Nets vs Celtics Prediction, Picks Tonight | In-Season Tournament Best Bet

Here's everything you need to know about Nets vs Celtics on Friday, Nov. 10 — our expert prediction and betting picks for today.

After laying waste to their opponents through the first two weeks of the season, things have stalled a bit for the Boston Celtics in the aftermath of two straight heartbreaking losses. With their first game of the NBA's In-Season Tournament on the docket set for Friday, there's a great opportunity to turn things back around quickly.

Can the Celtics get back on track against a volatile Nets team?

Let's get to our Nets vs Celtics prediction and pick.

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There's one glaring difference between these two teams, and that is the injury report. Sure, Boston has a far superior roster at this moment in time, but it helps that it's injury-free for all intents and purposes. The Nets, on the other hand, just lost Cam Thomas for several weeks due to an ankle sprain and were already without Nic Claxton. These are two key members to the fabric of Brooklyn's team, and with that, the absences may be too much to overcome here.

With that said,  Cam Johnson is set to return from injury on Friday for the Nets, and may be getting Ben Simmons back, too. For a Nets team that ranks top five in both three-point frequency and three-point success rate at 38.5%, the sharpshooting Thomas will be a huge boost.

I suspect that the Nets will carry over some of that positive play we saw in their 100-93 win over the Clippers to make this one a contest, but ultimately the Celtics should win this game. Kristaps Porzingis has been massive inside for Boston and will welcome a matchup against Day'Ron Sharpe and the undersized Dorian Finney-Smith with open arms. Had it been Claxton in that role, perhaps it would've been a different ballgame.

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It sure looked like Boston was going to break records with its start of the season, and considering what the Pacers have been able to do early, its 155-104 domination of Indiana looks incredibly impressive in retrospect.

That's in the past, however, and what we're looking at over the past two games is an offensive efficiency rating under 100 points per 100 possessions. That's incredibly poor for a championship contender like Boston, especially one which has boasted one of the best offenses in basketball over the years, but we have to consider these matchups came against two of the strongest defensive units in basketball in Philly and Minnesota.

We can expect things to turn around a bit here against a Nets team that has been extremely generous on the defensive end, and I do want to reiterate what I said earlier that the Celtics are essentially injury-free with only Neemias Queta missing from the lineup.

While the Nets may have lost one scorer in Cam Thomas to injury, the return of Cam Johnson should prove to be massive. He averaged nearly 17 points per game after Brooklyn brought him in last season and has been out the past seven games with a calf strain. His return means a 39.3% career three-point shooter is back in the mix for a team that loves to shoot from outside, and while it's hard to make up for the pure shot creation ability of Thomas, I do think that Johnson should fill in a lot of the scoring that Brooklyn will be missing.

The Nets are also taking part in their second game of the NBA's In-Season Tournament after eking out a tough two-point win in Chicago last week. It's the first year of this event, so it's hard to get a feel for which teams do and don't have an advantage, but one would assume that having already experienced this very differently-feeling type of game will benefit the Nets.

The Celtics have one of the best three-point defenses in basketball, but we have to consider the fact that it's been just seven games. Teams like the Knicks, Wizards and even Sixers have not shot the ball well for the last few weeks, so it's hard to avoid taking that with a grain of salt. In addition, the Celtics rank top seven in the league in three-point frequency against them, so with a higher volume from some less-than-stellar shooting teams it's easy to see why they've been dominant in this area.

I do think the Nets should have success from three in this game with Johnson returning, and I like this team even more if Simmons is able to go as it appears he may be able to. The Celtics have covered just twice all year and have run into some issues on offense of late, making this number too hard to pass up.

Pick: Nets +11 (-110)

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