The 2013 NBA playoffs start this weekend, and for the first time in almost 20 years, the New York Knicks are going into them as the Atlantic Division champs. It’s not just New York that is going to be on display at home in the first two games of the postseason though, as the Brooklyn Nets are going to be hosting their first playoff games at the Barclays Center as well this year.

Just because Brooklyn and New York are going to have home court advantage in the first round of the postseason doesn’t mean that they are anywhere near locks to get into the second round, though. NBA betting fans know that both teams have very tough matchups. The Knicks have to contend with the Boston Celtics, while the Nets draw the Chicago Bulls. Both enemies play stout defensive basketball, and both have enough talent to not just win their respective first round series, but subsequent series down the road as well.

The Knicks did play quite well this year against the Celtics, but there is definitely some cause for concern. The 3-1 record both SU and ATS was impressive for New York, but the one win that the boys from Beantown had happened at Madison Square Garden earlier in the campaign. If the C’s can figure out how to steal one of these first two games at MSG to start this series, it could be a long series that doesn’t go the way that New York wants it to.

The Nets meanwhile, were nowhere near as fortunate against Chicago. The Bulls won two of the three meetings this season and covered all three games. Brooklyn didn’t score more than 93 points in any of the three games this year against the boys from the Windy City, a clear indication that this is going to be a slugfest of a series.

The Detroit Pistons have had no success over the course of this season against the Brooklyn Nets. They have dropped all three meetings this year from an SU standpoint, and they only have one cover to show for their work in those games. On the final night of the NBA’s regular season though, Detroit will have one last chance to work some magic at the Barclays Center on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. ET.

The Pistons are actually ending the season on a bit of a high, and they are playing like a team you would want to make your NBA picks on. They have won four straight games and have gone 7-0-1 ATS in their last eight. We really have seen Greg Monroe come into his own this season, especially in these last seven games of the campaign. The former Georgetown Hoya has averaged 19.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per game in that stretch, and he is surely going to be a man to watch out for in this one.

Brooklyn meanwhile, knows that it is going to be the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs regardless of what happens in this one. The team put on a nice charge on Monday night to dispose of the Washington Wizards even after falling behind 34-21 at the end of the first quarter, and as a result, the team is 5-1 SU and 4-2 ATS in its last six games.

However, that win against Washington really came with little consequence. Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, Jerry Stackhouse, Keith Bogans, and Reggie Evans all sat out for the game, while Gerald Wallace only played 22 minutes. The entire starting five was basically turned inside out, though it was still impressive to see the de facto bench players to it to a Washington team that had been playing solid basketball down the stretch of the campaign.

The Indiana Pacers are going to war on Friday night with the Brooklyn Nets as 5 ½-point favorites in NBA betting action. Anyone who studies this series though, knows that for whatever reason, the boys from Brooklyn have had a great history against the Pacers, and that could create a great betting stance to kick off the weekend.

The Nets have won three straight games in this series and have covered five in a row dating back to last January 31^st, 2012. The last game that the Pacers won and covered here at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in this series was back in January 2011.

This time around, there is probably just a bit more motivation for the Nets to do well than there is for the Pacers. Indiana more or less knows that it is going to be the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs this season. Sure, there is a possibility to run down the New York Knicks, who are two games ahead of the Pacers with four to play, but that isn’t all that likely. It also is just as unlikely that Brooklyn could run down Indiana for the third seed in the East. The Nets though, could win this game and clinch home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against either the Chicago Bulls or the Atlanta Hawks.

G Joe Johnson has been bothered by a quadriceps injury of late. He has been back in the lineup for four games since returning from injury, but he has only averaged 14.5 points per game since that point, almost two points off of his scoring average for the season.

The last time these two met, the Pacers had massive problems on the boards. F Reggie Evans had 22 rebounds, while F Gerald Wallace had 11. C Brook Lopez led all scorers with 25 points.

You’re not going to find many players that are as dynamic as F LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trail Blazers. He is averaging right at 21.0 points per game this season, and he had a streak of seven straight games with at least 20 points scored going before his team’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder a few days ago in which he scored just 10. The former Texas Longhorns standout and his teammates are back at home at the Rose Garden on Wednesday night for a showdown with the Brooklyn Nets.

Aldridge will have his work cut out for him against C Brook Lopez on Wednesday. Lopez is a fantastic center that has been playing well on both sides of the court. The fact that F Reggie Evans has been cleaning up the glass as well as he has, has allowed Lopez to focus more on shot blocking and making his own shots on the offensive end of the court.

Brooklyn has seen the results of this pan out well, knowing that the team has gone 10-4-2 ATS in its last 16 games. Unfortunately for the Nets though, they are just 8-8 SU in those outings, and they are starting to lose ground to the suddenly surging New York Knicks in the Atlantic Division. This is the sixth game in an eight-game marathon roadie for the Nets.

Portland knows that it has to get on its high horse if it is going to get into the playoffs in the Western Conference. Entering the day, the Trail Blazers are 2 ½-games behind the Los Angeles Lakers with two teams between them in the race for the last playoff spot in the West.

The home team has won four games in a row in this series and has covered three of the four. Brooklyn is not surprisingly a 2 ½-point underdog on the NBA odds on Wednesday night.

At the outset of the month, the Dallas Mavericks were 25-32, and they looked dead in the water in the Western Conference playoff chase. They started the month with a 98-90 win on the road against the Brooklyn Nets, and that sparked a 7-3 run over the course of their 10 games thus far in March. Now, Dallas is only three-games back in the Western Conference playoff chase, and it will hope to continue that push on Wednesday night when it takes on these same Nets once again, this time at the American Airlines Center.

Brooklyn is in the midst of a playoff push of a different variety. Barring a collapse of epic proportions, the Nets know that they will be in the postseason this year. They’re still trying to run down the New York Knicks for the top spot in the Atlantic Division, though. Brooklyn starts the day two back in the loss column of the boys from the Big Apple with 15 games to play

When these two met the first time, G Deron Williams had a terrible time trying to hang onto the basketball for the Nets. Though he did score 24 points to lead the team, he also turned the ball over seven times. Brooklyn finished the day with 19 turnovers.

Dallas meanwhile, shot 50.0% from the field and 42.9% from beyond the arc that night. The team was led by F Dirk Nowitzki and F Vince Carter, who each had 20 points. G OJ Mayo has been floundering over the course of the second half of the season, but he had one of his better games against the Nets, hitting three triples and scoring a total of 17 points.

The Mavericks a 3 ½-point favorites on the Wednesday night NBA odds.

The Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks square off at the Barclays Center Sunday with each team trying to keep a grip on its spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Brooklyn will have gone five days without playing after beating the New Orleans Hornets on Tuesday, while the struggling Hawks have a winnable game at home against the Phoenix Suns Friday night prior to their showdown in Brooklyn.

The Nets have won four of their last five games after hitting a bit of a rough patch and currently hold the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with a straight-up record of 38-24. Meanwhile, the Hawks are in the midst of their own rough patch as they’ve gone 2-6 in their last eight games. A major cause for Atlanta’s recent struggles has been nagging injuries to two of its key players—Jeff Teague and Josh Smith. Both are listed as questionable against the Suns on Friday.

Atlanta currently holds the No. 7 spot in the East with a straight-up record of 35-29.

The Hawks and Nets played each other just over a week ago in Atlanta with the Nets securing an easy 93-80 win as a 3.5-point underdog. Brook Lopez led the way for the Nets scoring 18 points, 14 of which came in a key third quarter.

Atlanta desperately needs Teague and Smith back in the lineup if they are to turn things around before the playoffs. Both are nursing what’s described as “sprains,” so neither is expected to be out of action for an extended period of time. Smith is averaging 17.2 points and 8.5 rebounds for the Hawks, while Teague is averaging 14.5 points and seven rebounds at the point guard position.

Neither the Hawks or Nets have been particularly kind to bettors that have backed them in their NBA picks this season. Atlanta is 29-33-2 against the spread this season, while Brooklyn holds a mark of 30-32-3 against the number. 

The last time the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers took to the court was two months ago, but don’t think that means much as we head into their clash on Monday night in the City of Brotherly Love. Make no mistake about it: Philly is going to be out for blood, knowing that the last time these two teams met, Brooklyn came to town and dropped a 109-89 beating on the hosts.

Of course, if the Nets are as hot offensively on this night as they were then, there is very little hope for the 76ers to beat the NBA odds. In the January meeting, G Deron Williams scored 22 points, while F Reggie Evans pulled down a stunning 23 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. Brooklyn shot 41.7 percent from long range, and most importantly, its starters were all at least +20 while on the court against the 76ers’ starters.

Philadelphia is going to need to get some big time contributions from G Jrue Holiday in this one. Holiday was the team’s top scorer with 19 points, and he also had eight assists back in January. By all accounts, he was the best player for the hosts on the court. However, he has come up on some hard times of late and really needs to play better ball than he has been recently.

Holiday only scored eight points in Sunday’s loss to the Orlando Magic, and that came on the heels of a nine-point effort against the Miami Heat two days before. Holiday is averaging 18.6 points per game on the season, and though he is one of the best distributors in the league, averaging 8.7 assists per game, it is clear that he is going to have to be the main scoring threat as well if there is any hope of snapping this five-game losing streak.

The Brooklyn Nets have hit a rough patch with four losses in their last five games that’s resulted in them sliding to the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. However, they will have every opportunity to right the ship this week with winnable games against the Charlotte Bobcats and Washington Wizards before a road game against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

The Nets, who are 26-31-3 against the spread this season, did receive some good news with the return of Joe Johnson from a foot injury that had kept him sidelined for three games. He struggled a bit in the Nets loss to the Chicago Bulls over the weekend, but Johnson could provide a lift moving forward as he eases back into the rotation.

Speaking of the rotation, head coach P.J. Carlesimo said he plans to make changes this week in order to help shore up the Nets defense. The biggest adjustment Carlesimo will make is having both of his centers—Brook Lopez and Andray Blatche—on the court together for more minutes in order to boost the teams interior defense. As a result, the likes of Kris Humphries and Reggie Wayne are expected to play a diminished role moving forward, according to ESPN.

This could prove to be a smart move for the Nets as the season heads into crunch time. New Jersey is just three games clear of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot and their margin for error is dwindling.

Even with the changes, for handicappers the Nets remain a tough team to back with much confidence in their NBA picks moving forward. They tend to play to their level of competition, which doesn’t work when giving away points on the line. With that said, Charlotte and Washington seem to be the ideal testing grounds for the new rotation and perhaps things can turn around this week. 

The Dwight Howard saga continues to swirl this year, as the Los Angeles Lakers are finding the same problem that the Orlando Magic had. The NBA trade deadline is less than 48 hours away, and now that owner Dr. Jerry Buss has passed away, the Lakers really need to make up their mind without a bona fide leader what they are going to do with Howard, who is a free agent at the end of the season.

If Los Angeles keeps Howard, it can offer him the most money in free agency. There is no doubt that this would weigh heavily on the mind of a center that has spent the mass majority of the last calendar year hurting with various problems. Getting the most money possible has to be considered one of the main goals.

However, we still think that the NBA odds are going to point Howard towards the Brooklyn Nets. This is where Howard wants to play and has wanted to play for the better part of the last two season, as he wants to pair with good friend Deron Williams and try to bring a title to Gotham City.

Here’s the problem, though. The Nets are in bad shape right now in terms of the salary cap. Kris Humphries is due $12M over the course of the next two seasons, and the contract that was given to Joe Johnson ($21M next year, $23M in 2014) and the one given to Williams ($18M next year, $19M in 2014) really make it prohibitive to bring in another star.

That’s why it is vital to look at what the Nets do in these next few days, even more than what the Lakers do. If Brooklyn clears out some salary cap space in some way, shape, or form and can offer Howard a max contract, we are convinced that this is where he is going to end up, whether it be via a straight signing or a sign and trade with the Lakers after the season is said and done with.

The NBA odds were definitely on the side of the Brooklyn Nets over the course of their last two games before the NBA All-Star Break. They beat upset the Indiana Pacers and ran with the Denver Nuggets, and now, they have a bit of momentum going into the second half of the year.

The best news of the bunch is that G Deron Williams is going to be back in the fold for this week’s games. The franchise player in Brooklyn missed the wins over Indiana and Denver, and he is going to be happy to be back in the saddle for this week.

The Nets are going to find themselves as favorites quite a bit over the course of the next several games, beginning on Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. Unfortunately for Brooklyn, it has failed to cover 10 games in a row in this series and seven straight at home against the Bucks. This is the first of back-to-back games against Milwaukee, as the two will head to the Bradley Center for a Wednesday night showdown as well.

Aside from that though, there are going to be a lot of games in which the oddsmakers are giving the Nets the nod. They’ll clearly be favored against the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies at home to wrap up this week, and if you look a bit further into the future, there are two more and at least four out of five in which they’ll be laying points as well.

However, the Nets have to be careful, knowing that they have lost their most recent game to each of their next five foes, the last four of which came this season. The loss that will want to be avenged the most is clearly the one to the Grizzlies. Memphis pounded Brooklyn 101-77 earlier this year at the FedEx Forum, a loss that Williams and company aren’t soon to forget.