Projected Line: Boston by 3 points
I believe the Celtics are going to pick up a nice win over the struggling Clippers. The LA team keeps going decent on decent, but without Chris Paul, their offense has been a disaster. The Clippers have just dished 15, 20, 25, 33, 16 and 12 assists on their last six games and those 33 assists was against Portland on a home-home back to back series, where the Clippers used their superior depth to pound the Blazers. Besides that game, they have been struggling against any team really, as they lost at Phoenix, at Portland, they almost lost at Minnesota and on their last game, they got crushed at Toronto! Eric Bledsoe lacks the skills to run an offense on his own and even though the team is averaging 0.82 PPP on pick and roll ball handler plays for the season, on their last six games, they had just 0.60, 1.30, 0.60, 0.40, 0.77 and 0.83 PPP! The Clippers will now play at Boston, who has a great backcourt defense with Courtney Lee and Avery Bradley. Boston is not only good on pick and rolls's defense, as they have been improving on transition defense: 1.24 PPP for the season, but just 1.03 PPP allowed on their last 10 games! Therefore, I expect the Clippers's offense to struggle big time on this contest.
On the other side, Boston's offense has been showing great ball movement without Rajon Rondo! They are still on the phase of surprising their opponents with their new playing style and so, I believe the Clippers's defense won't be prepared for them neither. Paul Pierce is suddenly playing better and last Friday against Orlando, we had a "Lebron Pierce", as he had 5-10 FG, 14 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists against the Magic! The Celtics's second unit has been showing a great chemistry as well, with Leandro Barbosa, Jason Terry and Jeff Green playing very well. I believe Boston is playing better than the Clippers right now, they have a good spot, they are showing better team chemistry, therefore I don't see them as underdogs on this contest at all. I'm taking the Celtics in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 802 Boston Celtics (+1) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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