The Boston Celtics will host the Orlando Magic on Friday night in the first game of a back-to-back for both sides, but there’ll be no talk about preserving energy for the following games, as both sides will cherish the win here.
Magic at Celtics
Spread: Boston -8.5 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: o/u 208.5 points
Magic disappeared from the Magic
The Orlando Magic late comeback attempt fell short in Minneapolis, continuing their slide in the standings. They lost to the Minnesota T-Wolves 118-124, but it wasn’t this close for the better part of the game. This was the sixth time in a row that Magic lost, so any positivity from the late effort can safely be flushed down the drain.
With Payton starting again, the Magic have once again fallen into a trap of playing only during periods when the shots fall. They’ve jumped up in front in the first, with a promise to return to the heat they’ve started the season. The three ball was falling for Ross, Gordon, and Speights, and the Magic hit 7 first half threes to open up as large of a lead as 8, but the defensive woes were still present. Once the Wolves returned their starting unit in the second quarter, they’ve evened up the score and barely looked back. Orlando couldn’t hit their jumpers at the intermission and with each miss, the deficit increased. After losing the quarter 18-41, they left too big of a hole to mount a turnaround. They pulled as close as -12 with 7 minutes to go but were still trailing by 10 with 40 seconds left in the game, never really threatening the Wolves. Terence Ross and Aaron Gordon led the way in scoring, with 22 and 26, and Payton had a 10 point, 13 assists double-double but couldn’t score further than 5 feet from the basket. His shooting woes allowed the Wolves to go under the screens and stray off of him on help defense – Payton couldn’t punish them with 4-of-9 FGs, zero threes, and an abysmal 2-of-7 free throw shooting. Fournier had 19 points, and Vucevic chimed in with 11 points and 14 rebounds as the starting unit held their ground. The Magic actually shot very well overall – 50.5 percent for the game but couldn’t stop Minnesota with their lazy defense. The Magic committed 31 fouls and have put the Wolves on the line 45 times while allowing them to score 106 points in the first three quarters.
Except for rookie Isaac, who isn’t a big part of a rotation anyway, the Magic had the full squad available. Since Augustin only played 13 minutes with the second unit, there’s little hope that they’ll change back to the lineup that worked. After the trip to Boston, the Magic play additional two games on the road, visiting Philly and Indy.
Place: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
Date/Time: Friday, November 24th, 2017. 7:30 PM ET
TV Coverage: NBCSB, Fox Sports Florida
The Celtics can’t save the win streak, fall in Miami
It was about time. The Celtics big 16-game win streak came to an end in South Florida on Wednesday, when the Heat won 104-98. More than a month after the previous loss, the Celtics couldn’t come back from a large deficit. They haven’t been playing very dominant or very good basketball for a few games already, so perhaps the pressure of having to keep the streak alive finally got up to them.
It was by far the worst showing of the Celtics this season, save for the good stretch in the final quarter. After coming back twice from 18-point deficits and 16 down in another during the streak, Boston finally dug themselves one hole too large, falling behind by 12 in the first half and by 15 after three. The Heat have swarmed them around the perimeter, leaving Whiteside to control the paint, and it worked. The Celtics have been shooting poorly recently, and it followed them to Miami – they never developed an eye for the basket, shooting 41.7 percent (35-of-84), with a long line of players like Al Horford (7 points, 3-for-10), Marcus Smart (7p, 3-for-9) and Marcus Morris (14p, 3-for-9) struggling to shoot. But it was the struggles on the line that ultimately cost them dearly, as Smart and Horford missed crucial free throws down 91-89 and 94-90. Kyrie Irving led the team with 21 points and 4 assists on 10-of-21 shooting. Jayson Tatum chipped in 18 points, coming alive in the fourth. Usually reliable bench unit wasn’t up to their standard either. The Celtics failed to shut down Dragic drives and let Waiter go smoking hot, so the performance was complete, in a wrong way.
Marcus Morris wouldn’t start, possibly due to his lingering knee issues. Stevens does like to mix it up from time to time, and he’s not on the injury report for this game, so expect him to dress up. This is the front end of a back-to-back set for the Celts – they travel to Indianapolis after the game.
Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics Game Trends & Prediction
The Orlando Magic have lost six games, going 2-1-3 against the spread over this stretch, pulling an improbable cover in last seconds of the last contest. They had more success away from home, aided by added points. The Magic are 9-8-1 overall and 6-3-1 on the road. The O/U record doesn’t indicate much, as Orlando is 8-10 for the season, with no significant recent trends.
Boston has been winning with defense, and have made money both against the spread and the total points market. Despite not covering in the last game, they are 15-3-1 overall. At home, the Celtics are 6-1-1. The unders are also a gain, but not as large as the bookies reacted by lowering the lines. Four of the last five games ended up in overs, so Boston is now 8-11 overall and 3-5 at home.
Admi-Rank: The Magic bad streak didn’t do good for their ranking either, as they lost pretty much everything they’ve gained early on. The Celtics seemingly hit their ceiling last week but should be good enough to keep the high rating.
The Magic need a win, and the coaching staff will let them know about it. Boston seems more vulnerable lately, but are still the team who should dictate the flow of this game. Their defense will trouble the Magic and the frustration will boil over to the other side. Their hope is to wake up Celtics bad memories by jumping out in front early and to keep hitting shots as long as possible.
The Magic will be helped by 8.5-points, seen here as quite a large underdog. This number would have been significantly different just a week ago. Still, I don’t feel that the window on the Celtics has officially closed, it’s just the Magic aren’t holding much of public appeal, if any. The Celtics loss should wake them up, and Boston is a tough place to play at, even for much better sides than the Magic. I’m going with the home side here. Totals hold only a flat value on the under side, so there’s no way I’m going to invest on this offer.
My Pick: Boston -8.5 (-110)
Total: (no wager on the total points)
