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

Prediction

The Brooklyn Nets are an unknown heading into a postseason few expected them to reach before the season began.

You never know how playoff newcomers will respond to the new environment, where the intensity goes up and it’s much more difficult to find space to do what you want to do.

Unlike the regular season, where teams may not have an opportunity to do much more than a walk-through to prepare for an opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers have spent the last two days doing nothing but getting ready for the Nets.

As the series continues and the teams get more familiar with each other, things will tighten up that much more.

This is the first playoff meeting between the Nets and 76ers in 35 years and the last time they tangled, they made history. The then-New Jersey Nets stunned the defending champion Sixers by winning three straight games at Philadelphia, surviving losing both games at home.

It was the first — and still only — time in NBA history a series of five games or more has seen the road team win every game.

A prediction for this series is tough because so much is in the air with regards to Joel Embiid’s health.

His absence could swing the series in Brooklyn’s favor. A limited Embiid would be still be a big handicap for Philadelphia to overcome.

If you subscribe to the momentum theory, the Nets have it — winning three straight games, including back-to-back road wins last weekend at Milwaukee and Indiana to clinch their playoff entry and a win at home over the Miami Heat on Wednesday to lock up the No. 6 seed.

The 76ers don’t carry a lot of momentum forward. They won their finale at home against the Chicago Bulls, but had just two wins in their final six games.

They were also just 14-10 after the All-Star break after a 37-21 first half. And without Embiid, the 76ers are just 8-10 this season.

Even a limited Embiid might be enough for the Sixers to get it done against the Nets, whose starting unit is still outmatched even in the absence of Philadelphia’s All-NBA big man.

Without him? That’s a whole different question.

PREDICTION: 76ers in 7 … unless Embiid is sidelined for much or all of the series. In that event, Nets in 6.