Game Time: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 

Venue:   TD Garden, Boston Massachusetts 

Where to Watch: TNT  

DraftKings:  Spread: Celtics -3.5; O/U 226

Fanduel:  Spread:  Celtics -3.5; O/U 226

BetMGM:  Spread: Celtics -3.5; O/U 226

Nets: 44-38, 7th place Eastern Conference

Celtics: 51-31, 2nd place Eastern Conference

An NBA Eastern Conference playoff matchup that is so far living up to its billing.  The first game was ridiculously close.  Two teams with different strengths and weaknesses and each team has a legitimate Big Two.  The Brooklyn Nets won an NBA Play-In tournament game in order to be in the 7th position and get the matchup with the Celtics in round 1.  It was absolutely the matchup the Nets wanted… especially since Celtics Center Robert Williams III went down with injury at the end of the regular season.  This entire season the promise with the Nets has been: “We may be losing now, but come Playoff time our stars will carry us to the Finals and possibly the Championship.”  No one can pretend the Nets two star players aren’t Great… what we were being asked to pretend though, is that the rest of the team has enough pieces to give the stars enough support… They came close in Game 1.  The Boston Celtics have a well-rounded team.  They have been curated over the last 10 seasons to be deep, defensive-minded and talented.  Their weakness is that while Robert Williams III is out… they have a glaring hole at the Center spot.  The Celtics came within a buzzer beater final cut to the basket after losing Game 1 and by extension home court advantage.  The final result of Game 1 was a Celtics win, but a win for the Nets ATS.  If you had followed my advice going into the final seconds… you would have been comfortable knowing that betting on the Nets against a 4 point spread… was going to pay off whether the Celtics hit or bricked the final shot.  My regret was only having $400 on the game.  That is the regret after most wins and the “Phew!” after most losses.  In game 1 the Celtics won 115-114 and in doing so overcame 39 points from Kyrie Irving and 23 points from Kevin Durant.  What was noticeably absent was much of anything else out of the other Nets starters.  The Nets came close to getting the win… but were exposed on the final play as a team that will get caught watching on defense.  The Celtics stars Jayson Tatum had 30 points and Jaylen Brown had 23 points… but they got two other 20 point games from PF Al Horford and PG Marcus Smart.  The Celtics were able to hit the Nets from anywhere a defensive hole was exposed.  What should worry the Celtics?...  They only won by a single point against a 7th place team. 

The Brooklyn Nets are 0-1 in the Playoffs.  They lost Game 1 to the Celtics by a single point netting US an ATS win.  As a result the spread has dropped to 3.5 points.  As an insight to gambling history this is a trap… you cannot expect the same result in Game 2… we have to decide which of these teams will blow the other out… after the tense, emotional game 1. Nets PG Kyrie Irving again found a way to make everything about himself as he flipped off the crowd multiple times and earned 60K in fines.  The Nets used 9 players in the game but stuck mainly to a 7 man rotation. C Andre Drummond struggled mightily against the Celtics small line-up… this caused Coach Steve Nash to play backup PF Nic Claxton more minutes than must have been comfortable.  Claxton didn’t play great but he did a smidge better than Drummond.  Look for the aNets to go small along with the Celtics earlier in Game 2.

The Boston Celtics won game 1 of their first round playoff series which is exactly what they are supposed to do as the 2nd Seed playing the 7th Seed.  They lost ATS which must have caused a minor economic shift among bettors in Boston.  The spread has dropped by a point as fans will come to expect a hard battle filled with very close games.  Game 2 will not be close.  The Celtics discovered some key clues in how to proceed against a team that has Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving… it’s simple: force the Nets to worry about guys like Horford, Smart, and back-up guard Derrick White.  The Nets are not a deep team… the Celtics are.  Expect Celtics coach Ime Udoka to run through everyone in the starting five.  Udoka knows now that the Nets can not handle the Celtics defensively… He knows that Tatum and Brown will score… he will look to force some action through Smart and Horford… while sending physical play at Kevin Durant on defense.  

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The Nets are 45-39 on the season, but 34-47-2 ATS.  They have logged 41 Overs, 41 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 24-18 in road games.

The Celtics are 52-31 on the season, but 45-37-1 ATS.  They have notchedf 41 Overs, 40 Unders, and 2 Push  They are 29-13 in home games.

The Nets are 9th in scoring with 112.9 ppg, 13th in rebounds with 44.4 per game, and 13th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank 18th while allowing 112.1 ppg from opponents.

The Celtics are 12th in scoring with 111.8 ppg, 5th in rebounds w ith 46.1 per game, and 11th in AST/TO ratio with 1.8.  On defense they rank a mighty 1st while holding opponents to 104.5 ppg.  They will suffer a bit on defense without Robert Williams III… but they still have the bones of a defensive team.

 

Our prediction for Wednesday, April 20th is….. Celtics 123 - Nets 110

The Celtics are prepped for a blow-out win in Game 2.  They had a close win and lost ATS.  This time around Nets star Kyrie Irving will be so distracted by the fans and his pride on social media that he will have an off night.  Meanwhile Kevin Durant is DUE to start pouting… he does and always has when things don’t go well for him.  Durant will be building the case for why it is the team’s fault and not any of his own doing.  The Celtics meanwhile will be emboldened by the early win… and buoyed by how they handled 62 points from Durant and Irving and still got the win.  Bet the Celtics to cover this one.

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Brooklyn is 5-2 ATS versus Boston at Boston the last 3 seasons.

7 of 8 games in this series have gone OVER.

Boston is 14-6 when playing 6 or less games in 14 days.

Nets: SG Ben Simmons (back) (tantrum) Out ** SG Joe Harris (ankle) Out

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

Nets: SF Bruce Brown, PF Kevin Durant, C Andre Drummond, PG Kyrie Irving, SG Seth Curry

Celtics: SF Jayson Tatum, PF Al Horford, C Daniel Theis, SG Jaylen Brown, PG Marcus Smart 

Nets: Steve Nash

Celtics Ime Udoka