{"id":14820,"date":"2011-04-11T12:06:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T17:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14820"},"modified":"2011-04-11T12:06:08","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T17:06:08","slug":"the-push-for-the-2-seed-continues-boston-travels-to-washington-to-take-on-wizards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/the-push-for-the-2-seed-continues-boston-travels-to-washington-to-take-on-wizards-14820\/","title":{"rendered":"The Push for the 2 Seed Continues: Boston Travels to Washington to Take On Wizards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics AT Washington Wizards<\/strong>
\nApril 11, 2011 at 7 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Bos -7<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Bos -6.5<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 193<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 192<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -300 \/ Was +250<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -300 \/ Was +250<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Paul pierce and the Celtics travel to Washington in an important game for seeings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This game means a lot to Boston.\u00a0 The Celtics ideally would like to lock up the number 2 seed by winning both their games and having Miami lose 1 of 2, causing a tie, a tie which would go to Boston via means of the tiebreaker.\u00a0 The Celtics have only won 5 of their last 11 games and are coming off a bad 23 point loss to the Heat.\u00a0 Pierce and Garnett both had good games, with 24 and 21 points, respectively, but Rondo struggled badly, scoring just 7 points with his 5 assits and 3 turnovers.<\/p>\n

Rivers realizes the importance of the loss to Miami, especially in terms of making a statement.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019d like to play them, I can tell you that,\u201d Rivers said of a playoff rematch with the Heat. \u201cAnd we may have to if we want to go somewhere.\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 18 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

The Wizards did just blow out the Hawks, who currently sit at the 5th seed in the East.\u00a0 It’s positive steps for a team that hopes to just make the playoffs next year.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Boston’s last 6 games and the total has also gone UNDER in 10 of their last 12 on the road.\u00a0 The Celtics are 1-4 SU in their last 5 on the road and they are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 on the road.\u00a0 Boston is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 on the road and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of the last 6 against the Washington Wizards.\u00a0 Boston is 8-2 in their last 10 games against the Wizards and the total has gone OVER in 10 of the last 14 road games in Washington.\u00a0 Boston is 2-4 ATS in their last 6 games on the road against the Wizards.<\/p>\n

Washington is 4-2 SU in their last 6 games and the total ahs gone UNDER in 15 of the Wizards’ past 23 games.\u00a0 Washington is 7-18 SU in their last 25 games and they are 6-12 SU in their last 18 games at home.\u00a0 Washington is 4-1 SU in their last 5 at home and the total has gone UNDER in 8 of their last 12 at home.\u00a0 The total has also gone UNDER in 4 of the last 6 games against the Celtics.\u00a0 Washington is 2-8 SU in their last 10 games against Boston and the total has gone OVER in 10 of Washington’s last 14 games against Boston.<\/p>\n

Key Matchup:<\/strong><\/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 labled 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 prounounced 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.\u00a0 Washington is relishing the role of the spoiler, making things difficult with the group of hard working young players and castoffs, so don’t write Washington off quite yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics AT Washington Wizards April 11, 2011 at 7 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Bos -7 Current Line:\u00a0 Bos -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 193 Current Total:\u00a0 192 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -300 \/ Was +250 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Bos -300 \/ Was +250 This game means a lot to Boston.\u00a0 The Celtics ideally would like to lock up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,644],"class_list":["post-14820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14820","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=14820"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14822,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14820\/revisions\/14822"}],"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=14820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}