NBA Free Premium Play 01/22: Boston Celtics @ Washington Wizards

Boston  at Washington

NBA - 701 Boston Celtics @ 702 Washington Wizards Play #1 Last night, the Celtics accomplished the rare feat of being competitive against an elite team despite being despite shooting 39.3% from the field vs. 51.4% FG from the Heat! Why? You may ask…the answer is pretty obvious: BOS completely owned the Heat on the glass w/ 60.1% rebounding/rate% (w/ a huge 17-7 edge on offensive boards), so they were able to generate extra possessions. However, this was not a surprise because MIA is really an awful rebounding team (that was missing their #3 best rebounder of the team – yes, it is D. Wade!), and more importantly, they were dead tired by playing their 4th game in 5 days. Still, as expected, BOS really couldn’t hit shots from the outside w/ just 5-27 3pts and unfortunately for them, A. Bradley got injured and will miss tonight’s game while after playing 26 minutes last night, I don’t think R. Rondo will play tonight. That will leave BOS with only rookie P. Pressey as their only “true guard” for tonight’s contest. On the other side, WAS will try for the fifth time this season to have a better +0.500 record: “In its four previous chances to eclipse the .500 mark, Washington lost to Detroit twice, along with Milwaukee and Dallas. Three of those games were at home, as will this matchup against a Celtics team that has lost its last 10 road contests.” "Every time we talk about being a .500 team and finally getting over .500, we have teams coming in here and just punking our butts," Gortat said. "We're done with that. We just have to focus on what we need to do to win a game." WAS easily dismantled the 76ers in the last game...although the score may not say it, the game really was never close as WAS was winning 100-79 w/ 6 minutes to go. I expect John Wall to have a tremendous edge vs. a depleted BOS’s backcourt while I really don’t expect a tired BOS frontcourt to grab 60% of all available rebounds vs. a pretty decent defensive rebounding team like WAS – ranked #10 in the league w/ 75.6% def.reb/rate%. My fair line for this contest is the Wizards to be favored by 12 points and therefore, I’m taking them as my Single Dime Play! Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 702 Washington Wizards (-9) @ -105 / 1.95 on Bovada