-signed Goran Dragic will be taking orders from a former teammate of his.
Because of the delay in basketball betting since the All-Star break, most sports betting sites have not released the odds for this game at the time of this article’s publication; however, it can be presumed that the Celtics are going to be favored, given that they won nine of their last 10 games the last time we saw them. The Nets, on the other hand, dropped to eighth place in the Eastern Conference by losing 12-of-14.
Simply put, this clash will pit a talented and rejuvenated Boston team that features All-Star Jayson Tatum, former All-Stars Jaylen Brown and Al Horford, and terrific role players like Robert Williams III, Derrick White, and Marcus Smart, against a bunch of “I thought he retired already” or “is he not in the G-League?” guys: Blake Griffin, Kessler Edwards, David Duke Jr., most teams around the league would not dare trade anyone for these players in return.
For the record, neither one of these squads has been terrific against the spread; Boston has the 13th-best record in the NBA but is still at .500 with a 29-29-2 mark, while Brooklyn is all the way down in dead-last at 22-36-1, yet somehow, they still have the third-best odds to win this year’s NBA Finals. That does not add up.
Because the odds for Celtics vs Nets game have not been released just yet, it is hard to make an accurate prediction as to what is going to be the best bet for this game — the moneyline is probably not going to have a ton of value due to the complete contrast in recent form of lack of player availability in Brooklyn, but it will almost certainly hit. If the spread is at somewhat of a medium level — say between five and eight points — then the Celtics have a very strong case as to why they will cover. If it is any greater, then who knows, maybe some of Brooklyn’s players can remind the world that they still play basketball professionally.
All in all, the Celtics are the better team here, they have been the better team, and they will continue to be the better team when they take on the Nets. Do not be surprised if these teams have a rematch in the playoffs, albeit with Brooklyn looking completely different from the way that it will when the two square off on Thursday.
