I don't normally like favorites at this mark but this is a big fade situation with the Celtics who are obviously aging coming off a hard fought battle and loss last night where they had revenge against the Lakers. Over the past 5 games the Celtic starters are getting 70% of the minutes. To put that in perspective the Clippers starters are getting 61% and the Celtics are on their 3rd game in 4 days likely suffering from jet lag this game won't tip until 10:30pm tonight in their time zone. Boston is 6-20 ATS in their last 26 on 0 days rest and 3-8 this year. The younger Clippers are 7-3 ATS in that situation this year.
Clippers have been playing poorly but we have seen them step it up in a big way against good teams ( example - Spurs where they won 120-108 recently). The Celtics after a loss at home to the their rival Lakers lost in their next road game by 12 to Toronto that really started a domino effect with a 1-7 record over their last 8 road games losing by margins of 32, 15, 16, 15, 9, and 12 to some good teams and some bad teams mixed in. The Clippers are a very good team and should have multiple chances at extra shots. Boston is allowing their opponents 6.1 more opportunities per game while the Clippers are +5 in their last 3 and 9th in the league. Part of that is rebounding where the Celtics just are not that good as they are getting out rebounded by 15/game in their last 5 games while the Clippers are +6.2 and a very strong rebounding team. I also expect the Clippers to be focused at the FT line where they struggled on Sunday which should mean a cover here.
