{"id":14385,"date":"2011-03-23T01:31:18","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T06:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14385"},"modified":"2011-03-23T01:37:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-23T06:37:42","slug":"nba-basketball-betting-memphis-grizzlies-at-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-basketball-betting-memphis-grizzlies-at-boston-celtics-14385\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Basketball Betting: Memphis Grizzlies at Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies at Boston Celtics, TD Garden, Boston, MA<\/strong>
\nWednesday, March 23, 2011, 7:30 pm Eastern, TV: CSNE<\/strong>
\nOpening Line: Celtics -7<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line: Celtics -6.5<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 189<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 188<\/strong>
\nMoney Line: Celtics -265 \/ Grizzlies +235<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Celtics
Boston Celtics PG Rajon Rondo broke out of his slump with 13 points and 12 assists against the Knicks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pressure is on for both the Boston Celtics (50-19) and Memphis Grizzlies (39-32) down the stretch of the regular season, but with different goals in mind as they each continue to jockey for playoff positioning in their respective conferences.\u00a0 They meet on Wednesday, as the Celtics (-6.5) are trying to keep pace for Chicago for the top spot in the East while the Grizzlies are hoping to hold onto the eighth and final spot in the West despite losing one of their top scorers to a shoulder injury in Rudy Gay.<\/p>\n

Gay was averaging 19.8 points per game before Memphis decided he would require surgery on his shoulder and miss the rest of the season.\u00a0\u00a0 Without him, the Grizzlies have gone 8-6 straight-up and 9-5 against the spread.\u00a0 They own a two-game lead over Houston for the last playoff berth and visit the Bulls on Friday before returning home.<\/p>\n

Boston has won three of four SU and ATS after dropping three of four and needs to finish the season strong in order to overtake Chicago for the #1 seed.\u00a0 The Celtics have returned to emphasizing defense lately in an effort to get back on track since losing at home to the Los Angeles Clippers 108-103 on March 9 as 9-point favorites.\u00a0 They have held six of their last seven opponents under 90 points with the UNDER cashing in each of those games.<\/p>\n

The team just completed a successful three-game road trip with two straight wins, including a 96-86 come-from-behind victory at New York on Monday.\u00a0 Boston trailed the Knicks 51-37 at halftime before head coach Doc Rivers told his players they were soft during the intermission.\u00a0 The Celtics obviously responded well in the second half, holding the home team to just 35 points.<\/p>\n

Kevin Garnett led Boston with a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds while Paul Pierce scored 21 and Ray Allen added 15.\u00a0 Point guard Rajon Rondo also busted out of his slump with 13 points and 12 assists in over 42 minutes of action, his highest total since the loss to the Clippers.\u00a0 Rondo had gone five games without scoring in double figures, averaging 3.4 points and 6.2 assists during that stretch.<\/p>\n

The Celtics have not lost at home to an Eastern Conference opponent this season, but they are just 8-6 against Western Conference foes there.\u00a0 They also lost the last home meeting to Memphis 111-91 last March 10 and are 4-6 ATS in the past 10 games between the teams with the OVER cashing in nine straight.\u00a0 The Grizzlies have covered the last 10 games in Boston.<\/p>\n

Now that you have read this NBA pro basketball betting preview featuring the Celtics & Grizzlies, check out the NBA odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies at Boston Celtics, TD Garden, Boston, MA Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 7:30 pm Eastern, TV: CSNE Opening Line: Celtics -7 Current Line: Celtics -6.5 Opening Total: 189 Current Total: 188 Money Line: Celtics -265 \/ Grizzlies +235 The pressure is on for both the Boston Celtics (50-19) and Memphis Grizzlies (39-32) down the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,4740,4438,3354,4439,1985,4440],"class_list":["post-14385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics-grizzlies-preview","tag-free-pro-basketball-pick","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba-basketball-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-pro-basketball-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385","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\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14390,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions\/14390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}