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NBA Spreads: Pacers at Celtics

December 22, 2009

NBA betting

The Indiana Pacers are learning what life is like without all-star forward Danny Granger and being short-handed is a big reason the NBA point spreads have the Pacers listed as 14-point underdogs to the Boston Celtics tonight.  The mostly young ballclub has lost three consecutive games and four of five coming into tonight’s contest despite putting up a rousing fight each time out.

The Pacers will take on a Celtics team that will be looking to keep its consistent play going as the 2009-10 regular season starts to approach its annual all-star game.  The Pacers lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 84-81 in a hard-fought contest on Monday night, failing to cover the NBA moneyline as a 1-point home underdog.  Second-year center Roy Hibbert scored 16 points and added seven boards for Indiana but the Pacers shot an ice-cold 35.6 percent from the field while making just 3 of 17 (17.6 percent) three-pointers in the loss.  Indiana failed to cover the NBA point spread for the third time in the last four games, but has managed to go a respectable 4-6 ATS over is last 10 games overall.

After having their 11-game winning streak snapped in a surprising 98-97 home loss to Philadelphia on Friday, the Celtics bounced back to pound Minnesota 122-104 on Sunday and cash in for pro basketball betting enthusiasts as a 14-point home favorite.  Paul Pierce scored a team-high 29 points and Ray Allen added 20 points to help the C’s cover the spread for the second time in four games while moving to 6-4 ATS In the last 10 games overall.

Analysis: The Celtics will be looking to start a new winning streak and take out some revenge on the young Pacers in one fell swoop tonight.  The Pacers surprised the Celtics in their 113-104 home win on Nov. 14, covering the NBA point spread as 7-point home underdogs led by a fine effort from Danny Granger who scored a game-high 29 points.  Well, the Pacers don’t have Granger tonight and have struggled to score the ball in a big way lately, not topping the 100-point plateau in any of the last three games.  The Celtics certainly don’t need any assistance in stopping opponents as they are limiting opponents to a league best 91.9 points per contest.  While the outcome of this matchup isn’t in question, as the Celtics will undoubtedly win, I think the high 14-point spread will be a bit too much for the Celtics to cover against an Indiana Pacers team that seems to have been galvanized by the departure of its best player.  The Pacers may be just 2-5 ATS in the last seven meetings in Boston, but Indiana has lost their last three games by an average of three points per contest and have recorded only one of their last seven losses by more than tonight’s 14-point spread.  The underdog in this rivalry has gone a consistent 19-7 ATS in the last 26 meetings and I like the young Pacers to improve on that trend in a closer-than-expected loss to Boston.

With our NBA picks on this game, we are taking the Pacers and the points.

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