Suns vs. Nets Game Betting Lines with Durant making his first trip back to Brooklyn

The biggest storyline in the NBA on Wednesday is from the Suns-Nets game as superstar Kevin Durant returns to Brooklyn for the first time since last season’s trade to Phoenix. The Suns are short favorites on the NBA odds as they continue a long road trip. 2024 NBA Expert Analysis Phoenix vs Brooklyn | MyBookie Sportsbook NBA Week 15

How to Bet Suns at Nets NBA Odds & TV Info

When: Wednesday, 8:30 PM ET
Where: Barclays Center
TV: ABC
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: Tunein.com
NBA Odds: Suns -3.5 (total 234)

Series History

The Suns lost to the visiting Nets 116-112 on Dec. 13. Cam Thomas scored 24 points and Mikal Bridges added 21 in his return to Phoenix. The Suns trailed by eight points at halftime but rallied for an 88-86 lead heading into the fourth. The game stayed tight throughout the final quarter, but the Nets took the lead with about 10 minutes remaining and never gave it up. The Suns cut it to 114-112 with 28 seconds left, but Thomas hit two free throws with 3 seconds left to seal it. Devin Booker had 34 points and 12 assists for the Suns and Kevin Durant 27. Phoenix still leads all-time 50-47 and has won the past two in Brooklyn.

Why Bet on Phoenix Suns?

The Suns snapped a two-game skid with a 118-105 win in Miami on Monday to improve to are 8-2 in their last 10 games and sweep the Heat for just the second time in the last 17 seasons. The other was 2020-21, when Phoenix made the NBA Finals. Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradly Beal each had seven assists for Phoenix, which led by as many as 28 and took a 100-74 lead into the final quarter. The Suns — the NBA’s worst team in terms of fourth-quarter point differential — saw the lead get cut to 115-105 with 1:33 left, but Miami didn’t score again.

Booker also finished with 22 points – he scored at least 40 in each of the previous three games – and eight rebounds. He’s dropped 20 or more in 12 of the last 14 contests, averaging 32.0 points, 6.2 assists and 4.3 boards over that stretch while shooting an impressive 55.6 percent from the floor. Durant had 20 points, eight boards and seven assists. Since returning from a hamstring injury that cost him three games in early January, the 35-year-old is averaging 24.6 points, 6.8 boards and 4.9 assists through 12 contests while shooting 54.5 percent from the floor and 40.8 percent from beyond the arc.

The Suns were coming off a 23-turnover outing Sunday in a loss in Orlando that was largely why they lost, the second straight defeat with a huge discrepancy in shot attempts. On Monday, their first turnover came with 6:34 left in the second quarter and they ended the night with just eight. The Suns generated 30 assists Monday after just 19 on Sunday.

Grayson Allen injured his right ankle in the second quarter and did not return. He’s questionable for Wednesday. Allen played 13 minutes and had three points, two rebounds and an assist before going down. The sixth-year guard has been one of Phoenix’s most important players this season, averaging 13.5 points per game. Allen leads the NBA in three-point shooting percentage at 49.8%, as well as games with 8+ triples (4) this season, and is the only qualified player in the NBA shooting 50+ FG%, 40+ 3FG% and 90+ FT%. Eric Gordon started in Allen’s place in the second half Monday.

Phoenix’s streak of having a 40-point scorer in six straight games ended Monday. It was the longest such streak in franchise history and the first time any team in the NBA has done so since the 2002-03 Lakers (all Kobe Bryant).

Even with the recent strong play, the fourth quarter remains a problem. Turnovers are a big thing. Phoenix has the highest turnover rate (16.5%) during the fourth quarter and allows 5.4 points off turnovers, highest in the league by 0.8 points. The Suns also are tied for last in effective field goal percentage (49.7%) that adjusts for threes being worth more than twos. The Suns are shooting 43.5% overall and 31.2% from three in fourth quarters, all while turning it over 3.9 times. Phoenix’s pace slows down to 94.04, last in the league during the final period and well below its 24th-ranked pace of 98.47 overall.

As noted above, this is Durant’s first trip back to Brooklyn since being traded to Phoenix in February 2023. Will he be warmly welcomed? “It just depends on how the people wake up,” Durant said. “A lot of people don’t know what to say or how to feel about me. It’s up in the air on what may happen. I never know how people are going to react. I don’t expect anything from anyone.”

Why Bet on Brooklyn Nets?

The Nets got former No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons back from a long injury absence on Monday and trashed Utah 147-114. The Nets’ season-high 147 points were their most points scored in a regulation home game in the franchise’s NBA history.

Simmons finished just shy of a triple-double with 10 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Simmons shot a perfect 5-of-5 from the field, but all five shots were taken from inside the restricted area just a few feet from the basket. He became the first player in NBA history to record 10+ points, 10+ assists and five-plus rebounds in 18 minutes played or less and first player in the league this season to notch a points/assists double-double with no turnovers off the bench.. Simmons joined Denver’s Nikola Jokic (10/20/18 vs. Phoenix) as the only players in NBA history to record 10+ points, more than five rebounds, 10+ assists, no turnovers and not miss a shot from the field.

Simmons finished plus-27 on the night in just 18 minutes and provided the Nets with size and pace to help them win for just the fifth time in their past 17 games. It’s the first time Brooklyn has won two games in a row since late December. Simmons’ passing was contagious, as the Nets had a season-best 41 assists with just eight turnovers. It was the first time in team history they had notched 40 assists and fewer than 10 turnovers.

“Extremely impressive,” said coach Jacque Vaughn. “Other people played so well tonight because of the impact of Ben Simmons. It’s that simple. The looks that we got tonight, the amount of 3s that we got tonight, the fast-break points that we got tonight, the uncontested looks that we got tonight, the pace that we played with … we did it on both ends of the floor. And Ben deserves an extreme amount of credit for the way he played tonight.”

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, Simmons hadn’t gone through a full practice with the Nets before his return Monday. He had been out since Nov. 6 while he recovered from a pinched nerve in his back. The three-time All-Star has played in only 48 games, and made just 39 starts, for the Nets since the Philadelphia 76ers traded him to Brooklyn in 2022.

Mikal Bridges had 33 points Monday, his seventh time this season with at least 30. Bridges has scored at least 15 points in all but one of his 13 January appearances, a span in which he’s averaging 24.0 points per game while operating as Brooklyn’s primary offensive weapon. He’s also putting up a career-best 21.9 points per game throughout the entire 2023-24 campaign. Bridges is tied for second in the NBA in “clutch” points (98) with Damian Lillard, trailing only Stephen Curry (139). Bridges ranks eighth in the league in total minutes played (1,612). He led this category in each of the last two seasons.

Cam Thomas added 25 points and seven rebounds Monday. Thomas is averaging 25.7 points per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field over the past six. He leads the NBA this season in 25+ point games off the bench (six) and has a career-high four games with five-plus assists.

Monday’s win got the Nets back to .500 at home this season and marked the first time they have won back-to-back home games since winning three straight games at Barclays Center from Nov. 25-28. Eight of Brooklyn’s last 11 games have been decided by single digits, including five games by five or fewer points. Nine of the team’s games overall this season have been decided by just two points.

Entering this season, either Brooklyn or Phoenix has swept the season series in nine of the last 11 seasons (The 2019-20 and 2017-18 series are the only ones that have been split since the 2012-13 season).

Expert Prediction

Suns 117, Nets 114

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