Miami Heat (44-38) at Boston Celtics (57-25)
Game Info: Friday, May 19, 2023 at 8:30 p.m. EST (TD Garden)
Betting Odds: Celtics (-9) / Over/Under (216)
Pick: Heat (+9)
Lets start the weekend off in style by heading out to TD Garden to take a look at Game 2 between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics.
Miami continues to shock the world as they were able to steal Game 1 from the Celtics on their home floor by a score of 123-116. After taking down the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks in the 1st and 2nd round, the Heat were given a below 5% by the statistics to take this series from the Boston Celtics. Although it is a first to 4, with the 1st win in Game 1, they were able to steal home court advantage from the Celtics right away. And that did not happen for any reason else other than Jimmy Butler. Butler played 43 minutes, and scored 35 points, while adding in 7 assists and 5 rebounds. Apart from the stat line though, he also dominated on the defensive end in the 4th quarter and came up with a few critical steals off of Jayson Tatum to seal the deal. Can Butler replicate that performance once again to take the commanding 2-0 lead?
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Boston will need to bounce back in Game 2 if they want to give themselves any chance of advancing to the NBA Finals for the 2nd consecutive season. It seems as though they seem to just take quarters off randomly throughout the games that they have fell short in the Playoffs which is the reason that they are heading into Game 2 in a 0-1 hole. After going into halftime up 66-57, they were outscored 46-25 in the 3rd quarter embarassingly. Even though they were able to rebound a bit in the 4th quarter, they were not able to overcome the insurmountable lead. Heading into Friday night's game, time will tell if the Celtics can lock up on the defensive side of the ball to even up the series before flying into Miami for the next 2. Head Coach Joe Mazzulla is one that must improve as well, as he seemed lost during the lengthy Heat run in the 2nd half where he did not take 1 timeout.
Betting trends to consider in this matchup:
- The Heat are 10-3 ATS in their last 13 games
- Miami is 9-3 ATS in Playoff games
- The over has hit in 9 out of 12 of the last Celtics games
It seems like the perfect opportunity for the Celtics to come out hot in Game 2 and win by double digits, but I am going to once again side with the away squad here as 9 points just seems like way too many points for a ECF game. For sure, the Heat are only an 8-seed, but with the way Jimmy Butler is playing, he is able to control every facet of the game in crunch time better than any other on the floor. For this reason, I wil put my money on the Heat to keep things close once again on the road!
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