On Wednesday night, we get our first regular-season take a look at top draft pick Zaccharie Risacher when the Atlanta Hawks host the Brooklyn Nets for an Eastern Conference showdown.
Unfortunately for Brooklyn, it might be tough sledding to get a road win, as it’s going to be without Day’Ron Sharpe (hamstring), Trendon Watford (hamstring) and Bojan Bogdanovic (foot).
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Here’s our prediction and pick for Wednesday night’s regular-season opener for the Nets and Hawks.
Nets vs. Hawks odds
| Team | Spread | Moneyline | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nets | +7.5 (-105) | +250 | o221 (-108) |
| Hawks | -7.5 (-115) | -310 | u221 (-112) |
Nets vs. Hawks Preview
The Trae Young and Dejounte Murray backcourt experiment didn’t work as planned. Nevertheless, Atlanta was capable of move on from Murray, getting draft capital and just a few key rotational pieces back within the trade with the Pelicans.
On paper, it made sense so as to add a talented, switchable perimeter defender to a team that was eager to hide Young on the defensive end of the ground, but perhaps the Hawks just have to lean into that and play at a neck-breaking pace this season.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn is within the midst of a rebuild after trading Mikal Bridges for a Brink’s truckload of first-rounders.
It forces the Nets to ride out just a few inevitably gruesome seasons in hopes that they get lucky within the upcoming drafts and might prepare for the longer term. There won’t be much winning in Brooklyn this season.
The spread for Wednesday night’s opener for each teams rests at 7.5 points in favor of Atlanta. What can we expect from these teams of their first regular-season game?
First, there’s lots to love about this Hawks team, particularly their bench, which features considered one of the premier sixth men in Bogdan Bogdanovic, the 2024 No. 1 pick in Risacher, a seasoned frontcourt veteran in Larry Nance Jr. and a talented two-way interior force in Onyeka Okongwu.
Atlanta ought to be considered one of the fastest teams within the NBA this season. The Hawks were sixth in pace last 12 months but ought to be even faster this season in an try and mitigate their clear weaknesses on the defensive end of the ground.
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Nets vs. Hawks pick
Brooklyn simply doesn’t have enough firepower to maintain this one inside striking distance.
Further, the Nets were an egregiously poor 3-13-2 against the spread as underdogs of seven.5 points or higher in 2023-24.
Normally, we don’t love laying this many points with a team that we’re somewhat unsure of heading into the season, but there’s a transparent talent disparity and contrast in styles that favors Atlanta on this one.
Pick: Hawks -7.5 (-110, Caesars)
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Andrew Norton handicaps the NBA, WNBA, NFL, college basketball and football, UFC and golf. Through the 2022-23 NBA season, he achieved a standout 14.1% ROI, cashing 60% of his NBA spread picks and leading Tallysight in its SportsIQ metric.
