Brooklyn Nets: 3 favorable factors in 1st-round meeting with 76ers

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Brooklyn Nets Spencer Dinwiddie (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

The Brooklyn Nets face the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, with Game 1 Saturday. Here are 3 factors that could favor the Nets.

For the first time in four years, the Brooklyn Nets are a playoff team. For the first time in five years, the Nets posted a winning record.

Brooklyn (42-40) secured the No. 6 seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs and will face the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center in Philly on Saturday afternoon in Game 1.

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The full series schedule is below:

Game 1 at Philadelphia, Saturday 2:30 p.m. EDT (ESPN)
Game 2 at Philadelphia, Monday 8 p.m. EDT (TNT)
Game 3 at Brooklyn, Thursday, April 18, 8 p.m. EDT (TNT)
Game 4 at Brooklyn, Saturday, April 20, 3 p.m. EDT (TNT)
Game 5 at Philadelphia, Tuesday, April 23, if necessary
Game 6 at Brooklyn, Thursday, April 25, if necessary
Game 7 at Philadelphia, Saturday, April 27, if necessary

For the 76ers (51-31), this is their second straight visit to the postseason after a five-year absence. Philadelphia reached the conference semifinals last season, beating the Miani Heat in five games in the first round before being dispatched by the Boston Celtics in five games.

For as bad as things got in Brooklyn — 69 victories in the last three seasons before breaking out this year — they were worse in Philadelphia.

The 76ers won just 47 games over a three-season span from 2013-16 capped by a 10-72 mark in 2015-16 that was the second-worst 82-game record ever posted by an NBA team (topped — or bottomed — by the 76ers’ own 9-73 mark in 1972-73).

For Brooklyn, this is just their third playoff appearance since moving from New Jersey in 2012 and their first since 2014.

This will be the first time the Nets and 76ers have met in the postseason since 1984 and just the third time overall. They have split the first two meetings, long ago, but this year’s matchup will continue a trend in the on-again, off-again playoff history between the teams.

In 1979, the sixth-seeded New Jersey Nets (37-45) were swept in a best-of-3 first-round series by the third-seeded 76ers (47-35), losing the opener at The Spectrum in Philadelphia 122-114 before falling in Game 2 at Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway 111-101.

But in 1984, the Nets and 76ers made history. New Jersey, at 45-37 seeded sixth, took on the defending champion 76ers (52-30), seeded third.

In what is still the only NBA playoff series of five games or more in which the road team won every game, the Nets shocked Philadelphia, 3 games to 2.

New Jersey took Games 1 and 2 at The Spectrum in convincing fashion, 116-101 and 116-102, before losing Games 3 and 4 at what was then called Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford by scores of 108-100 and 110-102.

In Game 5 back at the Spectrum, Micheal Ray Richardson had two steals in the final minute and the Nets held on for a shocking 101-98 victory and the franchise’s first NBA playoff series win.

Philadelphia and Brooklyn split the season series this year, two games each, with each team winning in the other’s home arena once.

The Nets beat the 76ers at home 122-97 on Nov. 4 and in Philadelphia 127-124 on Dec. 12.

The 76ers posted a 127-125 victory at Brooklyn, overcoming a 20-point deficit, on Nov. 25, and handled the Nets in Philadelphia 123-110 on March 28.

Philadelphia will be favored and has some big advantages over Brooklyn heading into the series.

But the Nets have some things working in there favor as well and here are three of those factors.