When: 8:00 PM EST; Wednesday, April 15th, 2015
Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY
TV: YES
For the Nets, it’s officially win-or-go-home time. Oh, it’s also Pacers loss-or-Nets-go-home time as well. With one game left in their regular season, at Barclays Center against the Orlando Magic, the Brooklyn Nets need to win and hope the Indiana Pacers lose to the Memphis Grizzlies later tonight. If both those conditions occur, then the Nets will face off with the No. 1 seed Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
If either Indiana wins or Brooklyn loses–or both–then the Nets will spend their first season in Brooklyn not competing in the postseason. Considering how much money–the NBA’s largest payroll–and draft picks have gone into this season, not making the playoffs in a severely down year for the Eastern Conference would be extremely disappointing.
Even if the Nets do gain a postseason berth–and it will surely be nerve-racking either way–they would have a very tough task in playing the Hawks, who swept the four-game season series between the two teams this season and own the right to swap their 2015 first-rounder for Brooklyn’s. Either way, it’s not a good situation.
Probable Lineups
ORL- Elfrid Payton (PG), Victor Oladipo (SG), Tobias Harris (SF), Aaron Gordon (PF), Nikola Vucevic (C)
BKN- Deron Williams (PG), Markel Brown (SG), Joe Johnson (SF), Thaddeus Young (PF), Brook Lopez (C)
Final Thoughts
The Magic, albeit 25-56, are a very talented young team and certainly have a chance to beat the Nets, who have looked utterly disinterested in their last two games–both of which were demoralizing blowout losses. Long Island native Tobias Harris is a budding star as is sophomore guard Victor Oladipo. Center Nikola Vucevic–a noted Net-killer down low–can easily put up double-doubles while rookies Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon are full of potential.
If Brooklyn isn’t careful–and by that, I mean not show some effort–they could lose this game and miss out on the postseason, regardless of what the Pacers. Talk about a brutal finish to the season that would be.
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