NBA Free Premium Play 03/18: Brooklyn Nets @ Detroit Pistons

Brooklyn  at Detroit

NBA - 507 Brooklyn Nets @ 508 Detroit Pistons Projected Line: Brooklyn by 7 points Detroit's defense is a complete mess right now, as they have been averaging a defensive rating of 117.5 since the All Star break and 124.7 on their last five games! The Pistons have also (together with Phoenix) the worst 3pts defense in the league since the All Star break with 43% 3pts allowed, something ridiculous for a team that earlier on the season was even #1 in the league in 3pts% allowed at a certain time! Their interior defense isn't looking any better, with Greg Monroe refusing to defend anyone right now. Portland scored 54 points in the paint against them and it's only enough to see DeAndre Jordan's super dunk over Brandon Knight to realize how ridiculous is the defensive positioning of the Pistons's defense nowadays. By the way, Knight is by far their best perimeter defensive player and he is unfortunately out for tonight's game. On the other side, Brooklyn lost yesterday against Atlanta and this wasn't a surprise for me, as I took the Hawks last night. Even though Brooklyn had a great spot with 3 days off to rest prior to this game, Atlanta's coach used the right starting lineup for this contest with Al Horford, Josh Smith, Kyle Korver, Devin Harris and Jeff Teague. With this kind of explosiveness, Brooklyn quickly got into deep trouble, as their roster is big and slow to handle Atlanta's quickness. Thanks to that, the Hawks scored 22 fast break points for a huge 11-17 FG in transitions for 1.35 PPP! Besides that, Atlanta's speed was evident also at the rim with 19-27 (71%) FG and this combination of good offensive numbers for Atlanta was simply too much for Brooklyn. The Nets had a huge rebounding edge, they had good post up numbers, but that wasn't enough for them to compensate their defensive inability to stop Atlanta's quick offense. Tonight Detroit will offer a completely different matchup to Brooklyn. Besides Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum, Detroit is a slow team just like Brooklyn, without any kind of explosiveness. After all, four of their starters are slow footed guys: Jose Calderon, Kyle Singler, Jason Maxiell and Greg Monroe. Detroit's interior defense is non-existent right now, so Brook Lopez will pound the Pistons down low tonight. Detroit's post up defense has been horrible since the All Star break with 0.93 PPP allowed, their defensive rebounding is also in regression since Andre Drummond was injured, so Brooklyn will have another big edge tonight in here. The Nets have been shooting well from the perimeter lately and considering Detroit's horrible 3pts defense, Brooklyn will also have another edge in here. But the key of this game has to go with the spots of both teams and the matchup between Detroit's offense and Brooklyn's defense. I know the Nets are on a back to back spot tonight, but their spot isn't that bad, as they had 3 days off to rest prior to yesterday's game. Their lack of speed won't get exposed today as Detroit isn't an explosive team, so I believe they will be fine. Regarding Detroit's offense, it's mostly based on pick and rolls from Jose Calderon, Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey, but Brooklyn is #5 on the league on pick and rolls defense with just 0.75 PPP allowed. The first two games of the season between these two teams were close contests, but Detroit's current level is very far from the level that they showed in those two games earlier on the season. Detroit is 0-8 on their last eight games and they are back to their level early on the season when they started their season with eight straight losses. Therefore, I expect an easy win for the Nets tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here. Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 507 Brooklyn Nets (-3,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker