Game Time: 8:00 PM ET, Saturday, March 26th, 2022 

Venue:  FTX Arena, Miami, Florida

Where to Watch: NBA TV

DraftKings:  Spread:  Heat -1; O/U 226.5

Fanduel:  Spread:  Nets -1; O/U 227.5

BetMGM:  Spread: Heat -1.5; O/U 226.5

Nets: 38-35, 8th place Eastern Conference

Heat: 47-26, 1st place Eastern Conference

An NBA Eastern Conference matchup that is promising to answer some long lingering questions.  The most specific question is:  Are the Brooklyn Nets good enough to win it all with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant playing together full time?  New York City recently bowed to pressure from baseball to lift the vaccine requirements that kept Kyrie Irving off the court. Kyrie has long insisted he would not be getting vaccinated and he hasn’t ever gotten vaccinated… The lifting of the mandates will now allow him to play full-time except in Toronto.   The Heat on the other hand simply do not have any players as good as Kyrie and Kevin… What the Heat have is a complete team that has earned the #1 record in the Eastern Conference… Is that good enough to win it all…. Or will both of them be found lacking and simply get blown out by the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers. 

The Brooklyn Nets have won 6 of their last ten games… a big upswing since the last ten game stretch that they only won 2 games in.  They went 5-5 ATS during this last stretch. Leading scorer Kevin Durant has been shouldering the load at 29.7 ppg… only since the New Year and only on road games has he gotten a taste of getting any help from Kyrie Irving’s game.  Kyrie, no matter what you think of him, is an awesome basketball player.  He is the type of guy who dropped 60 points on the lowly Orlando Magic and 43 points on the highly regarded Memphis Grizzlies (albeit in a loss).  Kyrie has the best crossover in basketball and may be the best ball-handler ever.  Kyrie shoots whenever he wants under any conditions and shoots a great percentage.  Kyrie’s softness is in his inability to stay in position of defense.  Still you can not deny that Kyrie is a great basketball player.  Are they enough.  The press has made a lot of Andre Drummond and Seth Curry joining the team in the James Harden trade, but that is just smoke… Every GM in the league would rather 1 James Harden than 3 Seth Currys and 3 Andre Drummonds.  Since Ben Simmons will not be joining the team because of back issues and a deep seated fear that is causing the back issues.  The Nets have one thing and only one thing to prove… Can Kyrie and KD combine for 70 points in every game from here on in… Can they win and they alone?

The Miami Heat have won 6 of their last ten games.  They went 4-6 ATS during that stretch.  They are not as firmly in 1st place in the Eastwern Conference as the Phoenix Suns are over in the Western Conference… but still they have a thumb on 1st place.  An interesting twist to this matchup is of course that if the Brooklyn Nets win a “play-in game” to keep the 8th spot… The Heat will be their first round matchup.  It is for this reason the Heat have to lay down the law now.  Leading scorer Jimmy Butler is not the scorer of his Nets counterparts.  Jimmy put up 21.2 ppg… but he also is a great two way player who leads his team with forceful defensive conviction.  Leading assist man PG Kyle Lowry had a ring from his days in Toronto and the experience to hang with anyone in the Playoffs.  Leading rebounder for the heat, Bam Adebayo, completes the triumvirate.  Bam is athletic and active pulling in 10.2 rpg tp go with his 19.2 ppg.  The knock on Bam of course is that he is an undersized Center… and will have to see Andre Drummond, Joel Embiid, and of course Giannis Antetokounmpo in a run through the East.  

Monty Hale went 2-0 on Thursday hitting his NCAA Tournament 3rd Round Game of the Year and 3rd Round Total of the Year.. Monty is 5-0 100% this week. Monty is 60+% Overall in BOTH CBB and NBA this season. Monty is also 18-4 81% on his Show Me The Money Total Plays. Make sure to pick up MONTY'S NBA KILLER WHALE PLAY RIGHT NOW! Get Monty Hale’s' picks!   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!

Brooklyn is 38-35 on the season, but 30-41-2 ATS.  They have logged 38 Overs, 34 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 22-16 in road games.

The Heat are 47-26 on the season, but 40-32-1 ATS.  They have notched 43 Overs and 30 Unders.  They are 26-10 in home games.

The Nets are 9th in scoring with 112.2 ppg, 18th in scoring with 44.1 per game, and 12th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 20th while allowing 112.0 ppg from opponents.

The Heat are 17th in scoring with 109.4 ppg, 17th in rebounds with 44.1 per game, and 14th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 5th while holding opponents to 105.1 ppg.

Our prediction for Saturday, March 26th is…. Heat 125 - Nets 118

The Heat must sustain 65-75 points from KD and Kyrie… then they must hold a bunch of scrubs off the boards and away from the easy garbage buckets.  The Heat are defensive experts and they have a couple of very qualified 3-points shooters in Tyler Herro and Duncan Robiinson that are going to love the free flowing nature of the game that Brooklyn plays.

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Brooklyn is 2-1 ATS versus Miami at Miami the last 3 seasons.
Miami is 57-51 ATS versus Brooklyn since 1996
Brooklyn is 4-12 ATS after 2 consecutive non-conference games this season.

Nets: Seth Curry (ankle) Prob ** PG Goran Dragic (knee) Prob ** SG Ben Simmons has never played as a Net and won’t this season… we still do not know about next season.  They guy is shaken like a Martini served to James Bond.

Heat: SG Gabe Vincent (toe) Out ** SG Victor Oladipo (rest) Out

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

Heat: PF PJ Tucker, SF Jimmy Butler, C Bam Adebayo, PG Kyle Lowry, SG Duncan Robinson

Nets: Steve Nash

Heat: Erik Spoelstra