Sustained winning is the hardest thing to do in the NBA, so for the Brooklyn Nets to go on a 12-game winning streak after the way their season began is nothing short of remarkable.
Brooklyn's win streak may have been broken at 12 by the Chicago Bulls, but it remains at the top of its game and is ready to build a new one when it faces off against a depleted New Orleans Pelican team on Friday, January 6.
Our NBA betting picks and predictions for the Nets vs. Pelicans believe that Brooklyn’s talent should prove overwhelming against this depleted NOLA squad.
Nets vs Pelicans best odds
Nets vs Pelicans picks and predictions
Make no mistake, the Brooklyn Nets have entered the inner circle of contenders in the East. As teams like the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks run into rough patches and bouts of inconsistency, the Nets have rallied around Kevin Durant to become the NBA’s best team since late November.
Their +12.1-point differential is the best in the NBA over the last two weeks, and they’ve played at the level of the No. 1 overall defense and the league's fifth-best offense in that span per Cleaning the Glass.
Brooklyn may be coming off a surprising 121-112 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, but that should not dissuade you from picking it in tonight’s game against the Pelicans.
The Nets played more than well enough to win that contest — with Durant remaining transcendent with 44 points — but the collective shot making was not up to their usual standards. Per ShotQuality, Brooklyn would be expected to win that matchup nearly 75% of the time based on the shots that both teams took.
A full-strength Pelicans team would still give the Nets a run for their money (as they would indeed any team in the NBA) but New Orleans is going to be without both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram for the foreseeable future.
Ingram has been out so long it’s almost hard to remember how exactly he fits into this version of the Pels, but Zion has been the unquestioned on-court leader and go-to scorer for this iteration.
They have solid fallback players in CJ McCollum and Jonas Valanciunas, but those two aren’t competitive with the Nets' top-end talent. And more than that, the players thrust into larger backup roles now that JV and CJ are being asked to do more are mostly one-way players that Brooklyn can exploit on one end or the other.
The Nets haven’t had many against the spread losses recently, but they’ve bounced back strongly from them. They’re 6-2-1 ATS in their last nine following an ATS loss, and I’m expecting a similar bounce-back performance tonight.
My best bet: Nets -4 (-110 at bet365)
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Nets vs Pelicans spread analysis
On the season, Brooklyn is dead even at 18-18 ATS, but most of those losses are from the beginning of the year where it spent more time mired in scandal than on an actual basketball court. The Nets are 8-3 ATS in their last 11, and even more impressively 6-1 ATS in their last seven road games against teams with a home winning percentage of greater than .600.
Players like Kyrie Irving and KD do find sometimes find themselves searching for motivation during the regular season, and taking a win off one of the best teams in the West in their own building should suffice.
The Pels trends aren’t all that relevant, as this version of the team has played so little meaningful basketball together. But even before losing Zion, they have struggled to cover against good teams at home. NOLA is just 1-5 ATS in its last six home games against teams like the Nets with a winning road record
Nets vs Pelicans Over/Under analysis
230.5 is a large total, but not an altogether surprising one given the depth of offensive talent on both teams. But the Pelicans have lost a lot of that depth recently, and New Orleans lineups without either Zion or Ingram are just 34th percentile on offense per Cleaning the Glass.
So again, while the Over has cashed in eight of the Pels’ last 11 games, I’m inclined to ignore that trend given who is actually available tonight.
Nic Claxton has become a solid defender, and alongside Ben Simmons, Royce O’Neale, and Kevin Durant, Brooklyn can put together some versatile defensive units. Of course, there’s still a way for NOLA to score effectively.
If the Nets have a weakness, it’s their lack of interior size and physicality. Against a Pelicans team spearheaded by Zion Williamson, they might concede a lot at the basket, but Jonas Valanciunas isn’t the same kind of one-man offense. I suspect it would take a red-hot shooting game by McCollum for the Pels to score north of 115 points.
New Orleans desperately misses the defensive versatility that Nance Jr. provides, and his status for Friday’s game remains questionable. Given that this is the last Pels home game before a long road trip where they’ll need Nance more than ever, I suspect he’ll continue to sit out during Friday’s game.
Still, the Pels can rely on defensive stalwarts Herb Jones and Jose Alvarado to make things tough on the Nets Big Two. I’d lean Under.
Nets vs Pelicans betting trend to know
The Nets are 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games overall. Find more NBA betting trends for Nets vs. Pelicans.
Nets vs Pelicans game info
| Location: | Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA |
| Date: | Friday, January 6, 2023 |
| Tip-off: | 7:30 p.m. ET |
| TV: | ESPN |
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