The Nets have been hot and cold to start the year. One night they’ll lose to the Mavericks by 37 and then they’ll follow it up by beating the Pelicans by 34. Those type of swings in form make them one of the more unpredictable teams in the NBA, but interestingly enough they’ve been reliable against the spread with a 7-4 ATS record. They head into Saturday’s game against the Grizzlies having the rest advantage, this team has not played since Wednesday’s win over New Orleans. In terms of health they are doing much better than their opponent the Grizzlies, despite having 5 less wins the oddsmakers still have a bit of confidence in the Nets here as the spread is only 4.5 points.
Similarly to the Nets, the Grizzlies also pounced on the New Orleans Pelicans beating them by 31 points on Friday night. It was exactly what this team needed following a run of just 1 win over their previous 5 games. The early season magic has disappeared a bit, but the Grizzlies are still a team to be reckoned with on most nights. For some odd reason though, they struggle at home with just 2 wins in 6 games. The Grizz are one of the teams that relies heavily on the three-ball to get their points – right now they sit in 4th averaging 46.8 points from threes per game. They rank 2nd in efficiency from the perimeter, knocking down 39% of their attempts. That number has risen to 42.5% in their last 3 games.
The question is how long can the Grizzlies keep up their stellar shooting from downtown? Brooklyn has actually done a decent job at defending the three-ball, allowing just 34.2% of opponent threes to go in over their last 3 games. The Nets also just scored 145 points in their last game and have the rest advantage here, if they can take care of their turnovers I can definitely see them covering here. I’ll take the road team.
Brooklyn Nets vs Memphis Grizzlies Predictions: Nets +4.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
