With both teams playing winning basketball and poised to make the postseason, the neighborhood battle between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets has a different feel. After an initial slump following the loss of leading scorer Kevin Durant, the Nets adjusted with a pair of payout road victories over Utah and Golden State. The Knicks also ended a recent slide beating Cleveland on Tuesday stopping a four-game SU and ATS losing streak. Brooklyn cruised to its eighth straight win in the series, 112-85, when the clubs met in November.
The contest between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets takes place at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 28, 2023 from Barclays Center in Brooklyn and will air live on ABC. BookMaker.eu will have odds for every game on the Saturday NBA schedule.
NBA Opening Lines at BookMaker.eu
Odds Analysis
Entering a difficult stretch in the schedule, the Knickerbockers picked up a much-needed win over the Cavs on Tuesday. It stopped a four-game slide that probably shouldn’t have happened. The Knicks lost to Toronto twice, Atlanta and Washington, teams below them in the East standings. And it came after a spell where the Knick won seven of eight games with six payouts. To say the Knicks are streaky would be an understatement. They compiled four winning streaks of three games or more and three losing streaks of that length. After Tuesday’s win the Knicks are just one game out of a top-6 in the East at 26-23 SU and 25-22-2 ATS.
Once over the initial shock of losing Durant, the Nets realized they’re a good unit without him. They won 14 of 15 games, including the outing KD was hurt, going 9-6 ATS. With Durant on the shelf with a knee injury the Nets dropped the next four games going 0-4 ATS averaging 102.5 points, more than 10 points below their season average while cashing the UNDER in three of those games. Behind inspired play from Kyrie Irving the Nets scored payout wins over Utah and Golden State. Irving had 48 points against the Jazz and 38 against the Dubs moving the Nets to 29-17 SU and 21-23-2 ATS.
New York Knicks
The Knicks are a streaky bunch and their win over the Cavs could ignite another run. This could also be the best chance for New York to end a losing streak to the Nets that reached eight games with an embarrassing 112-85 loss back in November. One player sure to have a role in the outcome is Julius Randle, who notched 36 points with eight triples and 13 rebounds in the win over Cleveland. Randle is averaging a double-double with team-highs of 24.6 points and 10.9 rebounds.
He scored 24 points in the earlier meeting but the Knicks were outscored by 29 with Randle on the floor. That setback was one of 10 road losses suffered by the Knicks this season, but they are one of the best away teams in the league sporting a 14-10 SU record and a NBA best road cover rate of 66.7 percent.
Brooklyn Nets
KD is enjoying one of his finest seasons averaging 29.7 points on 55.9 percent shooting. And the Nets were the hottest team in the NBA winning 12 straight and 14 of 15 when he went down. Durant is expected to return next month but until then the Nets have to find other options. Well, Irving is a pretty good option, and he’s delivered helping the club break out its recent skid. He had a most impressive three-game stretch totaling 116 points, 25 rebounds and 22 assists against Phoenix, Utah and Golden State. The Nets won the final two games stopping a four-game skid.
No one player is going to make up for the loss of Durant and the Nets have gotten contributions from just about everyone. Nick Claxton chipped in 20 points against the Jazz and Royce O’Neale hit a go-ahead triple late in the fourth quarter to help upend the Warriors. And the team never let up outscoring Golden State 20-6 in the final four minutes. The Nets got 18 points from Edmond Sumner starting in place of Irving in the first meeting.
NBA Odds Pick
Despite being one of the best road teams the Knicks couldn’t crack the code the first meeting. Maybe Brooklyn is too close to home. With Irving upping his game the Nets got back in the win column and the entire roster is helping out. At this point the losing streak has to weigh on the Knicks so backing the home club is the right play.
NBA Odds Prediction: Brooklyn Nets / UNDER
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