It’s rare that teams from different conferences meet twice in a week, but that’s exactly what we’ll see when the Nets try to return the favor and steal a road win over the Phoenix Suns, who won last Tuesday in Brooklyn.
Nets at Suns
Spread: pk Brooklyn Nets (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: Over/under 234 (-110)
Brooklyn losing streak extends to four games after a loss to the Lakers
After losing at home to the Suns team they visit next, the Brooklyn Nets started of their West Coast trip by losing to another bad team, the Los Angeles Lakers. Add the previous week, and they’ve lost five of the previous six games, with the only win against the discombobulated Cavaliers.
The last game was revolving around the traded players. D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov returned to play against the former team, and the Nets also got to see their all-time points leaded Brook Lopez in purple and gold uniform. Lopez was highly animated, eager to take this game for his new team. Lopez hit six 3-pointers and scored a season-high 34 points against the Nets, and rookie Kyle Kuzma had 21 points and 13 rebounds during his first career start in the Lakers’ 124-112. For the Nets, Russell had 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, but he tried to do well a little bit too hard. He took 24 shots, double than any other Nets player, missed 7 of 8 three-pointers and the only free throw, while committing 4 turnovers. He was not the sole reason, but a main culprit of the Nets shooting 40.7 percent from the field and just 9-of-38 on threes. Against the poor Lakers defense, it looked like they were bailing them out by not taking the best shots possible. Two best Nets on the evening, Crabbe (25 points, 6 rebounds) and Hollis-Jefferson (21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists), performed well because they realized that they can get deep penetration and thrived at the foul line – each player was 9-of-11 on free throws. Carroll was also playing well, going strong on both sides of the floor. The others, not so much.
The Nets usual energizer off the bench, Trevor Booker had not played due to back pain, and rookie block machine Jarrett Allen strained left foot ligaments, so the Nets had to be creative with small lineups and Tyler Zeller. It didn’t work well, so the pair of frontcourt backups better be ready for this game.
Place: Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, Arizona
Date/Time: Monday, November 6th, 2017. 9:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: FSAZ+, YES
Suns can’t stop Porzingis, lose Warren
The game in San Antonio, TX tonight marks the end of a pretty successful road trip for the Phoenix Suns, who got better than a few teams, including the Brooklyn Nets, before falling behind by 21 early and eventually losing 107-120 to the Knicks. The Suns also had a misfortune to lose their hot shooting guard T.J. Warren to a head collision, a type of injury they’d like to avoid with him after he missed significant time last season with a concussion.
Even without Warren, Booker led a solid comeback effort that reached as close as to a six-point deficit in the third quarter, but it was all they had in the tank. The problem with trying to play from behind is that you can’t trade baskets, and the Suns did a poor job controlling the Knicks scoring, and especially Kristaps Porzingis, who looked years ahead of the Suns’ own youth movement at the forward positions. Booker finished with 34 points to lead Phoenix, but no other Suns player had more than 15 points. The Suns shot 35 percent from the field for the game and just 28 percent from 3-point range. On the other side, they’ve allowed less than 114 points just once this season, and the Knicks took advantage of that. Aided by an animated home crowd, the hosts shot 51.7 percent, and it didn’t look as the Suns can do anything to help it.
The good news is that Warren should be ‘fine’. The bad news is that we don’t know what ‘fine’ is. He did some non-contact drills on Saturday and will be re-evaluated prior to the game against the
Spurs, making him questionable for both of these games, but somewhat likely against the Nets.
Brooklyn Nets at Phoenix Suns Game Trends & Prediction
The Brooklyn Nets have lost four games in a row, but not only they had lost, they wouldn’t even come close to threatening to take either of those. The opponents weren’t too overwhelming either, so they failed to cover in either of those games. Prior to the bad streak, the Nets covers four consecutive times, and it helped their season ATS record of 4-5. They only 1-3 on the road though.
It’s easy to see why the bookies faded the Suns after the miserable start, and it resulted in five consecutive covers before letting down their backers against the Knicks. The Phoenix Suns are 5-4 against the spread overall, and 3-2 on the road coming into the game in San Antonio. So far, all games on this road trip ended in an over total points, making the Suns games 6-3 overall, and 4-1 away from home.
Admi-Rank: What makes you if you lose to all the worst teams in the league? Well, yes, the Nets are back to the last place, or the regular place in recent years. The Suns can’t look them from far above either, but the recent good stretch still has them an inch above this opponent. After all, they have beaten them in Brooklyn just a week ago.
As with the Spurs-Suns game, it’s very important to learn if Warren is going to play in this game. Unfortunately, even if he’s cleared to play tonight, these head injuries are tricky to understand, and the symptoms might be delayed. But, we can work only with what we know, and that’s that he might play. The best guide is the most recent encounter between the two teams, in which the Suns opened up too big of a lead to be able to squander, behind the strong play of their guards. Considering that the Nets guard haven’t been playing well over a longer stretch, this is hardly an aberration. The visiting team had an upper hand in the frontcourt play, but with the injury bug on the inside and overaggressive Russell, I’m not seeing them taking full advantage of it. The game will once again be played at a blazing speed, with no such thing as a bad or too early shot.
My Pick: pk Phoenix Suns (-110)
Total: Under 234 (-110)
