NBA Preview: The Indiana Pacers host the Brooklyn Nets in a battle of two teams with revamped starting lineups from a season ago.
Brooklyn Nets (0-0) at Indiana Pacers (0-0), Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST
Line: Pacers -3.5. Total 214.
Neither the Pacers nor the Nets are expected to get close to a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference this season. However, one of these teams has to win this game. More importantly, one of these teams has to cover the spread, too.
The Pacers were a playoff team last year. Indiana gave the Cavaliers all they could handle in the first round. The Pacers gave Cleveland their toughest playoff series before the finals. Sure, Indiana got swept, but they lost all four games by 6 points or less.
Paul George is the reason the Pacers fiercely competed with Cleveland. He is now in Oklahoma City this season. So Victor Oladipo (from OKC), Darren Collison (from Sacramento) and Bojan Bogdanovich (from Brooklyn) will have to pick up the slack.
Brooklyn will be rebuilding for a while. They gave away their top picks for 2017-18 and 2018-19 in trades and are hoping to rebuild around D’Angelo Russell.
Both teams were 3-1 in the preseason. However, this line does not make a whole lot of sense to me. The prognosticators project the Pacers win total for the season at 30.5, while they have the Nets win total at 21 wins for this season.
So why are the Pacers only 3.5-point chalk at home? The line opened at 5 and has slid to 3.5, yet the public is on Indiana. The Pacers defeated better competition in the preseason. It just looks too easy to take the Pacers here. Therefore, I will go the other way and take Brooklyn and the points.
NBA Fantasy Information
A lot of cheap players for both teams. We are going to have to watch the minutes of all the players and see who gets the most time off the bench.
Players to watch:
D’Angelo Russell (Nets), SG, $6600. Russell may get a chance to blossom now that he is away from the Lakers. The expectations were very high in Los Angeles. He is not a big bargain at that price, but he did score more than 30 fantasy points per game (PPG) in three of the four preseason games he played.
Lance Stephenson (Pacers), SG, $3300. Stephenson played well in the preseason, scoring at least 20 fantasy PPG in all three games he played. He scored 37.2 fantasy points against Milwaukee. If he gets 24 to 28 minutes off the bench and produces like he did in the preseason, then he will be a steal at that price.
Miami Heat (0-0) at Orlando Magic (0-0), Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST
Line: Heat -3.5. Total 206.
Miami started the 2016-17 season 11-30. They made an amazing run and finished the season going 30-11. The Heat finished .500 and were tied with the Chicago Bulls for the final playoff berth. However, the Bulls had the tiebreaker and secured the #8 seed for the postseason.
The Heat plan to start faster and not have their playoffs hopes come down to the final day of the regular season. The Heat re-signed Dion Waiters and James Johnson and added free agent Kelly Olynyk from the Celtics. With starters Goran Dragic, Hassan Whiteside and Josh Richardson back, Miami should be in the playoffs this year.
I am surprised that the Heat are projected to win 40 games in a weak Eastern Conference. Miami should win 41 to 44 games this season.
Orlando is also projected to win fewer games than last year. The Magic won 29 last season and are projected to win 26 this season. However, I cannot disagree much with that projection. The Magic have a good young nucleus and all five starters at the end of the 2016-17 season are back.
Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton, Terrence Ross and Nikola Vucevic will be the starting five again. They played 409 minutes and 55 seconds together to close out the season. They have added Jonathon Simmons (from San Antonio) and underrated Marreese Speights (from the Clippers) to solidify their bench.
Orlando beat the Heat in three of their four meetings last season. Three of those games went over the Vegas total, while the one under was only under the total by a single point. Orlando defeated Miami 93-90 in the preseason.
NBA Fantasy Information
A lot of cheap players for both teams. We are going to have to watch the minutes of all the players and see who gets the most time off the bench.
Players to watch:
Aaron Gordon (Magic), PF, $6300. Gordon is a stud and his last four preseason games were all over 25 fantasy points. He only played starter’s minutes in one of those four games.
Tyler Johnson (Heat), PG, $4500. Johnson comes off the bench but he can score points in a hurry. He had a couple of preseason games over 25 fantasy points. Pick your spots with him though. Early in the season, I see better value options at PG with the bigger boards.
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