Brooklyn (0-1) at Boston (1-0)
When: Wednesday, April 20th, 2022
Where: TD Garden,
Boston, MA
Time: 7:00 ET | TV: ESPN
Opening Odds: Boston -4/228
The most exciting Game 1 of the first round of the NBA Playoffs took place in Boston on Sunday afternoon. The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics get back in action on Wednesday night for Game 2 of their best-of-seven series. Jayson Tatum’s game-winning layup at the buzzer gave the Celtics a dramatic 115-114 victory in Game 1. Tatum ended the night with 31 points and also helped on the defensive side, where Boston limited Kevin Durant to 23 points on 9-of-24 shooting from the field and forced him into six turnovers. Boston has won the first two games of first round playoff series in four of the past five seasons. The one time they didn’t was last year, when the Nets dominated the C’s in five games. The Celtics are playing much better this time of year than they did last, so the focus will be to go back to Brooklyn with a 2-0 lead.
The Nets shot 53.8 percent for the game, but need to cut the mistakes a play a little better defensively. Brooklyn allowed Boston to collect 14 offensive rebounds and tally 18 second-chance points. The Nets were also outscored 56-32 in the paint and 35-24 in the third quarter, forcing them to comeback from 15 points down. Kyrie Irving scored 18 points in the fourth quarter rally before Tatum’s buzzer-beater. There’s a chance Ben Simmons makes his Nets debut in Saturday’s Game 3. The Nets did cover the 4.5-point spread and are only 3.5-point underdogs for Game 2 with a total pegged at 226. Boston is 3-2 ATS in the five meetings this season.
Brooklyn played well offensively and this could still turn out to be a long series. Irving had a team-high 39 points on 12-of-20 shooting and made all nine of his free throws. Andre Drummond, who averaged 10.3 rebounds during the regular season, came with just four boards on Sunday. The Nets got nice efforts from Nic Claxton and Goran Dragic off the bench. Claxton scored 13 points and was a +10, while Dragic contributed 14 points and was a +17. The Nets are 9-3-1 against the spread in their last 13 road games.
Tatum had a team-high 31 points, but Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart also came up big with 23 and 20 points respectively. Al Horford put up a double-double of 20 points and 15 rebounds, showing he still has it. The defense forced Durant to miss a 3-pointer before all five Celtics touched the ball on Tatum’s game-winning basket. The Celtics are 20-8-1 against the spread in their last 29 games versus a team with a winning record.
I’m sticking with the Celtics in this one. They should have covered Game 1, but let the Nets back in. Boston just has a more cohesive team right now. They don’t want to go back to Brooklyn 1-1.
Check out who Bobby Babowski has on his Free NBA Picks page for today.
Pick: Celtics -3.5
