The two most successful NBA franchises write a new chapter on Wednesday when they meet in Boston to showcase their future but also their present. The Celtics have been good to the point where they can already be considered contenders, and the Los Angeles Lakers are rejuvenated and enjoying the young season.
Lakers at Celtics
Spread: Boston -9.5 (+100) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 208 points (-110)
The Lakers down Grizzlies 107-102 to start Week 4
The Lakers have won two in a row, and three of their last four games. What’s more impressive, they dominated two Eastern Conference visitors and fought with a Memphis Grizzlies team that takes no nonsense. The only game they’ve lost over this stretch, was in Portland, by three points. It was in this game that the starting power forward Larry Nance Jr. broke his hand. Rookie Kyle Kuzma has been knocking on the door of the starting lineup already, with impressive showings in Las Vegas, during the preseason and early season games, and finally got his chance. Coach Walton will be hard-pressed to remove him now that he got it.
Kuzma posted two double-doubles (21 & 13 against the Nets and 13 &12 against the Grizzlies) as the Lakers won both games to get back to .500. Sure, the Grizzlies were a bit spent after a fine win against the Clippers the night before, but the game wasn’t as close as the final score suggests – the Lakers opened up a 22-point lead in the third quarter, and while the Grizzlies made a late push to narrow the gap to just 3 points, it came all too late. Brandon Ingram and Brook Lopez both connected on half of their 14 attempts to score 20 and 21 points respectively. Caldwell-Pope had a solid outing with 15 points and Clarkson excellently backed him up with 15 points of his own. Ball had a usual rough night shooting the ball, finishing with 3-of-13 and 1-of-8 from deep – he has hit just 6-of-30 shots from the floor over his past three games – but coming under screens set for him was about the only positive that the Grizzlies defense could manufacture for the night. The Lakers shot 47 percent and outrebounded Memphis.
The Lakers will continue to roll with the same unit. Nance is not coming back for another month or so, but the Lakers have solid depth in the frontcourt and they even haven’t gone so deep to use Bogut or Deng in the rotation. While they have an interchangeable squad, most of the players aren’t much better than the replacement level, and it usually shows in road games.
Place: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
Date/Time: Wednesday, November 8th, 2017. 8:00 PM ET
TV Coverage: ESPN
The Celtics extend win streak to nine behind Irving brilliant play
The Celtics continue to impress. Playing on the second night of a back to back, they fought fatigue, the Hawks accurate shooting and a late run to come out on top 110-107 for their 9th consecutive win. If one had doubts about whether Kyrie Irving can succeed after stepping out of James’ shadow, the early results are very encouraging. He’s getting more and more comfortable as the key cog in this very well oiled green machine.
Irving scored 35 points on 14-of-22 shooting and assisted on 7 other baskets. But while we are seeing an increase in great stats, his impact was far beyond the box score. Irving’s trey with 1:37 remaining put Boston in front for good in a game that was closer than most thought it would. He also engineered a 16-2 run in the third that gave the Celtics all the necessary breathing room to sustain the Hawks 50 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Of course, he had support. The Celtics are much more than just a ball handling star. Horford missed a triple-double by a single assist against his longtime team, posting a 15-point, 10-rebound, 9-assist stat line. Dark horse candidate for the Rookie of the Year, Jayson Tatum, chimed in with 21 points and 8 rebounds, posting a game-high +15 on the plus/minus. As a team, the Celts shot 48.1 percent, going through their sets with purpose and precision. It was not a night to remember on the defensive side, but they’ll take the win anyway.
After playing 7 of the first 11 games away from home, the Celtics will now stay in Boston for the remainder of the week. They are healthy, but also playing for the third time in four night, and it may take a toll on their performance.
Los Angeles Lakers at Boston Celtics Game Trends & Prediction
Los Angeles Lakers are outperforming their expectations lately and are now up to 6-4 record against the spread. They have covered four times in a row. They had decent success on the road with two covers from three games, but it’s still too small of a sample as they haven’t traveled much. There’s no edge on the total points market, where the Lakers games split between the outcomes. After 4 consecutive unders, they’ve gone over in three, but they are still very much unpredictable in this regard.
Boston is 9-2 SU and 9-2 against the spread, but while their straight up streak extended in Atlanta, the ATS streak came to an end after 8 consecutive covers. It was also the largest spread they had to beat on the road, where they fell to 6-1. Also, it’s a sign that the books are catching up to their performance. The window is still not closed completely as they improve their game almost each night, but the values are going to be tougher to come by. The game also went over the projected points line, as both sides shot an excellent percentage. Still, you should generally look for unders on their games. So far this season, the Celtics are 4-7 against the over/under, but 3-1 at home.
Admi-Rank: After three weeks of progress, the Celtics uptrend has stopped, but they reached as high as they have been in years. The Lakers are on the uptick, helped with some good wins, but are yet to prove that they can play .500 ball when the schedule gets tougher.
While the TV stations marked this game for attractiveness, I don’t think they hoped that both of these teams will win at their respective rates so early in the season. The main difference is that the Celtics are playing well, and the Lakers don’t play too badly like earlier in the season. Some of their youngs will play for the first time in Boston, and considering that this a beginning of a four-game road trip, we’ll learn more about this team as it progresses.
The spread has been set at 9/9.5 points, depending on a book/price combination which suggests showing respect towards the Celtics, but the actual number should be 10.5. This gives us just enough room to take the home side, but I advise you to wait for a better price. The bandwagoner part of public bettors will jump ship after the Celtics ATS streak broke, and the Lakers are always an attractive target for the public. This gives me a reason to believe that we’re going to see a slightly better price on the Celtics before the market allows full staking tomorrow, so a little patience would earn you a couple of bucks more. As for the total concerned, it’s set at 208 and you can safely go after the overs as well as it’s good value at these prices.
My Pick: Boston -9 (-110)
Total: Over 208 points (-110)
