Brooklyn Nets: Breakdown, predictions for 1st-round series with 76ers

Breaking down the starting units

PG: D’Angelo Russell (Brooklyn) vs. Ben Simmons (Philadelphia)
SG: Joe Harris (Brooklyn) vs. J.J. Redick (Philadelphia)
SF: DeMarre Carroll (Brooklyn) vs. Jimmy Butler (Philadelphia)
PF: Rodions Kurucs (Brooklyn) vs. Tobias Harris (Philadelphia)
C: Jarrett Allen (Brooklyn) vs. Joel Embiid (Philadelphia

The star battle is at the 1 spot, where each team has an All-Star. D’Angelo Russell comes into his first career playoff appearance off a career year, averaging 21.1 points, 7.0 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 30.2 minutes per game on 43.4 percent shooting overall and 36.9 percent on 7.8 3-point attempts a game.

The 76ers counter with Ben Simmons, a power forward-sized point guard at 6-foot-10 and 230 pounds that is a matchup nightmare. Guards are too small and bigs are too slow in most cases to check Simmons, who put up 16.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.4 steals in 34.2 minutes per game.

But Simmons has a couple of holes in his arsenal. While he shot 56.3 percent this season, 57 percent of his looks came in the restricted area, where he hit an extremely good 70.6 percent.

However, he shot just 42 percent from three to 10 feet, 25.7 percent from mid-range and 10.5 percent on deep 2s. And there’s that 0-for-6 from 3-point range thing to go with his 60 percent foul shooting.

The Nets have some options defensively for Simmons. They could go big with Rodions Kurucs or they could go experience with DeMarre Carroll, but that would leave Russell having to contend with either chasing J.J. Redick off a million screens or having to try to body up the physical Jimmy Butler.

Philadelphia’s starting five is very good and the 76ers lean on the starters heavily, ranking third in the NBA with their starters playing an average of 31.5 minutes per game. Conversely, Brooklyn is last in the league with its starters averaging 27.4 minutes.

Philly’s starters average 83.5 points per game, fifth-most in the NBA, while the Nets average of 64.4 points ranks 26th.

The elephant in the room is the health of Joel Embiid. His availability could be the fulcrum upon which the entire series swings, because while the Philadelphia starters would still have an edge over their Brooklyn counterparts, that advantage is much smaller if Embiid is sidelined.

ADVANTAGE: 76ers (big with Embiid, much less without)