Betting Odds: Boston Celtics at Brooklyn Nets
- Spread: Celtics -2.5
- Over/Under: 217.5
- Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
>> All odds as of 4:45 p.m. ET. Download The Action Network App to get real-time NBA odds and track your bets
At around 11 a.m. ET this morning, Kyrie Irving was ruled out tonight against the Brooklyn Nets with a quad injury. His starting backcourt mate, Marcus Smart, was also ruled out a couple minutes later.
As you can see from our Sports Insights dashboard, the spread, which opened at Celtics -4.5, quickly moved to -3 right after the injury news was released. It held there for most of the afternoon before a Steam Move pushed it to -2.5, where it currently sits.
The over/under, which opened at 221, was sitting at at 220.5 before the injury news. It dove way down to 218.5 after, and a Steam Move late this afternoon pushed it down even more to its current number of 217.5.
Betting Impact
Irving is clearly the engine for the Celtics: With him on the court, they have been a ridiculous 12.4 points per 100 possessions better vs. him off. That's in the 94th percentile of all players.
Most of that is on offense, as the Celtics have been 11.3 points/100 better with him playing, and their effective field goal percentage has increased by 4.5% with him on the floor. The Celtics shoot better from every single spot on the floor with him running the offense.
Terry Rozier will get the keys to the offense with Irving and Smart out, and our own Justin Phan had a nice note in his Injury Report piece today:
Rozier’s recent play has been a major concern. His shot selection has been a bigger issue than usual over the past two games, and the Celtics have scored at a far higher rate this season without him. Their Offensive Rating drops from 114.6 (1st) to 103.8 (28th) when he’s on the court.
Fantasy Impact
Here's the news blurb from our FantasyLabs NBA page:
Irving recently missed time due to eye irritation, and Terry Rozier was an elite value option as the interim starter.
Rozier averaged a FantasyLabs' +8.1 DraftKings Plus/Minus in 33.0 minutes during the games Irving missed this season, and Gordon Hayward also benefited without Rozier in the second unit as he led the team with a 40% assist rate and 36.75 DraftKings points per game.
Hayward and Rozier should be targeted in all formats.
Without Smart, Jaylen Brown could return to the starting lineup, and when Irving, Smart, and Aron Baynes (thumb) have been off the court, Marcus Morris has led the Celtics with 1.18 DraftKings points per minute.
For the fastest injury update information, make sure to follow our NBA twitter feed. We'll quickly update projections in our NBA models as well.
