Kevin Durant, LMA being held out for rest Wednesday vs. Rockets

The Brooklyn Nets will give Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge the night off on Wednesday vs. the Houston Rockets. The Nets narrowly defeated the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night and are giving a few veterans some rest on the second of a back-to-back set. The Nets remain without G/F Joe Harris, who is recovering from ankle surgery. PG Kyrie Irving (personal) also remains out for Brooklyn.

The Nets resting KD and LMA has a pretty big impact on Wednesday night’s slate. With no KD, the Nets will lean on James Harden in a revenge spot against the Rockets. This is a big time clash of narratives going on and Harden will be a very popular GPP play. Harden is $11,200 on DraftKings, which is a pretty good price given the type of usage we may see. Vintage Harden normally has a ceiling somewhere in the 80-90 point range.

The rest of the Nets lineup is filled with players cheaper than $5K, so really it’s a grab bag of value. Patty Mills ($4,800), James Johnson ($3,300) and Cam Thomas ($3,100) will be popular plays in both formats. Really, it’s hard to go wrong with anyone on the Nets roster given the prices and the matchup.

Update — The Nets are only 3-point favorites on the road against Houston. As was mentioned below, the Rockets aren’t a cake walk right now and are playing well. Still, the Harden narrative is pretty strong. This game should still be pretty tight despite no KD or LMA. Rockets ML at plus-odds feels like the way I’d lean. Though I wouldn’t be surprised to see Harden carry the team to a victory.

Harden props are the place to start. The points line is at 29.5 and will prob climb a few more before tip-off. Harden triple-double is at +210 and feels like the best value prop, though he would need teammates to hit shots.

The over/under at 223.5 feels high for two teams who could struggle to score. If nothing else, the Nets will have players who are going to defend. The past five games the Rockets have won have been against weak defensive opponents. Brooklyn should want to slow things down and grind out a win. The only way the over hits is if this game gets out of hand one way or the other.

We’ll see what the books have for this game once the line comes back up on DraftKings. The Nets should remain heavy favorites, though the game could be more competitive than we think. The Rockets have won six games in a row and are playing good basketball despite missing key players (Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr.). This may be a good spot to grab the Rockets ML if it’s still juiced up. Outside of Harden, the Nets are rolling out a pretty lackluster roster.