Nets vs Spurs NBA Handicapping
Rule No. 1 for firing coaches:
Make sure that when you bring down the guillotine, the new coach taking over has a crappy opponent to face in his first game. He can get his feet wet and the GM or owner will look good.
Brooklyn Nets (16-4) at San Antonio Spurs (24-8)
Monday, Dec. 31
A&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
7 p.m., EST
Spread – Spurs -9.5
O/U – 197 at SportsBettingOnline.ag
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The Nets certainly had Rule No. 1 in mind when they opened the trap door while Avery Johnson was standing on it. With games against the Hornets and Cavaliers next up, interim coach P.J. Carlesimo had a soft landing spot for two games anyway in his return to the league as a head coach.
Charlotte and Cleveland cooperated by going down quietly, giving Carlesimo a 2-0 cushion heading into tonight’s game San Antonio.
In fact, in a couple of days the Nets could be right back at .500 (where they were when Johnson was shown the door), because on Wednesday they figure to be cannon fodder for the Thunder at Oklahoma City.
First things first, though.
Carlesimo is hoping that he can catch lightning in a bottle in his fourth stint as a head coach (he had runs at Portland, Seattle and Golden State). Brooklyn is reportedly trying to land a name permanent coach (Phil Jackson?), and any chance Carlesimo has of staying on for good depends on if he can figure out a way to get through to stubborn PG Deron Williams.
Willams reportedly played a role in Jerry Sloan retiring at Utah besides Johnson being let go, and now Careslimo gets a shot.
Dealing with Williams will probably be ice cream for Carlesimo, who in 1997 was nearly choked to death by Latrell Sprewell at a Warriors practice.[ad-6571516]
One big positive for the Nets is the improved play of Brook Lopez. The big looked awful on Christmas Day against Boston, but had 26 points and 11 rebounds against Charlotte, then went off for 35 and 11 against the Cavaliers.
Dealing with Tim Duncan isn’t quite the same as defending and scoring against Bismack Biombo (Charlotte) and Tyler Zeller (Cleveland), but the Nets will take anything they can get at this point.
The Nets have gotten off to good starts in Carlesimo’s first two games — scoring 33 in the opening period against Charlotte and taking an 18-point lead into the second period; and going up by 10 against Cleveland after one period with a 34-point quarter.
In both games, though, the Nets reverted to form and were actually outscored in the final three periods.
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San Antonio is on a nice late-December run with five straight victories, by an average margin of just about 19 points. But this is the second game of a back-to-back set for the Spurs, and they have another back-to-back Wednesday/Thursday (at Milwaukee, at New York), so SA may limit the minutes of its starters.
Brooklyn to cover the moderately big number as Gregg Popovich monitors playing time for his big guns.
