{"id":11561,"date":"2010-12-16T10:05:59","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T15:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11561"},"modified":"2010-12-16T10:05:59","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T15:05:59","slug":"nba-handicapping-atlanta-hawks-at-boston-celtics-expert-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-handicapping-atlanta-hawks-at-boston-celtics-expert-picks-11561\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Handicapping: Atlanta Hawks at Boston Celtics Expert Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Hawks at Boston Celtics
\nThursday, 12\/16\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -5.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Boston Celtics escaped with a 118-116 road win over the New York Knicks last night on Paul Pierce's jumper with 0.4 second remaining on the clock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atlanta was left with a bad taste in its mouth after suffering a humiliating defeat to tonight\u2019s opponent earlier this season and nobody was more frustrated than first-year head coach Larry Drew.\u00a0 \u201cThis was very embarrassing,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 \u201cVery, very embarrassing.\u00a0 If I had one word to sum it up:\u00a0 embarrassing.\u201d\u00a0 The Hawks possess a solid 16-10 overall record that includes a 12-6 mark versus Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 The team isn\u2019t happy about its current standing due to posting an even 10-10 mark since starting the season 6-0 and falling 103-80 to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday.\u00a0 Atlanta is 7-20 ATS when revenging a home loss versus an opponent the last three years.<\/p>\n

The Hawks will be making just this single visit to the TD Garden and will need a better performance from their bench in trying to pull off a mild upset tonight.\u00a0 Atlanta\u2019s reserves were outscored 46-14 against the Pistons and sixth-man Jamal Crawford managed just two points on 1-for-6 shooting.\u00a0 \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just our bench guys,\u201d stated Drew.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a struggle all around.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t play with the energy and intensity that we needed to have on the road.\u201d\u00a0 Many NBA experts believe that Atlanta simply needs to hold on until the return of injured guard Joe Johnson, who is back on the court and shooting after elbow surgery.\u00a0 There is still no timetable for his return.<\/p>\n

Boston captured its 11th straight win in dramatic fashion with a come-from-behind 118-116 victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0 The Celtics were led by a season-high 32 points from Paul Pierce, including his game-winning jumper with 0.4 seconds remaining on the clock.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I seen that shot, it was like Pierce went to a natural shooting rhythm and just seemed like he took a little more time,\u201d said guard Ray Allen.\u00a0 The team is now 20-4 overall on the season and looks to improve a upon its 10-1 mark at home, which includes a perfect 8-0 record against the Eastern Conference.\u00a0 Boston is 5-0 ATS versus Southeast Division opponents and the NBA lines page is available for the most up-to-date line all day.<\/p>\n

The Celtics captured a 99-76 road win over the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena on November 22, which was much needed due to being swept in the 2009-10 series.\u00a0 Last year was the first time Boston had been swept by Atlanta during the regular season since the 1998-99 season.\u00a0 The team never trailed in the first meeting and held a dominating 50-30 rebounding edge in the contest.\u00a0 Boston is 3-2 in the second game of back-to-backs this season and will likely be without the services of centers Jermaine O\u2019Neal and Shaquille O\u2019Neal.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in the Hawks being 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings, while the Celtics are 2-5 ATS on zero days rest.<\/p>\n

The NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports are off to a flying start and can\u2019t wait for you to join them tonight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Hawks at Boston Celtics Thursday, 12\/16\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -5.5 Atlanta was left with a bad taste in its mouth after suffering a humiliating defeat to tonight\u2019s opponent earlier this season and nobody was more frustrated than first-year head coach Larry Drew.\u00a0 \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[834,120,3622,2897,846,1555,3917],"class_list":["post-11561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-boston-celtics","tag-eastern-conference","tag-joe-johnson","tag-paul-pierce","tag-ray-allen","tag-td-garden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11562,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11561\/revisions\/11562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}