{"id":12553,"date":"2011-01-17T13:15:28","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T18:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12553"},"modified":"2011-01-17T13:15:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T18:15:28","slug":"orlando-magic-vs-boston-celtics-pro-basketball-expert-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/orlando-magic-vs-boston-celtics-pro-basketball-expert-picks-predictions-12553\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic vs Boston Celtics Pro Basketball Expert Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics
\nMonday, 1\/17\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -4
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 192.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 191.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Boston Celtics are slight home favorites against the Orlando Magic on Monday night inside the TD Garden <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orlando has won its last three visits to Boston in the regular season, but still trail in the series 12-29 in games played on the road.\u00a0 The Magic snapped a two-game losing streak when both Jason Richardson and J.J. Redick scored 21 points to lead a second-half comeback in a 108-99 win over Minnesota.\u00a0 \u201cAnytime you play with a center like Dwight Howard, it makes the game easier,\u201d Richardson said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a fun way to play.\u201d\u00a0 He has made 19 of 34 shots from 3-point range during the past five games and averaged 19.9 points over that span.\u00a0 The team is 26-14 overall and 8-3 on the road against Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 Orlando is 18-22 ATS on the season and currently an underdog on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Magic will be focused on how point guard Jameer Nelson performs in tonight\u2019s contest due to the team posting a 10-4 record against the Celtics when he scores at least 12 points.\u00a0 Orlando has used 10 different starting lineups so far this season, which is close to the 11 it used during the 2009-10 campaign.\u00a0 The squad is currently 11-9 on the road this season and finished 25-16 away from the Amway Center last season.\u00a0 Under head coach Stan Van Gundy, Orlando is 90-53 on the road.\u00a0 Offensively, the team is averaging 99.5 points per game on the year compared to 102.8 last season.<\/p>\n

Boston has won two of its first three games in its current six-game home stand and will look to improve upon its 18-3 mark at the TD Garden tonight.\u00a0 The Celtics are anticipating the return of star forward Kevin Garnett, who missed nine games due to injury, which will be a great help considering he scored a game-high 22 points in Orlando on December 25.\u00a0 The team is coming off a 99-94 win over Charlotte last time out and held a 42-29 advantage on the boards.\u00a0 Boston is 8-12 ATS at home on the year and 7-13 ATS the past three seasons after playing three consecutive home games.<\/p>\n

The Celtics will need a big game from Paul Pierce to try and stop the Magic\u2019s success in the series, as he\u2019s averaging career-highs in field goal percentage and free throw percentage.\u00a0 He will lean heavily on getting the ball from point guard Rajon Rondo, who missed the first meeting between these two teams earlier in the year, but the front court will be missing some muscle.\u00a0 Center Shaquille O\u2019Neal is expected to miss tonight\u2019s contest with a leg injury, while Jermaine O\u2019Neal and Kendrick Perkins are also out.\u00a0 All of the injuries may not matter due to the team coming in with a perfect 13-0 record at home against Eastern Conference teams.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Celtics due to their 10-2 ATS mark with two days off, while the Magic are 1-8 ATS as a road underdog of 0.5 to 4.5 points<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a huge night and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports go to work for you.\u00a0 Get a season package today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics Monday, 1\/17\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 192.5 Current Total:\u00a0 191.5 Orlando has won its last three visits to Boston in the regular season, but still trail in the series 12-29 in games played on the road.\u00a0 The […]<\/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":[120,833,3622,659,846,197],"class_list":["post-12553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-dwight-howard","tag-eastern-conference","tag-orlando-magic","tag-paul-pierce","tag-rajon-rondo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553","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=12553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12554,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553\/revisions\/12554"}],"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=12553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}