Game Time: 7:30 PM ET, Saturday, April 23rd, 2022 

Venue:    Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York

Where to Watch: ESPN 

DraftKings:  Spread: Nets -3; O/U 223

Fanduel:  Spread:  Nets -3; O/U 222.5

BetMGM:  Spread: Nets -3; O/U 222.5

Celtics: 51-31, 2nd place Eastern Conference 2-0 in the series

Nets: 44-38, 7th place Eastern Conference 0-2 in the series

An NBA Eastern Conference 1st round Playoff series.  The Celtics vs the Nets might as well be the Hatfields vs the McCoys.  Poor Brooklyn got snookered a dozen years ago by a Nets trade that ultimately built both franchises.  Whe Danny Ainge swapped Paul Pierce and kevin Garnett to the Nets for a bunch of young players and picks… The Celtics won.  The Celtics essentially won for a decade.  BUt as we all know it’s not the size of the win… but what you do with it!... Poor Celtics failed to flip those draft picks into all-star players and now both teams are perennial contenders…. Oh, how did Brooklyn recover… Well when Pierce and Garnett went away… they left a deep gap in the salary cap spending space… and The Brooklyn Nets got to sign PG Kyrie Irving and SF Kevin Durant… who may be the best BIG TWO ever… except they have rarely played together and have never achieved anything together.  The Celtics meanwhile drafted and developed SF Jayson Tatum, SG Jaylen Brown, and PG Marcus Smart… Both teams belong in the conversation… but at the moment the Celtics are the better team.  Both have weird good news… if not just odd news.  The Celtics will try to bring C Ronert Williams III back from injury early… That would mean an easy Celtics victory if he could produce 75% of his normal defensive output.  Also the Nets are planning on giving SF Ben Simmons some run.  Ben Simmons came over in the James Harden trade and has not played in a full year.  Ben Simmons may have back trouble and most certainly has mental health problems… Still Simmons is a world class defender and distributor… even if he shoots worse than a blindfolded Russell Westbrook.

The Celtics have won both of the first two games, but went 1-1 ATS.  In their last win (which was also a win ATS) The Celtics spread the scoring among 7 guys getting double figures.  Everyone did it… SG Jaylen Brown 22 points, SF Jayson Tatum 19 points, PF Al Horford 16 points, C Daniel Theis 15 points, backup PF Grant Williams 17 points, and backup guard Payton Pritchard 10 points… everyone did it… everyone did it because the Nets defense is junk.  Even better than getting 7 players in double figures for a playoff win is knowing that the Celtics only played an 8 man rotation.  The invisible man that played was SG Derrick White… Derrick only got 3 points in 13 minutes.  The message is clear… “we have a 16 point a game scorer that we treat as a luxury only”.  The Celtics are underdogs going into this Game 3 because they are on the road for the first time in the Playoffs.  Take the free money!

The Brooklyn Nets are 0-2 in the first round of the Playoffs and 1-1 ATS.  They suffer from a deep problem of having two of the 5 best scorers in the league entirely.  PG Kyrie Irving and SF Kevin Durant are virtually unstoppable most nights… except they are surrounded by a poorly balanced crap team. In the last loss Kyrie Irving was “fasting”... seriously he hadn’t eaten or drank anything… Kyrie had 10 points and put the final nail in the coffin of whether or not he is a good teammate to have… He is not.  SF Kevin Durant got blanketed by Celtics defensive double teams and still landed 27 points.  That is exactly what the Celtics wanted these dummies to do.  The Nets coach is former league MVP PG Steve Nash… he is about as good at game managing as Ernest was at being the night watchman/janitor at a bank.  Steve Nash expects things to happen but is too under-studied to make changes on the fly… He is also too low spoken to be anything but a guy in the way.

In the Last 30 days Jack Banks is 17 7 in NBA Action.  In the last 7 days Oskeim Sports is 5-1 in NBA Playoff action!!  You need to start winning at these rates!  Get Jack Banks’ picks and Oskeim Sports picks right now!  Roll through this weekend while making winning your part-time job! Stay with us all throughout the NBA Playoffs and let’s grow that bankroll! You can discover the best  picks right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers. NCAAF, NFL, MLB, college football… get positive value from all your bets! Expert picks!  Fun fact… winning a wager is much better than making a wager!

The Celtics are 53-31 on the season, but 46-37-1 ATS. They have logged 41-41-2 O/U.  They are 23-18 in road games.

The Nets are 45-40 on the season, but 34-48-2 ATS.  They have notched 41-42-1 O/U.  They are 21-21 in home games.

The Boston Celtics are 12th in scoring with 111.8 ppg, 5th in rebounds with 46.1 per game, and 11th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank FIRST while holding opponents to 104.5 ppg.

The Brooklyn Nets are 9rth in scoring with 112.9 ppg, 13th in rebounds with 44.4 per game, and 13th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 18th while allowing 112.1 ppg from opponents… That is why they need to give aBen Simmons some run.

Our prediction for Saturday, April 23rd is….. Celtics 118 - Nets 113

The Celtics will keep rolling and this time they will win ATS by simply winning the game.  The Celtics are not worried about Kyrie Irving.  Irving can go off… but the numbers so far point to that when Irvin goes off the shots are taken from Durant and Vice Versa.  That gives the Celtics the advantage anytime anyone goes off. Give Irving 40… that means Durant will get 22 and the Celtics will win by 8 points… just if we look at the numbers!

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Brooklyn is 64-51 ATS versus the Celtics since 1996.

Brooklyn is 6-2 ATS versus Boston at Brooklyn the last 3 seasons.

12 of 18 games in this series have gone Over the last 3 seasons.

Celtics: C Robert Williams III (knee) Quest ** SG Nick Stauskas (ankle) Out

Nets: SG Ben Simmons (back) (tantrum) Quest ** SG Joe Harris (ankle) Out

Celtics: SF Jayson Tatum, PF Al Horford, C Daniel Theis, SG Jaylen Brown, PG Marcus Smart

Nets: PF Bruce Brown, SF Kevin Durant, C Andre Drummond, PG Kyrie Irving, SG Seth Curry

Celtics: Ime Udoka

Nets: Steve Nash