Game Time: 7:00 PM ET, Sunday, April 10th, 2022 

Venue:   FedEx Forum, Memphis Tennessee

Where to Watch: TNT

DraftKings:  Spread:  

Fanduel:  Spread:  NL

BetMGM:  Spread: NL

Celtics: 50-31, 3rd place Eastern Conference

Grizzlies: 55-25, 2nd place Western Conference

A noon-conference NBA matchup between a Western Conference team that is killing the game and silencing critics and an Eastern Conference team that is killing the game and still has to hear the critics.  The difference in the conferences in 2021-22 is plain and obvious.  The West has 3 teams at the top… that given health will be unstoppable by anyone but each other.  The East has six teams that are bunched up with one another, that given will be hard outs for each other all the way through.  The West has the best teams… the East has the most “almost-best” teams.  The Memphis Grizzlies took a major leap forward this season.  The continued excellence of PG Ja Morant has been great to watch… but the sudden emergence of SG Desmond Bane has been enlightening.  NBA teams often look to chase down the 2 or 3 biggest stars they can possibly get to play together… but the old fashioned idea of building stars from the ground up by drafting the right young guys should never be overlooked.  The Grizzlies have been winning at an amazing rate while their superstar Ja Morant has been out with injury.  The winning was so predominant that many of the Grizzlies will get to sit this matchup out, along with Ja, and high five as they watch the subs and wait for the first round playoff matchup.  The Boston Celtics won 50 games this season… certainly not a Celtics record!  However, had you told the Celtics fans that they would get 50 wins after the first two months of the season you would have been met with a plethora of middle fingers as they assumed en masse that you were being sarcastic.  The Celtics had a major turnaround in December and it has afforded them the luxury of also being able to sit their stars in this their final regular season game.  The Celtics have a problem though… even after going on this stellar run to rise from 10th in the standings to a 3rd place finish… their Center Robert Williams III is down with a knee injury… he had immediate surgery and hopes to make a return if the Celtics get a second round Playoff matchup.  We will have to watch that closely.  

The Boston Celtics have won 7 of their last ten games. They went 7-3 ATS during that stretch. The Celtics started resting their star last night and they took a brutal loss to the Milwaukee Bucks 127-121 despite getting 29 points from PG Marcus Smart.  A future note the Celtics might want to take is that if you are going to rest Jayson Tatum… you should also rest Brown and Smart…. It makes no sense to avoid injury risk on one while exposing the other two.  That trio is the most important aspect of any postseason success they could hope for. The Celtics had their mega successful turnaround this season (rising from 10th to 3rd, briefly at 2nd) on the defensive end.  They rank first on defense which allows their slightly above-average offense to bring home wins.  A growing problem is that without Robert Williams III playing Center, these defensive numbers are highly unreliable.  All Robert Williams III was good for was defense, which don’t get me wrong that is a great thing to be good for!… But without him it is not like PF Daniel Theis playing makeshift Center will be able to maintain anything close to those numbers.

The Memphis Grizzlies have won 7 of their last ten games and will face New Orleans Saturday Night before this game on Sunday night.  They went 6-3-1 ATS during that stretch.  The Grizzlies have been a fantastic betting opportunity all season long… They have covered when they won and are sitting at 51-28-1 ATS… Had you put $$ on every game you would be +23 wins… even minus the vig you would still be rolling large.  The Grizzlies navigated this year with a top 3 offense and an above average defense.   They have a stellar bench, specifically PG Tyus Jones, PG De’Anthony Melton, SF Ziaire Williams and SF Kyle “slo-mo” Anderson.  Ziaire was the starting small forward for most of this season, but when starting SG Dillon Brooks had a long injury and 2nd year SG Desmond Bane flat-out took the job… Dillon slid over to starting SF… That inclusion of Brooks has made an already great team even deeper on the bench.  It’s also why they will be favored here and worthy of your faith for them to keep covering the spread.  Both these teams will rest starters, but the Grizzlies frankly still have guys on the court that should be starters somewhere.  Don’t be surprised this off-season if SF Zaire Williams is paired with either Tyus Jones or De’Anthony Melton (and those two dumb 2nd round picks if the Pelicans retain the Lakers pick at the Draft Lottery) to add yet another quasi all-star impact player.

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The Celtics are 50-31 on the season, but 44-36-1 ATS.  They have logged 39 Overs, 40 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 22-18 in road games.

The Grizzlies are 55-25 on the season, but 51-28-1 ATS.  They have notched 41 Overs, 38 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 29-10 in home games.

The Celtics are 13th in scoring with 111.4 ppg, 5th in rebounds with 45.9 per game, and 12th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank FIRST while holding opponents to 104.4 ppg.

The Grizzlies are 3rd in scoring with 115.4 ppg, 1st in rebounds with 49.2 per game, and 5th in AST/TO ratio 2.0.  On defense they rank 12th while allowing 109.5 ppg from opponents.

Our prediction for Sunday, April 10th is…..   Grizzlies 123 - Celtics 114

The Grizzlies subs will be head and shoulders above the Celtics subs… and in some cases better than the Celtics starters.

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The Total has gone Over in 9 of Boston's last 11 games.
The Total has gone Over in 10 of Memphis lat 13 games.
Memphis is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 home games.

Boston: SG Nick Stauskas (ankle) Out ** C Robert Williams III (knee) Out

Celtics: PG Ja Morant (knee) Quest ** SG Jarrett Culver (knee) Out ** 

Celtics: SF Aaron Nesmith, PF Grant Williams, C Daniel Theis, SG Derrick White, PG Payton Pritchard

Grizzlies: PF Zaire Williams, SF Dillon Brooks, C Steven Adams, PG Tyus Jones, SG Desmond Bane

Celtics: Ime Udoka

Grizzlies: Taylor Jenkins