Boston Celtics at Brooklyn Nets - 5/25/21 NBA Picks and Prediction

Brooklyn Nets (49-24) vs Boston Celtics (37-37)

Game Info: Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 7:30 pm (Barclays Center)

Betting Odds: Brooklyn Nets -9.5 -- Over/Under: 227 Click Here for the Latest Odds

The Brooklyn Nets play host to the Boston Celtics once again at the TD Garden in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

The Boston Celtics will be hoping for a better shooting performance after falling short to the Nets in a 104-93 road loss in Game 1. Jayson Tatum led the team with 22 points and five assists, Marcus Smart added 17 points with five assists while Kemba Walker chipped in with 15 points. As a team, the Celtics shot just 36 percent from the field and 11 of 30 from the 3-point line as they got off to a strong start and led by as many as 12 points in the first half, before getting blown out in the second half where they managed just 40 points to fall behind by as many as 17 points. Tatum shot just six of 20 from the field while Walker shot just five of 16 from the field with just two assists. Robert Williams was impressive off the bench as he scored 11 points with nine rebounds and a career-high nine blocks, so the Celtics will likely look to play him more than 23 minutes from this point onwards.

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets looked so rusty in the first half as they scored just 16 points in the first quarter while missing their first 10 3-point attempts. Kevin Durant led the team in scoring with 32 points and 12 rebounds, Kyrie Irving added 29 points on 11 of 20 shooting while James Harden chipped in with 21 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and four steals. As a team, the Nets shot 41 percent from the field and eight of 34 from the 3-point line as they struggled to find their footing in the first half, but they came out hot in the third quarter and made it look easy in the end as their Big Three was too much to handle once they started to click.

Get the BEST EXPERT PICKS From PROVEN WINNERS

Looking at the betting trends, the Celtics are 9-4 ATS in their last 13 road games, 1-5 ATS in their last six games against a team with a winning record and 4-10 ATS in their last 14 games overall. The Nets are 4-0 ATS in their last four home games, 11-1 ATS in their last 12 games against a team with a losing record and 6-0 ATS in their last six games overall.

Head to head, the under is 4-0 in the last four meetings overall, the Celtics are 0-7 ATS in the last seven meetings in Brooklyn and the Celtics are 0-4 ATS in the last four meetings overall.

The Celtics were always going to do it tough in this series without their second best player in Jaylen Brown and their confidence took a real hit after dropping the series opener despite playing great defense for most of the game. I’m expecting a better shooting performance from Tatum, but I’m also looking at the Nets to get off to a much better start which is trouble for the Celtics. The line seems hefty, but the Nets won by double-digits despite one of their worst shooting performances of the season, so I like them to cover in this one.

Bet $20 Win $100 Click Here