The Milwaukee Bucks were dominant in the first round against a Miami Heat team they went all-out to defeat after getting bounced from the playoffs by Jimmy Butler and company the previous season. Unfortunately, Mike Budenholzer’s troops have been unable to carry that same type of intensity over into the next round versus a Brooklyn Nets outfit that’s more or less toyed with them through the first two games. The Nets triumphed by an average of 23.5 points per game to log a pair of comfortable pointspread covers at online sportsbooks. If Milwaukee doesn’t hold serve in Game 3, it’s pretty safe to assume Kevin Durant and his mates will punch a ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals with relative ease. NBA bettors expecting high scoring matches through the first two games have come away extremely disappointed. I’m of the belief they recoup some of those losses in Game 3 with Milwaukee’s collective backs up against the wall.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series between the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 10, 2021 from the Fiserv Forum. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN. We'll have NBA Playoff odds and player props available at BookMaker.eu for this and every game going on today’s NBA slate.
NBA Betting Lines at BookMaker.eu
Brooklyn Nets +4
Milwaukee Bucks -4
O/U 235
Odds Analysis
Game 3 marks the second straight time that the 2-0 series leading Nets will hit the board as underdogs. Linemakers initially opened the game up with the Bucks installed 3.5-point favorites and the total lined at 234. Early action finds the betting markets in favor of the homebased Bucks and the over with the pointspread up to -4 and the O/U bouncing around 235 to 235.5. Milwaukee was a solid home team evidenced by its 26-10 SU record in the regular season (18-18 ATS). On the flipside, Brooklyn won 20 of its 36 played road games (19-17 ATS). With the first two games of this series failing to eclipse the closing total by a wide margin, it comes with little surprise to see the books overcorrecting. The Bucks played to high scorers at a 22-14 clip at home, while the Nets cashed over tickets in 20 of their 36 played road games. Milwaukee is the main reason why both games failed to go over by 18 and 27 points respectively. It’s put up or shut up time!
Brooklyn Nets
I knew heading into the series that KD and company were going to have a whale of a time taking advantage of the Bucks horrendous 3-point defense. It’s pretty safe to say they’ve lived up to expectations after knocking down 15 of 39 attempts in Game 1 and 21 of 42 in Game 2. No joke, Brooklyn is shooting an absurd 43.6 percent from beyond the arc in the playoffs! And they’ve gotten the job done in this series with James Harden on the hardwood for less than a minute! The Nets just chewed up and spit the Bucks defense out in Game 2 going off for 125 points while hitting better than 50 percent of shots taken from the field. They just got off 42 shots and converted half of them versus the Bucks No. 29 ranked 3-point defense. Look for more bombs in G3!
Milwaukee Bucks
Color me unimpressed with the effort Milwaukee has brought to the court through the first two games of this series. While the energy was there in Game 1, a poor 6 of 30 showing from long range ultimately did them in. A whopping 14 turnovers to Brooklyn’s eight didn’t help matters either. Still, it won the rebounding battle 58-47 so it left NBA bettors thinking success would come in Game 2 with Harden out for sure. It didn’t happen. Milwaukee put forth another poor showing from long range (8/27) and turned it over 16 more times. On top of that, only 14 of their made baskets were assisted and they only won the rebounding battle 44-42. No wonder they got blown out by nearly 40 points! Another showing like that and this series will be all but wrapped.
Brooklyn vs. Milwaukee Prediction
I truly believed this series had all the makings of becoming one of if not the highest scoring in NBA Playoffs history. So far, it’s dramatically failed to live up to the hype. That must end here tonight if the Bucks are to make a series of it and not get bounced in an embarrassing fashion. Giannis Antetokounmpo was more or less a non-factor in Game 2. Now back home, I’m expecting “The Greek Freak” to do whatever it takes to get his teammates back into this series. I’m expecting Game 3 to have some fireworks mostly lit by the desperate Bucks. That said, the Nets simply just won’t roll over and die, as they’re having way too much fun carving Milwaukee up from beyond the arc. This should be a competitive back and forth affair. Hopefully Milwaukee gets into the win column to make it a series. Regardless, look for some crooked numbers to hit the board.
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