{"id":15003,"date":"2011-04-19T01:01:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T06:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15003"},"modified":"2011-04-19T01:01:42","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T06:01:42","slug":"eastern-conference-playoff-betting-knicks-may-face-celtics-without-billups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/eastern-conference-playoff-betting-knicks-may-face-celtics-without-billups-15003\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Conference Playoff Betting: Knicks may face Celtics without Billups"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs<\/strong>
\nFirst Round – Game 2<\/strong>
\nNew York Knicks at Boston Celtics, <\/strong>TD Garden, Boston, MA<\/strong>
\nTuesday, April 19, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: <\/strong>TNT<\/strong>
\nOpening Line: Celtics -6.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line: Celtics -7<\/strong>
\nOpening Total: 193<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total: 193<\/strong>
\nMoney Line: Celtics -330 \/ Knicks +270<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Celtics
Amar'e Stoudemire and the Knicks need to be more aggressive if they are going to win Game 2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The New York Knicks (42-41) nearly beat the Boston Celtics (57-26) in Game 1 on Sunday but saw Ray Allen hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 12 seconds remaining for an 87-85 victory.\u00a0 Now the Knicks will likely face the Celtics (-7) in Game 2 without starting point guard Chauncey Billups due to a leg injury he suffered with less than a minute remaining.<\/p>\n

Missing games is nothing new for Billups, who sat out six with a thigh bruise between March 2-10 after arriving in a blockbuster trade from Denver along with Carmelo Anthony.\u00a0 New York split those games with Toney Douglas running the point, as he averaged 16.8 points and 6.8 assists per game.\u00a0 The Knicks will be missing the veteran leadership of Billups on the floor, but Douglas has proven he is more than capable of filling in.\u00a0 He just has to continue to do it in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

After all, it was Douglas who hit the previous big 3-pointer with 38 seconds left that gave New York an 85-82 lead.\u00a0 But a basket by Kevin Garnett on an alley-oop pass followed by a controversial offensive foul on Anthony gave Allen the opportunity to be the hero in the end.\u00a0 Garnett had tripped Douglas on the play that set Allen free, adding to the drama.<\/p>\n

The Celtics may have been a bit lucky to escape with a win in Game 1.\u00a0 However, head coach Doc Rivers knows that his team should not underestimate Douglas\u2019 ability if Billups does not play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take someone lightly in the playoffs, then shame on you,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cDouglas has had a terrific year. (The Knicks) went on a winning streak when Douglas was playing and Chauncey was out. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019ll affect the way we approach the game. We just have to worry about us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks will need to do a better job of securing a lead if they hope to head home to Madison Square Garden with a split in the first two games.\u00a0 For the second time in three games against Boston, they held a double-digit lead at halftime only to come unraveled in the second half.<\/p>\n

Anthony in particular struggled after scoring 12 of his 15 points in the first half.\u00a0 He missed 10 of 11 shots in the second half and will need to do a much better job of being aggressive in order to get to the free-throw line more often.\u00a0 Amar\u2019e Stoudemire led the team with six free-throw attempts while Anthony had just four.<\/p>\n

New York has covered four of the last six meetings with the Celtics, who have won five of those games straight-up.\u00a0 The UNDER has cashed in two of the last three games between the teams after going OVER in five of the previous seven.<\/p>\n

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

2011 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs First Round – Game 2 New York Knicks at Boston Celtics, TD Garden, Boston, MA Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: TNT Opening Line: Celtics -6.5 Current Line: Celtics -7 Opening Total: 193 Current Total: 193 Money Line: Celtics -330 \/ Knicks +270 The New York Knicks (42-41) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":9490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,4874,3622,4672,4673,4674,4438,1737,4439,1985,4857,4858,115,4440,3913],"class_list":["post-15003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics-knicks-playoff-preview","tag-eastern-conference","tag-first-round","tag-first-round-betting","tag-first-round-picks","tag-free-pro-basketball-pick","tag-game-2","tag-nba-basketball-odds","tag-nba-picks","tag-nba-playoff-betting","tag-nba-playoff-picks","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-pro-basketball-betting","tag-tnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15003","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=15003"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15005,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15003\/revisions\/15005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}