Kevin Durant o 44.5 points+rebounds+assists (-115)
Reason: Kevin Durant has been straight up balling and this matchup against the Celtics is a great one for him. For those who didn’t watch the last game, the Celtics switch everything and usually on the KD pick and roll they were getting Robert Williams on him. This was a decent option to at least try to slow him down, two people who aren’t good options to slow down KD? Al Horford and Daniel Theis. This will be a complete mismatch and will give KD a ton of opportunities to score especially with the mid range. While Kyrie is putting up big numbers but hard to predict, he will have DPOY candidate Marcus smart on him which should help to slow him down a bit. Since James Harden left, Kevin Durant is averaging 32 points 7.9 rebounds and 7.7 assists and put up 37, 6 and 8 last time against Boston. He has a great matchup to score and will dish out his usual assists and rebounds averaging 30.3 points 7.5 rebounds and 8.1 assists over his last 10 eclipsing this line. Boston in the last 30 days is giving up the second most points against power forwards and is is also giving up higher rebounds to PF then majority of teams. We think the Celtics defence isn’t the same without Williams and KD will be looking to make a statement in game 1 as he was out duelled last time against Jason Tatum and will want to come out swinging in this series and give his team the momentum. We expect a shootout and another duel between Tatum and Durant. Love the over here.
Game 1: Activated #NetsLevel pic.twitter.com/puM1Eqj8N6
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) April 17, 2022
Hawks vs Heat u219. No Clint Capela for the Hawks is big. We didn’t like the Hawks depth before and now they’ll play more minutes against a deep Heat team. Trae Young will do this thing, but the others need to step for any chance to win as they’ve been inconsistent in the regular season games. Expect either a lot of 3 pointers or Bam with a favourable matchup. I like the under to just barely hold.
Nets vs Celtics o224.5. Both of these teams will put up points. There is too much potential firepower with Irving, Durant, Tatum, and Brown. Celtics defence is #1 and Nets defence is ranked #18. We like the over.
Bucks -3.5 1Q. Bucks are at home and defending champions. Bucks offense is ranked 5th in league for 1Q while Bulls is ranked #22. Bucks also have the 7th ranked 1Q defence while Bulls is 15th. We like the 1Q Bucks spread.
Suns -3.5 1Q. For the same reasoning, we’re also going Suns 1Q spread. Suns are 8th in 1Q points while Pelicans is 25th. Suns have the 5th best 1Q defence while Pelicans 1Q defence is decent at 13th.