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February 11,,2013
Brooklyn Nets vs. Indiana Pacers The Brooklyn Nets (29-21, 22-25-3 ATS) are in a rather brutal scheduling situation here that may be extremely hard to overcome when they visit the Indiana Pacers (31-20, 28-23 ATS) at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN on Monday night at 7:05 ET. This would be a tough enough spot for the Nets even under the best of circumstances, having to go on the road for the second game of a back-to-back after hosting the team with the best record in the NBA in the San Antonio Spurs Sunday. As fate would have it though, for the second time in as many nights Brooklyn is facing a division leader that is coming off of a streak-snapping loss, basically assuring that the Nets will receive the team's best shot.Sunday, the Nets faced an angry Spurs team that just had an 11-game winning streak snapped in an upset loss at Detroit on Friday. Now, they are facing a Pacers' team that should be in an ornery mood after having its 15-game home winning streak snapped in an upset overtime loss to the Toronto Raptors here in Indianapolis in its last game, also on Friday. Even with that 100-98 defeat, Indiana is still 20-4 straight up and 15-9 ATS at home, where the Pacers are limiting opponents to just 88.7 points per game, helping lead a current 11-5 ATS run here. Indiana is currently second in the NBA in points against overall at 90.2 per game and it impressively leads the league in both field goal percentage against (41.9) and three-point defense (32.5 percent). More importantly is that while the Pacers still rank just 28th in points scored at 92.8 per game, the offense has been coming around nicely as of late averaging 102.8 points over the last eight games! On top of all this, this is a nice revenge spot for the Pacers as they actually outplayed the Nets for the most part in a 97-86 loss at Brooklyn on January 13th, but they may have been victims of some home cooking as the Nets had 31 free throw attempts in that contest while making 25 of them while Indiana was only granted 12 foul shots and made 10.Besides the tricky scheduling dynamic for Brooklyn in this spot, the Nets are simply not playing as well right now as they were immediately after interim coach P.J. Carlesimo took over for the fired Avery Johnson. Prior to Sunday's home date with San Antonio, the Nets were coming off of an 89-74 road less on Friday to the 14-35 Washington Wizards where Brooklyn hit on just 25-of-76 field goal attempts for an atrocious 32.9 percent. Yes that still leaves the Nets at 15-7 straight up since the coaching change, but they have been burning money as of late while going 2-6 ATS over the last eight games. That streak includes going 1-3 both straight up and ATS on the road with all three losses coming by double-digits and the only win being by thee points over a bad Pistons team at Auburn Hills.The Nets are 12-25 ATS in their last 37 games vs. the Central Division and 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games playing the second of a back-to-back. The Pacers are 4-0 ATS in their last four games vs. teams with winning straight up records.
pICK: INDIANA PACERS-7.5
February 11,,2013
Brooklyn Nets vs. Indiana Pacers The Brooklyn Nets (29-21, 22-25-3 ATS) are in a rather brutal scheduling situation here that may be extremely hard to overcome when they visit the Indiana Pacers (31-20, 28-23 ATS) at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN on Monday night at 7:05 ET. This would be a tough enough spot for the Nets even under the best of circumstances, having to go on the road for the second game of a back-to-back after hosting the team with the best record in the NBA in the San Antonio Spurs Sunday. As fate would have it though, for the second time in as many nights Brooklyn is facing a division leader that is coming off of a streak-snapping loss, basically assuring that the Nets will receive the team's best shot.Sunday, the Nets faced an angry Spurs team that just had an 11-game winning streak snapped in an upset loss at Detroit on Friday. Now, they are facing a Pacers' team that should be in an ornery mood after having its 15-game home winning streak snapped in an upset overtime loss to the Toronto Raptors here in Indianapolis in its last game, also on Friday. Even with that 100-98 defeat, Indiana is still 20-4 straight up and 15-9 ATS at home, where the Pacers are limiting opponents to just 88.7 points per game, helping lead a current 11-5 ATS run here. Indiana is currently second in the NBA in points against overall at 90.2 per game and it impressively leads the league in both field goal percentage against (41.9) and three-point defense (32.5 percent). More importantly is that while the Pacers still rank just 28th in points scored at 92.8 per game, the offense has been coming around nicely as of late averaging 102.8 points over the last eight games! On top of all this, this is a nice revenge spot for the Pacers as they actually outplayed the Nets for the most part in a 97-86 loss at Brooklyn on January 13th, but they may have been victims of some home cooking as the Nets had 31 free throw attempts in that contest while making 25 of them while Indiana was only granted 12 foul shots and made 10.Besides the tricky scheduling dynamic for Brooklyn in this spot, the Nets are simply not playing as well right now as they were immediately after interim coach P.J. Carlesimo took over for the fired Avery Johnson. Prior to Sunday's home date with San Antonio, the Nets were coming off of an 89-74 road less on Friday to the 14-35 Washington Wizards where Brooklyn hit on just 25-of-76 field goal attempts for an atrocious 32.9 percent. Yes that still leaves the Nets at 15-7 straight up since the coaching change, but they have been burning money as of late while going 2-6 ATS over the last eight games. That streak includes going 1-3 both straight up and ATS on the road with all three losses coming by double-digits and the only win being by thee points over a bad Pistons team at Auburn Hills.The Nets are 12-25 ATS in their last 37 games vs. the Central Division and 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games playing the second of a back-to-back. The Pacers are 4-0 ATS in their last four games vs. teams with winning straight up records.
pICK: INDIANA PACERS-7.5
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