Brooklyn Nets vs Indiana Pacers Prediction: Nets to win

The Nets signed two players who previously played for Indiana this summer, but only one of them will play against his former team. Will Edmond Sumner help Brooklyn beat the Pacers?

The Nets have only won 1 of 5 regular season games so far, and they are now only 13th in the Eastern Conference. It would seem that Brooklyn has a good pool of role players around Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but the loss of Seth Curry alone is already throwing the team off. Joe Harris is still out of shape, which is why it feels like we're missing another sharpshooter. The New York club currently ranks 21st in the NBA in three-point shooting, and only Patti Mills is in the top 50. The fact that the team is in the top 3 on blocked shots does not help either, and not only big man Nicolas Claxton, but also Irving and Durant are in the top 20 on that indicator. In the meantime, the Nets head coach has also been fielding young players: Day'ron Sharpe, Cam Thomas and David Duke have been in Brooklyn's starting lineup. In addition to Curry, T.J. Warren is on injured reserve but Seth should be back in action by the time the game with Indiana: his participation is still questionable.

Steve Nash's team lost in overtime to Dallas last match (125-129). Irving and Durant combined for 76 points but even that wasn't enough. On defense, the Nets could do nothing against Doncic and the team missed too many shots from beyond the arc. That said, Brooklyn won the battle on the opposite side of the court and was accurate on the fast break with a 31-point performance.

The Pacers have lost 4 of their starting 6 games in the regular season and their battle for the top 10 spot in the East is out of the question. Overall, Indiana has a nice enough young core, and Buddy Hield and Myles Turner would come in handy for any NBA club fighting for a playoff spot. Tyrese Haliburton is still one of the league's most efficient point guards, and in addition to him, four players score 14+ points: Myles Turner, Jalen Smith, Bennedict Mathurin and Buddy Hield. Turner has just recently returned from injury and hit 9 blocked shots in 2 games, confirming his status as one of the league's best rimprotectors. Only Daniel Theis is in Indiana's infirmary, a loss that is even less significant when Turner returns.

The day before, Rick Carlisle's team took revenge on Washington for their opening league loss, 127-117. Turner made up for his poor play against Chicago and was the high-scoring Indiana player with 27 points. Less than a third of the Pacers' points came in the paint and the fact that the team made more than half of their threes was an important factor. Hield and Haliburton did well, and Turner and Nesmith also made important contributions. The bench didn't help much this time: Six reserve players scored a combined 20 points.

Brooklyn's defense as a whole is pretty good, and they have everything they need to dry up the game. The stats of recent games say otherwise, but the players are trying, and sooner or later the result should come. Indiana is unstable at the start of the regular season, at times the lack of skill of the role players is conspicuous. Head-to-head stats also speak in favor of the Nets, so our prediction is the following:

• H1 (-9.5) for 1.755;
• TU (236.5) for 2.10;
• W1 By 21+ Points for 4.40.

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