The Brooklyn Nets head into All-Star week owners of the best record in the Eastern Conference tied with the division rival Philadelphia 76ers for bragging rights. Steve Nash has his team running and gunning even though he’s yet to have all three of his superstars on the hardwood for long stretches. After just having their eight-game win streak snapped at home by Luka Doncic and the Mavs, Brooklyn will undoubtedly look to close the first half of its season out on a high. James Harden could be in line for a huge showing with him returning to the Toyota Center to battle his former teammates for the first time since complaining his way out of Houston six weeks ago. With that, online sportsbooks will likely be huge Houston Rockets fans with the team looking to possibly put an end to a prolonged 12-game losing streak (1-9 ATS).
This East/West skirmish is set to go down live on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET from the Toyota Center. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN. We'll have NBA odds available at BookMaker.eu for this and every game on Wednesday’s NBA slate.
NBA Betting Lines at BookMaker.eu
Odds Analysis
The Rockets did a solid job for NBA bettors sans “The Beard” initially logging four wins and pointspread covers in the first five games played without his services. Since then, the team has gone on to lose each of its last 10 games and only managed a single pointspread cover during that stretch. With games still slated to go on Sunday and Monday against the Grizzlies and Cavaliers respectively, it’s possible Houston will be staring at a 12-game losing streak heading into this matchup with the Nets. As for Brooklyn, it just saw its eight-game SU and ATS win streak get snapped at home after dropping a 115-98 decision to Dallas on Saturday night. It was an off night all around for the current Atlantic Division leaders. Overall, the Nets have gone 9-7 SU and 8-8 ATS away from the Barclays Center, while the Rockets counter with 5-7 SU and 3-9 ATS tallies when playing on their home hardwood.
Brooklyn Nets
The expected fatigue of dominating a five-game road trip at Golden State, Sacramento, Phoenix and both teams from Los Angeles finally reared its ugly head in the team’s home finale against the Mavericks on Saturday night. Dallas took charge of the game early by taking a 38-26 lead into the second quarter, but Brooklyn battled back to make a game of it trailing 68-64 at the break. Much to the chagrin of over bettors, the Nets simply just ran out of steam combining for 34 second half points to ultimately fall by a 115-98 count as 1-point home dogs. The 213 combined points didn’t even sniff the 233.5-point closing total. Harden led the way with 29 points, but they were no match for the Mavs who didn’t have to deal with Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant.
Houston Rockets
The losing streak extended to 10 straight last time out when the Rockets dropped a 122-111 decision to the Toronto Raptors as 6.5-point underdogs. Houston actually took a 31-30 lead with it into the second quarter, but then proceeded to get outscored 92-80 the rest of the way to end up in the loser’s column once again. John Wall and Victor Oladipo each shined with the duo combining for 48 points, 16 assists and 7 rebounds, but they got next to nothing from everybody else save for 17 points from Eric Gordon. The tilt with the Nets will be the finale of a three-game homestand where the team sports ugly SU and ATS records for the season. In fact, Houston has failed to cover each of the last four times it played in front of its own cardboard cutouts.
Brooklyn vs. Houston Prediction
The Rockets possess the worst rebound rate in the league. It also ranks No. 26 in offensive efficiency but counters that weak output with a defense that ranks No. 6 overall in allowing 106.5 points per 100 possessions as well as a 45.9 field goal percentage allowed (No. 9). With that, the total has gone 12-18-1 to the under in their 31 played games heading into the week. Even with Durant already expected to miss, linemakers are going to hang an inflated number to beat with the Nets regardless of whether Kyrie joins Harden on the hardwood or not. The books simply haven’t been able to get a handle on Brooklyn totals this season. Whatever they set, it goes over. With that, negative regression is bound to hit and this looks like as good a spot as any for the ship to start getting righted. Don’t fall for the trap. Don’t lay the exorbitant chalk in Harden’s revenge game and don’t look for the scoreboard to get dented! Hit the under as well as the Rockets plus the points if you can’t read between the lines.
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