Dr. Bob - NBA

**Indiana (-4) over BROOKLYN

Rotation #707 – 4:35 pm Pacific

When will teams learn that Jahlil Okafor is the NBA’s worst player? Okafor had the NBA’s worst plus-minus in his first two seasons and the 76ers became a decent team starting last season when they benched Okafor. The Sixers finally realized that Okafor just looks like a decent player when he’s actually horrible. This season the 76ers were outscored by 21 points in just 25.3 minutes Okafor was on the court before trading him to the Nets, who sat him at first and continued to play well. However, Brooklyn has had Okafor in the rotation the last month or so and they’ve been outscored by 141 points in just 283.4 minutes with Okafor in the game (-23.9 points per 48 minutes). Getting D’Angelo Russell back from injury hasn’t helped either, as the Nets started playing well when Russell was injured earlier this season and are now playing poorly with him back in the rotation, which is reflected in Russell’s -9.0 points per 48 minutes plus-minus (-107 points in 569.5 minutes).

Brooklyn had the league’s best spread record before Okafor starting getting minutes and now the Nets are on a 1-10 straight up run (4-7 ATS) and my ratings favor the Pacers by 7 ½ points in this game. Indiana is 31-20 ATS with Victor Oladipo playing, including 4-0 ATS without injured PG Darren Collison and 4-1 ATS as a road favorite, and I’ll take Indiana in a 2-Star Best Bet at -4 points or less.