Karpuc’s Favorite NBA Bet For Tuesday, February 8
Season Record: 23-13 (63.9%); Pick For Tuesday, February 8th
Dan Karpuc - Feb 8, 2022, 4:18pm ESTThe Pick: Celtics -3.5 at Nets
These two teams are headed in completely opposite directions. Let’s start with the Celtics, who are on the ascent.
Boston has won six of their last seven contests and have covered in five of those games. Finally putting things together, this is a very cohesive unit that’s playing with a defense-first mindset while trusting Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to carry most of the load offensively. Since the calendars flipped to 2022, the C’s rank 1st in Defensive Rating, 1st in Net Rating and own a 13-6 record, compared to their 17-19 mark to start the year. You can make the argument that the lineup consisting of Tatum, Brown, Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Robert Williams is the best defensive starting five in the Association.
“It’s suffocating at times, with our size and versatility. We’ve got big wings, our bigs, and obviously a pitbull for a point guard. There’s no real weakness out there, nobody to pick on, which is the case with other teams sometimes. We’re getting off to really good starts, which is different to earlier in the year, but it’s understandable with the amount of up-and-down we had earlier in the year, and it’s coming to fruition now we have some consistency back with our line-ups,” Ime Udoka told reporters after a recent win over the Magic.
Over the last 10 games, the Celtics have an average point differential of +14.1 (best in the NBA). Meanwhile, over their last 10, the Nets have an average point differential of -7.9 (26th).
The Nets are in a free-fall and are riding an eight-game losing streak heading into this one. Not only that, but they’ll be without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Millsap and Joe Harris and potentially without James Harden and Nicolas Claxton, both of which are questionable. It’s going to be very difficult for Brooklyn to score in this game, so I love Boston at -3.5 and will be betting under the Nets team total if I can get it at a reasonable number.
