{"id":14757,"date":"2011-04-08T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T18:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14757"},"modified":"2011-04-08T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2011-04-08T18:12:10","slug":"perfect-rebound-game-for-celtics-washington-travels-to-face-the-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/perfect-rebound-game-for-celtics-washington-travels-to-face-the-boston-celtics-14757\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect Rebound Game for Celtics? – Washington Travels to Face the Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Wizards AT Boston Celtics
\nApril 8, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Bos -13.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Bos -13.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 194.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 193
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -1300 \/ Was +850
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -1600 \/ Was +1095<\/p>\n

\"\"
Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers has been pushing all the right buttons during the 2010-11 NBA season, but the Celts have gone just 8-9 recently<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night, Boston suffered what can only be deemed as a huge setback, at least with regard to claiming the number 1 seed in the East.\u00a0 A loss tonight would make it a near impossibility, requiring the Bulls to lose all of their remaining game while the Celtics go undefeated.<\/p>\n

Star forward Kevin Garnett was not pleased with the effort against the Bulls.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be better than this,\u201d Kevin Garnett following Thursday’s loss.\u00a0 \u201cNo way we can come out and put an effort like this in a game this big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it would be easier to swallow the loss to Chicago if the Celtics had been winning, but they have won just 8 of their last 17 games, allowing Chicago to propel past them in the standings, driven by likely MVP Derrick Rose.<\/p>\n

The Wizards, despite having very little to play for, have played hard.\u00a0 Part of it can be attributed to having a roster of players eager and hungry to either establish themselves (John Wall, Jordan Crawford, Othyus Jefferies, and Larry Owens) or re-establish themselves (Mo Evans, Yi Jianlian).\u00a0 The mix of player eager to forge their way into the NBA has created a hard working environment in Washington.\u00a0 Though Washington has gone just 4-6 and suffered a bad defeat to Indiana, it has to be taken as positive steps moving forward and into next season.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the loss to Indiana, \u201cEnergy caught up to us,\u201d Flip Saunders said after his team\u2019s season-best three-game winning streak was snapped. \u201cI was worried before the game. Guys just didn\u2019t seem to have that pep in their step. We almost really lost the game in the first seven minutes.\u201d\u00a0 It will take a more concerted effort to have any chance of beating the Eastern Conference Champs.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Washington is 6-19 SU in their last 25 games and they are 4-2 SU over the last 6 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 4 of Washington’s last 5 games and it has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 on the road.\u00a0 Washington is 3-22 SU in their last 25 on the road and they are 8-16 ATS in their last 24 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 7 of the last 10 games playing in Boston and Washington is 2-7 SU in their last 9 against the Celtics.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 4 of their last 5 road games against Boston and the Wizards are 1-4 SU in their last 5 on the road at Boston.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 13 of the Celtics’ last 16 games and Boston is 3-6 ATS in their last 9.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 at home and they are 15-5 SU in their last 20 at home.\u00a0 Boston is 7-2 SU in their last 9 against the Washington Wizards and they are 2-4 ATS in their last 6 against the Wizards.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 7 of the Celtics’ last 10 games against the Wizards.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 4 of Boston’s last 6 games at home against the Wizards and the Celts are 4-1 SU in their last 5 at home against the Wizards.\u00a0 Boston is 5-12 ATS in their last 17 at home against the Wizards.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:<\/p>\n

John Wall vs. Rajon Rondo<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’d be odd to call a player that has had the kind of season Wall has had as a disappointment, but after going into the year as the odds on favor at Bodog to win the Rookie of the Year award, anything less than a smashing success could be labeled a disappointment.\u00a0 Fair or not, the label has been applied by many pundits when describing Wall.\u00a0 All that aside, he is clearly a future all star and will be a career long starter, save an injury deriding his career.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball is the league leader in assists in Rajon Rondo.\u00a0 Rondo’s assists have sometimes come at the cost of passing on easy shots and his mid range game still needs a lot of work; and improvement at the free throw line wouldn’t hurt either.\u00a0 For as pronounced as those weaknesses are, Rondo (and Rudy Gay) is still a prize crowning jewel of his weak draft class.<\/p>\n

There really isn’t much more to this game than an opportunity to watch John Wall and Rondo go at it. The Andray Blatche vs. Kevin Garnett sideshow should be fairly good, but Wall is the engine of the Washington offense and it all begins and ends with how well he can handle Rondo’s defensive pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington Wizards AT Boston Celtics April 8, 2011 at 7:30 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Bos -13.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Bos -13.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 194.5 Current Total:\u00a0 193 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -1300 \/ Was +850 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -1600 \/ Was +1095 Last night, Boston suffered what can only be deemed as a huge setback, at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,843,197,644],"class_list":["post-14757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-john-wall","tag-rajon-rondo","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14759,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757\/revisions\/14759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}