Sport: NBAPick Selection: BOSTON
I'm laying the points with BOSTON. As you know, the home teams are perfect SU in this series and nearly perfect for the second round. Homecourt has also been extremely significant for both these teams all season long. The Cavs have proven to be tough in Cleveland but are well below 500 (20-27) on the road. They overcame the loss of Gibson at Cleveland in Game 6 but he's still a valuable contributor and his absence is likely to be felt here, where points are very tough to come by. The Celtics were strong on the road (in the regular season) but were downright dominant at home, particularly defensively, as they led the league in terms of points allowed on their home floor. That's certainly been the case in recent weeks. The Celtics have won 13 straight games here and NONE of those 13 opponents reached triple-digits in points, the last 11 of them averaging a mere 78 points. While they won Game 5 here by 'only' seven points, the Celtics did won Game 2 here by a healthy 16. Overall, they won the 13 games in their current home winning streak by an average margin of 18.15 points per game. Despite failing to cover in Game 5, the Celts are still a healthy 9-3-1 ATS (11-2 SU) as a home favorite of 6.5 to 9 points. While Lebron will have plenty of opportunities in the future, Garnett and co. know that they've got a much smaller window of time. The Celtics have been the best team all year and I look for them to be the more determined team today. Look for them to close out the series with a convincing victory, improving to 7-3 ATS on the season after scoring 85 points or less in their previous game.
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Handicappers
